FoA 315: Building Local and Regional Food Systems with Philip Giampietro of Walden Local Meat Co

 Philip Giampietro is the CEO and president of Walden Local Meat Company. Founded in 2014, Walden is New England and New York's leading brand of locally raised, sustainable meat. They are part of the first cohort of companies to legally reincorporate as a public benefit corporation or B-Corp. Philip says their purpose is to “make local work," with a more specific mandate to: 1) Connect adjacent rural and urban communities, 2) Produce the healthiest products possible with leading standards of animal welfare and environmental sustainability, and 3) Create incentives for farmers to move to more regenerative practices — those that are not simply "do less harm" but those that provide a net positive benefit to the environment and surrounding communities. Before Walden, Philip was a Director at Bain Capital and held various positions in private equity and consulting. 

Thank you to our quarterly presenting sponsor, Merck Animal Health Ventures: https://www.merck-animal-health.com/animal-health-ventures/

Walden Local Meat Co: https://waldenlocalmeat.com/

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We have a great show for you today about what it takes to build a regional food system that can scale in today’s market that has very high expectations when it comes to taste, flavor, convenience, health, social and environmental impact, and beyond. Walden Local Meat has been building their company serving the Northeast U.S. since 2014. They have a great story about what it takes to make this approach work, and where they see the future of local and regional food systems headed. Some of you may know that I grew up in a direct-to-consumer specialty livestock business, so this concept is definitely of interest to me and near and dear to my heart.