Floodplain wetlands landscape with hills in background and migrating waterfowl flying overhead

Panorama Organic Earns Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly Seal

 Nearly 700K Acres in Panorama Organic Rancher Network Recognized as Audubon Bird-Friendly Habitat 

New York, NY — The National Audubon Society has certified all 21 family ranches in the Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Meats® network – spanning 690,902 acres of grassland habitat – as bird-friendly, resulting in the largest market-based conservation partnership in the country. The collective of ranches initiated large-scale habitat improvements for birds and other wildlife by enrolling in Audubon’s Conservation Ranching initiative. With the certification, beef products from Panorama Organic will carry the Audubon Certified seal, a package designation for consumers that identifies a product’s origin from lands managed for birds and biodiversity. 

Audubon Certified Bird Friendly Land seal

Panorama Organic beef products featuring the Audubon Certified bird-friendly seal will be available nationwide in July at 90 retail locations in nine states – as well as online at Crowd Cow and Perdue Farms

“Grasslands, the most threatened ecosystem in the U.S., and grassland birds need our help,” said Kay Cornelius, General Manager of Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Meats. “Partnering with Audubon, our ranchers are doing the hard work of improving and restoring wildlife habitat. The Audubon Certified bird-friendly seal carries this grassland connection right to your local grocer for the easy part – where shoppers can now positively impact conservation with their purchases.” 

Each Panorama Organic network ranch now has a working habitat management plan, one designed to employ cattle beyond beef production and into rotational and regenerative grazing practices that create a mosaic of habitat for grassland birds, including flagship species such as the Northern Bobwhite, Western Meadowlark, and Sage Grouse. The habitat efforts are helping Audubon Conservation Ranching on its road to stabilizing declining grassland bird populations across the U.S., which have declined by more than half since 1970, primarily due to habitat loss and habitat degradation. 

“Once upon a time, the idea of ranchers and a group like Audubon working together would have been anathema,” said Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer for Audubon. “But our shared common goal starts from the ground up – abundant and healthy grasslands – and runs as deep as any prairie root.” In addition to sending consumers a grassland conservation message via the food chain, Johnson says the unique Conservation Ranching program is preventing the conversion of grasslands into other agricultural or developed uses – scenarios that result in significant losses of sequestered carbon. “Keeping grass firmly planted in the ground is a vital natural climate solution, for birds and people.” 

The mission of Panorama Meats is grounded in its belief that our remaining grasslands and rangelands must be protected and preserved for future generations. Ranching, as part of a comprehensive approach to regenerative agriculture, is in a unique position to protect and restore diverse grassland ecosystems. By keeping working ranches in grassland, Panorama ranchers are avoiding the conversion that has eliminated the majority of our native grasslands, thus preventing the loss of vast amounts of stored carbon. They don’t use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides – and they employ pasture rotation that leaves more residual vegetation cover, practices that not only benefit birds but have been proven to assist with carbon sequestration and improve the water cycle. 

“I made a commitment to raising grass-fed, organic beef that would protect the land and keep the ranch viable for generations to come,” said founding Panorama Organic rancher Darrell Wood. “Grass-fed beef is important for this ecosystem to survive and improve. It is important to the environment because cattle keep the landscapes healthy, sequestering carbon in the soil and removing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Every purchase of Panorama product featuring the Audubon Certified designation goes to support this important mission and the livelihoods of those who care for the animals and the land.” 

In addition to meeting standards in the areas of habitat management and environmental sustainability, Audubon Conservation Ranching requires animal health and welfare criteria to be met in order for ranches to receive Audubon’s bird-friendly certification. 

What's on the label sticker with guidelines on different seals to look for on labels with descriptions

What’s On the Label?

Sometimes a trip to the grocery store is a mind-boggling adventure when it comes to deciphering the information on product labels. Especially for shoppers who want to purchase according to their values, the sheer number of claims, certifications, and vague terms can be overwhelming. This is especially true in the meat case, where terms like all-natural, no antibiotics or hormones, grass-fed, and organic can create confusion.

At Panorama Organic, we’re committed to transparency. We want you to know exactly what you’re getting when you buy our meat to serve your family, and that’s why we created our labels to give you as much information as we can squeeze into a small space. 

But what do those symbols really mean?

100% Grass-fed and finished

Our grass-fed protocol says Panorama Organic cattle spend 100 percent of their lives living on pasture eating only grass and forage from weaning to harvest. They’re able to express their natural herd animal instincts because they’re never confined to feedlots or given grain to fatten them up. It takes a little longer to do it this way, but the results are meat that’s healthier for you and the planet, a content life for the animals, and a delicious eating experience.

USDA Organic

Each of the ranches in our network must pass a rigorous annual audit to insure they’re meeting the standards of the USDA Organic program. That means the grazing pastures and any supplemental feed, like hay, are never treated with chemical herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides and are completely non-GMO. The animals are never given antibiotics or hormones and are handled according to standards that keep them healthy and stress-free. The organic program is about building a farm system created on the foundation of healthy soil and that maximizes animal health and welfare.

Audubon Certified

In 2021, we announced our partnership with Audubon’s Conservation Ranching Initiative, a program designed to help consumers support efforts to preserve grassland songbird habitat by purchasing beef products that come from ranches who employ bird-friendly practices. This year, we’re proud to announce that all the ranches in our network have been approved by Audubon Conservation Ranching, and now our packages carry the certification logo on our labels.

Each of our ranches meets the strict standards established by Audubon in four areas:

  • Habitat Management—Every ranch operates under a habitat management plan developed with the help of an Audubon range scientist to preserve and restore bird and wildlife habitat and preserve biodiversity.
  • Forage and Feeding—As with our own protocol and similar to those of the USDA Organic program, animals graze open pasture their entire lives and are never given antibiotics, hormones, or animal by-products, nor are they ever confined to feedlots.
  • Animal Health and Welfare—All of our ranches must adhere to best practices when it comes to caring for their animals. This means allowing animals to express their natural instinctive behaviors and providing a low-stress environment in every aspect of their lives. Processing plants must adhere to Dr. Temple Grandin’s principles of humane handling.
  • Environmental Sustainability—Land must be managed in a way that protects the soil, grassland habitats, and waterways. The goal is to provide a healthy ecosystem for birds, wildlife, and pollinators and to sequester carbon.

Whole30 Approved

All of our beef is 100% compliant with the principles of the Whole30 eating plan, a program designed to help people change their health habits and relationship with food. By eliminating potentially problematic foods from the diet for 30 days and then following a science-based reintroduction regimen, eaters following Whole30 decide for themselves which foods make them feel the best and support their lifestyle goals. 

Born & Raised in the USA

Every one of our animals is bred, born, and raised on American family ranches. Panorama Organic never imports beef from other countries. We’re proud to support rural communities—the small businesses that support our ranchers; the schools, churches, and other social organizations that serve as the glue holding those communities together; and the service businesses that keep our ranch families healthy and happy. When you purchase Panorama Organic, you’re helping to keep a little girl in gymnastics classes, a local coffee shop open, or the local Boy Scout troop camping.

The QR Code 

To make it easy for shoppers to learn more about us even while they’re still in the grocery store, we’ve added a QR code to our labels. By scanning it with the camera in your phone, you can learn more about what we do, including the importance of our partnership with Audubon Conservation Ranching. 

If you ever have questions about any of our practices, ranches, or products, we’re happy to answer them. Just send an email or give us a call.