Mission Possible.

Hickory Nut Gap believes in the possible burger. In fact, we believe healthy and distinctly flavorful beef and pork can co-exist in a world where animals are treated humanely and rural farming communities grow stronger. A place where the soil improves with each season, and where the environment becomes more resilient by raising livestock on healthy pasture.

The clever branding and marketing claims on new lab or plant-based meat products may try to convince you this is impossible. The false origin stories behind these brands attempt to convince us that raising high quality, real meat on real pasture is beyond the carrying capacity of our planet. Their position is that the best way to provide the world with meat in a climate friendly way is to create more processed food re-packaged for well Intentioned consumers.

Companies like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat have positioned themselves as brands to help solve for climate change — but with only a skin deep comparison to confinement livestock production. The binary conversation between livestock raised In confinement and lab grown meat is leaving out the solution with the greatest opportunity for planetary health: livestock raised on regenerative farms using pasture-based systems. While the arguments in favor of lab grown, plant-based meats might seem reasonable, science increasingly agrees that any meaningful healing for our environment and our planet will largely fall to actions of regenerative agriculture.

We All Thrive From The Ground Up

At Hickory Nut Gap, we envision a world where pasture based farming is the sustainable pathway to the future. We believe in farming practices that regenerate the soil, improve watershed quality, increase biodiversity, sequester carbon, provide healthy & humane living conditions for our animals, and strengthen rural farming communities.

Well intentioned consumers have been handed plant-based or lab grown meats as a solution for complex environmental challenges.  However, they have only heard one side of a false equivalency story. The food industry knows processed foods carry higher margins which means more profit and more marketing expenditures to keep the false story expanding into consumer culture. While the focus on climate change makes sense, their solution misses the mark. 

The science is becoming clearer every day. Soil is life. Raising real animals on real pastures is not only POSSIBLE — it’s the only way we move BEYOND the environmental crises we are approaching. It's time to acknowledge that we ALL THRIVE FROM THE GROUND UP.