Emory University
IN-3: Innovation 3

In the Fall of 2008, Emory Dining began an initiative to Preserve the Biodiversity of our food chain through the purchasing of certain designated endangered turkey breeds. The first campaign to be a part of this initiative was the Thanksgiving Heritage Harvest Feast. The annual Feast features Heritage turkeys, older breeds of turkeys that had been driven to the brink of extinction by industrial broad-breasted white turkeys that comprise 99% of the market. Partnering with Heritage Foods USA since 2008, Emory purchases Heritage Turkeys and helps to ensure a viable consumer market for them. During the 2009 Feast, Emory purchased 1,600 pounds of turkey and served it to more than 8,000 faculty, staff and students along with other sustainably produced holiday foods. In 2010, Emory did the same, with educational events surrounding the meal.

Through Emory’s partnership with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Emory began conversation about preserving and sustaining other endangered livestock breeds. This effort evolved into a partnership with ALBC and Brantley Ridge Farm in Buena Vista, GA, to save the endangered Pineywoods breed of cattle. Descended from the original Spanish stock brought to Georgia’s coast in the early 1500s by the conquistadors, these Pineywoods cattle have adapted well to Georgia’s terrain and are “low impact” cattle that they live well on their own, foraging on grasses and scrub that other animals don’t eat. Emory Dining began purchasing this meat at $1.00 per pound on the hoof and serving it at Emory’s Annual Sustainable Food Fair in October of 2010.

Emory’s various initiatives related to preserving the biodiversity of our foodshed have contributed significantly to the farmers who raise these old breeds, and to the distributor, Heritage Foods USA, who helps make them available by providing them with a stable customer base. At present Emory is the only university involved in a partnership with Heritage Foods USA and the ALBC, and the university hopes to serve as a model for other schools to do the same.