The farms and foods that once sustained our forefathers as they settled this great land are now endangered. Farms are going belly up every day and the foods small farms raise are being lost forever because they are ignored by industrial agriculture. Just as the Bald Eagle and Panda Bear are on the brink of extinction in the wild, so are numerous varieties of livestock like Bourbon Red turkeys, Red Wattle pigs, Tunis sheep, Barred-Plymouth Rock chickens and Iroquois corn flour. If we want to save them, we must eat them! And Heritage Foods USA exists to help accomplish this goal by selling foods from small farms to consumers and wholesale accounts.

Heritage Foods USA was formed in 2001 as the sales and marketing arm for Slow Food USA, a non-profit organization founded by Patrick Martins and dedicated to celebrating regional cuisines and products. The Heritage Turkey Project, which helped double the population of heritage turkeys in the United States and upgraded the Bourbon Red turkey from "rare" to "watch" status on conservation lists, was Heritage Foods USA's first foray into saving American food traditions. In 2004 it became an independent company dedicated to saving not only turkeys but also Native American foods, pigs, sheep, bison, cows, reef-net salmon, goats and all breeds of food livestock.

Mission & Values Traceability Standards Staff Advisory Board

MISSION AND GUIDING VALUES

Mission Statement
Heritage Foods USA exists to promote genetic diversity, small family farms, and a fully traceable food supply. We are committed to making wholesome, delicious and sustainably produced heritage foods available to all Americans. In doing so, we will foster the link between sustainable land use, small-scale food production and preservation of the foods of past generations for future generations.

Guiding Values

American

• We uphold the American ideals of equity and dignity for all producers and their foods.
• We are committed to heritage foods of all of the Americas, North, South and Central.
• We believe that our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness include access to high quality, sustainably raised and traceable foods

Genetic Diversity

• We value the earth's bounty in all its diverse expressions
• We advocate the maintenance of genetic diversity in all foods
• We strongly oppose GMO's.

Education

• We educate consumers about the difference between small family farms and industrial agriculture.
• We educate consumers to allow them to know where their food comes from and how it was raised.
• We invest, from our profits, to educate every creed of American on how to prepare delicious and nutritious meals and how to appreciate the wonderful cultures from which those production methods are based.

Accessibility

• We will make previously inaccessible foods available to all consumers
• We will work with farmers to bring their foods to market

Traceability

• We believe that it is the right of all Americans to know everything about every aspect of their food supply
• We will provide complete transparency with all of our products so our customers can trace the food all the way from their dinner table to the farm that raised it.

Loyalty

• We believe in long-term sustainable relationships with our families, staff, partners, suppliers and customers.
• We are committed to sticking with each and every breed of animal and plant until they have reached a point that they can survive on their own, without our assistance.
• We believe that trust and integrity are the foundation upon which our business will be built and that by upholding those values we will ensure loyalty with all who work with us.

Stewardship

• We believe that it is a tremendous honor to represent each and every farmer and producer and that it is our responsibility to represent them in such a way as to be deemed worthy of that honor.
• We believe that farming is an immeasurable gift and one that we must not take for granted
• We will work to make our foods and the land where they are raised available for future generations

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WHAT IS TRACEABILITY?

The confusion and uncertainty surrounding today's food labeling regulations, motivate Heritage Foods to promote a fully traceable food supply. We believe that consumers have the right to know exactly where their food comes from and every detail about the way in which it was raised.

Certified Number

Heritage Foods has introduced a labeling system that informs consumers about: the farm that produced the food, the conditions under which it was raised, age of the product, feeding history, including types of feed, processor name and location. Each product arrives with a traceable label and a certificate number. Type it below to find out more information about your Heritage Foods purchases.

Turkey Cam

Heritage Foods has installed a 24-hour web-cam on Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch so that every customer can see how his or her turkey is being raised. Simply log onto our website (if you have trouble accessing the web cam, try using Internet Explorer).

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PRODUCTION STANDARDS

Heritage Foods USA strives to maintain the vision of its Advisory Board member, Alice Waters, and her restaurant when she writes:

"Chez Panisse gathers its ingredients from known and trusted purveyors-purveyors known to be committed to sound and sustainable practices and trusted to remain informed and responsive to these values in a rapidly changing society. Our purveyors are committed to healthful products and practices that are pure and natural as possible, without synthetic additives or pollutants and without the unnecessary complexities of packaging or marketing. They are also committed to the conservation of resources, both natural resources like the land and water, and societal resources like the families and businesses that plant and harvest."

Heritage Foods USA works hard to ensure the ethical and humane treatment of the foods we sell when they are raised, transported and processed. We work with producers who use strict production protocols, we work with processing facilities that we know and have visited and we ensure that the animals do not suffer at any point in the process which would affect taste and which would violate the sacred pact we have with the food we consume. While it is hard to judge an animal's happiness, we believe that if an animal is able to act out its natural instincts while it is alive that it is happy. This is why all the animals we sell live outdoors as nature intended and maintains a natural diet. Every product we sell comes with a traceable label that allows our customers to verify our claims for themselves.

Heritage Foods believes in respecting the traditions of our past. Our meats and poultry are raised on pasture and are not fed antibiotics and animal by-products. Our fish are harvested in ways that do not harm the environment. We are searching for sources of organic feed.

Our pork farmers are Certified Humane and our poultry farmers are certified by the Animal Welfare Institute. Please visit their sites for more information on their rigorous protocols: www.certifiedhumane.com and www.awionline.org.

Our value added products are made in small batches by independent, farmers and businesses.

Thanks to all these guidelines, our foods actually taste better and, better yet, the producers do their best to minimize their negative effects on the environment and society.

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HERITAGE FOODS USA STAFF

Patrick Martins

Patrick Martins was born in New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital on February 10th, 1972 and has lived in the city ever since. Patrick went to grade school at Browning, graduated from Vassar College in 1994 with a major in Psychology, and went on to receive a Masters' Degree in Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Patrick's thesis at NYU was titled "Subtleties and Entremets in England and France between 1300 and 1500" and dealt with the politics of food sculptures in medieval Europe. Needless to say, his job prospects were slim, so he jumped at the invitation of Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini to move to Italy to begin work to launch a Slow Food movement in the United States. When Patrick began his work in August of 1998, Slow Food USA had 212 members and 5 chapters.

In March of 2000, Patrick moved back home to open a Slow Food USA national office. Patrick is the founder of the Slow Food USA magazine, the Snail, is the author of the Slow Food Guide to New York Restaurants, Bars and Markets, and is series editor for the Slow Food Chicago and Northern California Guides. Today, Slow Food USA has over 12,500 members and 140 convivia (chapters) and has appeared in articles throughout the country. Patrick currently sits on the Slow Food USA Advisory Board with the title of Founder of Slow Food USA.

In 2001, Patrick co-founded Heritage Foods with Todd Wickstrom, a business dedicated to helping farmers market their artisan foods and providing an alternative to industrial agriculture. Through Heritage Foods, a national mail order campaign was organized to save four breeds of endangered turkeys. The Heritage Turkey Project helped double the population of each breed and brought the number of small family farms that raise them from eight to eighty. In 2003, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy upgraded the Bourbon Red Turkey from Rare to Watch status on its conservation list. Heritage Foods donated all of its profits to Slow Food USA in 2002 and 2003.

Patrick writes frequently and has published two Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times. Patrick is also the creator of the New York City Trivia Game, which hit stores in Thanksgiving 2003. A portion of the proceeds from each game sold goes to support the New York Restoration project founded by Bette Midler.

Sarah Obraitis

Sarah Wells Obraitis was born and raised in Queens, New York. Early visits to family farms in Latin America instilled in her an appreciation of and passion for sustainable agriculture, rural workers and stewards of the land.

Sarah received a Bachelor of Science in international development and agriculture economics at the University of Vermont. In 1998, she spent a year working for the Ministry of Agriculture in Belize and worked independently with a Guatemalan refugee community in the north. Sarah also spent long hours on her uncle’s rose plantations in Cayambe, Ecuador, learning how to produce flowers for export in an eco-friendly manner. She also stayed at a dairy farm in Lurin, Peru growing corn hydroponically and working the gardens.

Back in the States, in an effort to help city kids get better classroom resources, she helped organize in Central Park, NYC one of the largest tag sales in history.

From 1999-2005, Sarah was at the Rainforest Alliance, an international conservation group, developing markets for sustainable tropical commodities

Sarah joined the Heritage Foods team in the summer of 2005. She is currently now the Head of Business Development.

Todd Wickstrom

After getting accepted to Medical School Todd elected to buy a Chinese Restaurant instead of becoming a doctor. He has been in the food business ever since. He has also owned a Jazz Club and spent many years in the BBQ business opening up restaurants in the Southwestern United States. His most recent entrepreneurial venture was as an owner of two bread bakery franchises in Chicago. It was his desire to improve his operations at those bakeries that led him to a Zingerman's Experience Seminar in September of 2000. He was so changed by the experience that he eventually sold the two bakeries and moved to Ann Arbor to become the Managing Partner of Zingerman's Deli.

As Todd enthusiastically embraced the Zingerman's Guiding Principle to be "an active part of the community", he began discussions with Gary Court, Principal of the Tappan Middle School to share a vision he had to bring an "Edible Schoolyard" to Ann Arbor. Those initial discussions have led to not only strong school and community support of the project, but to receiving a grant from the Kellogg Foundation for the strategic planning phase of the project. The goal of The Agrarian Adventure is NOT to create a school garden, but rather to change the world, at least one small portion of it. Also to create a fully integrated program that teaches the students to protect, promote and celebrate life and ultimately to take over the school lunch program by having the students preparing lunch for each other with food that they have grown and raised and subsequently to get credit for school lunch, in the same manner that they do for math, science or foreign language.

Todd founded Heritage Foods with Patrick Martins in 2001, a business dedicated to helping farmers market their artisan foods and providing an alternative to industrial agriculture. Todd is the founder of the Slow Food chapter in Ann Arbor. He is also one of only three members of the Slow Food International Board of Guarantors. He has been married, to Kristen, for over 13 years and is the father of 4 boys, Nick, Alex, Nathan & Jakob.

Heather Hyman

Heather Hyman grew up on Long Island, New York. She started working at family-operated restaurants since she was almost legally allowed to.  
 
Heather is a recent graduate of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Studies and Restaurant Management.  
 
Heather unearthed her interest and appreciation for food and its link from producer to consumer during an International Hospitality course she took in Sicily, followed by a semester abroad in the Tuscan region of Italy. Heather’s academic career led her to work as an editorial intern for the David Rosengarten Report, an important source for hard-to-find food and wine and worked to create Grub magazine, a thematic publication that looks at the world around us through the lens of food.
 
Heather was introduced to Heritage Foods thanks to a tight-knit community in NYC's Upper East Side. Nicola's (997 First Avenue at 55th street), an Italian specialty food store directly downstairs from the Heritage office, sits just across from Sutton Place Frame Shop (998 1st Ave), a custom picture frame shop that has been in Heather's family for three generations.  Heather has been a member of the Heritage family ever since.  Her current focus is on customer service, mail order and foraging for new products.

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ADVISORY BOARD

Mario Batali
Mario, whose original career path had him studying the golden age of Spanish theater at Rutgers University, took his first bite of culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in London, from which he withdrew almost immediately due to a "lack of interest." An apprenticeship with London's legendary Marco Pierre White and three years cooking and learning in the Northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne, population 100, gave him what he needed to return to his native US and plant his orange-clogged foot firmly in the behinds of the checkered tablecloth-Italian restaurant establishment. Among his many culinary accolades, Mario was named "Man of the Year" in the Chef category by GQ Magazine in 1999, and in 2002 won the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: New York City award. In addition to steering his businesses through their successes, Mario Batali hosts his own programs, "Molto Mario" and "Mario Eats Italy" on the Television Food Network. His new series "Ciao America" premiered in October 2003. He most recent book, The Babbo Cookbook, was released in 2002. Batali lives in New York City with his wife Susi Cahn, of the Coach Dairy Goat Farm, and their two sons, Benno and Leo. Mario is also one of the recipients of the 2001 D'Artagnan Cervena Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America, a prestigious lifetime achievement award.

Michael Batterberry
Michael and Ariane Batterberry have founded two of the milestone national food magazines in this century: FOOD ARTS, the publication by and for the country's leading food and drink professionals and FOOD AND WINE, one the country's leading consumer magazines. Together or individually, they have authored eighteen books on food, entertaining, and art and social history. Several (The Pantheon Story Of Art; Fashion: The Mirror Of History; Bloomingdales Book Of Entertaining) have been best sellers. The Batterberrys are among the few authors who have had four concurrent Literary Guild selections.

Michael Batterberry has appeared regularly on CNNFN (CNN's financial network) as commentator on trends in the restaurant industry. He served as introductory host to the Public Television series "Rising Star Chefs"in 1997 and he continues to be repeatedly interviewed by CNN, TV Food Network, Britain's BBC and other European programmers.

The Batterberrys are in the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America, and were also chosen by the Foundations as Editors of the year in 1994. IN 1998 Ariane Batterberry was chosen as Women of the year by the Roundtable for Women in Foodservice. Michael Batterberry served for six years as a member of the National Board of the American Institute of Wine and Food. He is also on the Board of the French Culinary Institute and a Member of the Corporation of the Culinary Institute of America. He was also asked onto the board of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. He is on the Board of Stone Barns and the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in 2005.

Dr. Vincent Amanor-Boadu
Vincent Amanor-Boadu is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Value-Added Business Development Program in the Department of Agricultural Economics. The Value-Added Business Development Program seeks to be the catalyst for changing perceptions about, and transforming performance of, agriculture and food value-added products and services. Vincent is also a Research Associate in the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC), a national center created by Congress to undertake research and outreach on efforts to improve the profitability of producers involved in agricultural value-added initiatives. Vincent obtained his PhD from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He is the former Director of Research at the George Morris Centre, an independent agri-food think-tank in Canada. Prior to joining the Department, Vincent was the Managing Director of AgriFood Innovations, a strategic consulting firm focusing on agriculture, food and biotechnology industries. Vincent is a member of faculty of the Department's highly recognized Management, Analysis and Strategic Thinking (MAST) program, which combines face-to-face and state-of-the-art distance education techniques to deliver high-level learning environment for high performing producers.

Vincent is on the editorial board of the Journal on Chain and Network Science. He is a director of Air Quality Solutions, a technology company using biofiltration to enhance indoor air quality. He also served two years as a director of The Centre for Rural Leadership, a non-profit organization with the mandate to create and deliver executive education programs in leadership for agricultural and rural stakeholders. He is also a member of the Farm Foundation's prestigious Bennett Roundtable.

Samuel W. Edwards III
Samuel W. Edwards III became involved with his family¹s business at an early age. Learning the business from the ground up included sweeping floors, chopping hickory wood and cleaning the grease pit, it wasn¹t long before his father and grandfather began teaching him the art of curing and monitoring Edwards Virginia Country Ham, Bacon and Sausage. Sam III eventually joined the company in the late 1970¹s as the third-generation Edwards to take charge. He focused on the specialty food trade, mail order and the internet site while opening two Edwards Virginia Ham shops in Surry and Williamsburg, VA.

He currently serves as a board member of the National Country Ham Association and past president of The Virginia Meat Processors and the National Country Ham Association. He also is serving on the Governor of Virginia¹s appointed Specialty Food Advisory Committee. Sam is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Southern Foodways, the DMA and NASFT. He is a Regional director on the Southern Virginia Community Board for Eastern Virginia Bank and serves on the Board of Zoning Appeals in Surry County. He is also an active member of Olga¹s foozball emporium and pool hall.

Sam III and his wife Donna have two children Stephanie 21 and Sam IV 20 attending college in Virginia.

Oran B. Hesterman
Dr. Hesterman is program director for Food Systems and Rural Development programming at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, he provides primary leadership to the Foundation's Food and Society Initiative, in addition to focusing on Food Systems and Rural Development policy.

Dr. Hesterman's key responsibilities include domestic and international planning and development, reviewing and assessing new proposals, and managing active projects. He also is active in organizing international seminars on sustainable agriculture and community-based food systems on behalf of the Kellogg Foundation at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria. Previously, Dr. Hesterman researched and taught forage and cropping systems management, sustainable agriculture, and leadership development in the Crop and Soil Sciences department at Michigan State University in East Lansing. From 1987-1990, he was a fellow in the Kellogg National Fellowship Program (KNFP).

Dr. Hesterman was a fellow at the National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy in Washington, D.C. In the area of sustainable agriculture, he has authored or co-authored more than 400 reports, journal publications, and book chapters. Dr. Hesterman earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of California-Davis in plant science/vegetable crops and agronomy, respectively. He received his doctorate in agronomy and business administration from the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul.

Winona La Duke
Winona La Duke is an Ojibwe community organizer, economist and author who lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota.

She has worked extensively on Indigenous rights and environmental issues, most recently on the issues surrounding the patenting and genetic threats to wild rice, or manoomin.

Winona's four books include Last Standing Woman (fiction), All our Relations, Winona LaDuke Reader (non fiction), and In the Sugarbush, a children's book.

Winona has served as a boardmember of the Indigenous Women's Network for the past 10 years. She also served on the board of Greenpeace USA (l99l-96) and is founding director of both the White Earth Land Recovery Program and Honor the Earth, a national Native American foundation. Winona ran as the vice presidential candidate for the Green Party in the United States presidential elections in l996 and 2000.

Zak Pelaccio
Zakary is the executive chef at the highly acclaimed 5 Ninth Restaurant, located in the heart of Manhattan's Meatpacking District. 5 Ninth serves a seasonal, modern American menu. Previously, Zak was the chef at the highly lauded Chickenbone Café, a restaurant located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Zak was instrumental in the concept development and build out, and was solely responsible for creating the menu and beverage lists. The unique menu that Zak developed incorporated many influences and cooking methods and ultimately became dubbed by the Press: Brooklyn Global. Zak is also a co-leader of Slow Food New York and he recently edited a Slow Food USA eating and drinking guide to New York City, that was released in the Spring of 2003.

Zak was the Founder and CEO of wiredkitchen.com, an Internet based software company with a core competency in inventory management and procurement for the full service restaurant. Before venturing into the food software business, Zak worked at some of the finest restaurants in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area in various capacities. After graduation he worked as a chef in some of the country's most elite restaurants-The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California and Daniel in New York, New York. In addition to his culinary studies, Zak received a BA from the University of Vermont with coursework completed in Florence, Italy, the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University, New York.

Gary Paul Nabhan
Gary is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius Award" fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation biology. Nabhan is author of sixteen books, three of which have received national or international awards. Two of his most recent include: Coming Home to Eat and Tequila, A Natural and Cultural History. His next book will be titled Some Like it Hot. He is Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

Michel Nischan
As a Renowned Chef and Best-selling Author, Michel Nischan is credited with creating a cuisine of well-being, focused on a respect for pure ingredients and intense flavors - without the use of cream, butter, processed starches or processed sugars. The inspiration to explore full-flavored cooking without such indulgences came in 1994 from his son Chris who, at age five, was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes.

Michel Nischan debuted his revolutionary cuisine at Heartbeat Restaurant at the W Hotel in 1997, and was immediately propelled to the forefront of New York's culinary scene. Since then he has continued to raise the bar for delicious and healthful cooking and is continually lauded for his dedication to Well-Being, Organics & Sustainability, and Cultural Food Preservation. He has been nominated for a 2004 James Beard Award for his first cookbook, TASTE, Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books, 2003), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller.

As president of Sources and Resources, Michel brings all of his passion and expertise to a variety of companies and organizations in pursuit of healthful, culturally significant and socially responsible food solutions. Michel's current clients and projects include work with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Food and Society Conference, the Ross School, The French Culinary Institute, Song Airways where Michel is the executive consulting chef for the first all-class airline to offer organic responsible food choices and flies 30,000 people daily, and Taj Luxury Hotels Group, in India, where he is developing restaurant concepts based on well-being.

Bill Niman
Bill Niman has been providing naturally raised beef, pork, and lamb to fine restaurants for more than thirty years. A graduate of the University of Minnesota (B.A. Anthropology, 1967), and former teacher, he began raising cattle in 1970 on a ranch in Bolinas, California, that he owned with journalist Orville Schell, who later authored Modern Meat, an expose on the meat industry's increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals, chemicals and other artificial feed additives. As his reputation for superior-tasting meat spread among discerning chefs, Niman began marketing meat to San Francisco Bay area restaurants under the name Niman Schell. In contrast to the so-called "modern" husbandry methods, Niman Schell raised their animals humanely, and naturally, eschewing chemical and drug feed additives. Niman later bought Schell's interest, and brought in new partners who are still with the company today.

Bill Niman still lives on the original ranch in Bolinas, California, together with his wife Nicolette. He was named Food Artisan of the Year by Bon Appetit magazine in 2001 and, in 2003, he was honored with the Glynwood Harvest Good Neighbor Award by Glynwood Center, an organization that works nationally and internationally to support sustainable agriculture. Niman Ranch is headquartered in Oakland, California, from which it delivers meat daily to restaurants and selected retailers in northern California. It has distributors in New York, Seattle, Boston, and Washington and ships directly to restaurants and markets in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Denver, Santa Fe, Miami, and many other locations.

Eric Schlosser
Eric Schlosser, author of the best selling Fast Food Nation, has been investigating the fast food industry for years. In 1998, his two-part article on the subject in Rolling Stone generated more mail than any other item the magazine had run in years. In addition to writing for Rolling Stone, Schlosser has contributed to The New Yorker and has been a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly since 1996. He won a National Magazine Award for "Reefer Madness" and "Marijuana and the Law" and has received a Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for Reporting. His work has been nominated for several other National Magazine Awards and for the Loeb Award for business journalism. In the words of Eric: "It's time to reclaim American agriculture from the fast food chains, pesticide makers, factory farms and genetic engineers. Our heritage foods are not only healthier and sustainable, but they taste a hell of a lot better. Supporting this revolution is easy: buy the right food from the right folks."

Alice Waters
Alice Waters is the owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. Over the last three decades, Chez Panisse has cultivated a network of local farmers who share the restaurant's commitment to sustainable agriculture. In 2001, Chez Panisse was named best restaurant in the United States by Gourmet Magazine. Alice Waters initiated the Edible Schoolyard project in 1995, which incorporates her ideas about food and culture into the public school curriculum. She is author of eight books, the most recent of which is Chez Panisse Fruit (HarperCollins, 2002). Alice is also the International Vice President of Slow Food International and sits on the Board of Directors of Slow Food USA.

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