Meatme.ca has arrived in Langley.
The start-up’s co-founder, Victor Straatman, was struggling to find a local, ethical, source of meat to feed his family when he immigrated from the Netherlands almost two years ago.
In his attempt to find and eat better meat, Meatme.ca was born.
His solution combines, according to the company, “the simplicity of digital technology with the care and tradition of local farmers and ranchers to provide the best meat possible to a value-driven customer base.”
By crowd-sharing individual animals on Meatme.ca from exclusive farmers and ranchers, customers can directly trace their food from farm to plate.
On the meatme.ca website, people buy “shares” of a whole cow and share the meat with around 40 other ‘steakholders’.
In doing so, Meatme customers are eliminating distributors and by-passing factory farms and helping to grow community-based food systems.
“We’re looking to help people connect with their food. To understand where it’s coming from, who’s growing it, what standards it’s being held to. All the good stuff,” says chef Trevor Bird, Meatme co-founder and Top Chef Canada’s Allstar finalist.
The animals from Meatme farms and ranches are free ranged on natural pasture.
Animals are not given antibiotics, hormones or chemical feed additives. Meatme notes that it only partners with farmers who have animal health and welfare as a top priority.
In addition, buying from local farms reduces the need for lengthy transportation resulting in fewer carbon emissions.
Local farms partnering with Meatme include Giesbrecht Farm in Aldergrove, where 70 pigs eat and wonder freely around the land, and Central Park Farms, a family-owned, farm-to-table poultry and hog farm situated in South Langley.
Under the Meatme.ca platform, unlike traditional meat production, no parts of the animals go to waste. Whether it’s Berkshire pork, grass fed Angus beef, pasture raised lambs or free range chickens, each part of each animal is shared between all the customer, the company notes.
“If you’re going to eat meat, you need to be a conscious meat eater,” says Kendall Ballantine of South Langley’s Central Park Farms. “Take the time to learn where your food is coming from and how it’s being raised. We take pride in transparency and that is why we are proud to work with Meatme. They met us, saw how we raised our meat, and they help people who don’t necessarily have the access to a farm or farmer’s markets.”
Following consumer demand, Meatme.ca recently announced free shipping on purchases over $185 direct to households across B.C.
“We can now offer the best quality meats from local family farms to Langley and rest of B.C. and this is just the beginning.” says Meatme co-founder Victor Straatman.
Meatme was recently nominated for Foodie of the Year 2017 by Western Living Magazine, and will be featured on CBC’s Dragon’s Den in the fall of this year.