Panorama Meats Rancher Receives National Environmental Stewardship Award

Vina, Calif., February 1, 2010 —

Vina, Calif., Feb. 1, 2010 – Panorama Meats producer Leavitt Lake Ranches was awarded the 2009 National Environmental Stewardship Award at the 2010 Cattle Industry Annual Convention in San Antonio on Jan. 28.

Owned and operated by Darrell and Callie Wood along with their son Ramsey and daughter Dalice, Leavitt Lake Ranches in Vina, Calif is one of the founding ranches of Panorama Meats, Inc. It earned the award because of its commitment to environmental stewardship while improving production and profitability.

The Environmental Stewardship Award is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, the USDA National Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and is administered by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Cattlemen’s Foundation.

The Woods’ environmental stewardship practices on the nearly 40,000 acres of Northern California rangeland that they own, lease or manage include restoration of vernal pools and protection of wildlife habitat for native species, including mule deer, pronghorn antelope and upland game birds. They have also improved irrigation systems and riparian conditions, and improved the habitat for spawning wild salmon. Additional information about the award can be found here.
Panorama Meats, the nation’s largest producer of organic grass-fed beef, processes beef raised by Leavitt Lake Ranches and distributes it as Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Beef to Whole Foods Market stores in Northern California.

Panorama cattle are raised entirely on pastures of natural grasses, legumes and range forage. Cattle are never implanted with hormones, fed animal by-products or treated with antibiotics.  All animals are raised in compliance with the Born and Raised in the USA® verification program. Ranchers who raise Panorama cattle treat their animals humanely in low-stress environments and employ pasture-rotation and land-management practices that promote animal health and protect delicate rangeland ecosystems.

About Panorama Meats (Vina, Calif.)
Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Beef is produced by a group of family ranchers in Northern California, Southern Washington, Southern Oregon and Wyoming who raise cattle on natural grasses, legumes and range forage. It is sold through Whole Foods stores in Northern California, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado and through other independent retail grocers. In May 2009, Panorama began working with Arapaho Ranch, the nation’s largest certified organic cattle operation, located on Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation, to supply Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Beef exclusively to 28 Whole Foods Market stores in the Rocky Mountain region.

Media contact: Michele Wells, Wells Communications, Inc. mwells@wellscommunications.net (303) 417-0696