Aubrey Gallegos’ journey to becoming a rancher was not a typical one. After spending nearly six years as a vegan in New York, Gallegos made the decision to move across the country to Washington to become a rancher focused on ethical meat production and regenerative farming practices ─ reconnecting with the food chain in the process.
Since 2021, Gallegos has been operating PearlJack Farm, where she raises grass-fed lamb and pasture-raised poultry for her local community in West Richland, Wash. Additionally, Gallegos works as a programs manager for the Good Meat Project, a non-profit dedicated to building a more sustainable meat system.
The idea of becoming a rancher was born out of Gallegos’ work on a PBS documentary, called Sweetgrass, a portrait of the American West, which featured sheep farmers. Following her work on that documentary, she felt a calling to become a rancher and packed up her bags to head west to begin her new career.
“I was living in New York City, and so I didn’t see any way to opt out of industrial agriculture except to be vegan. So, I was actually vegan for about six years because I was so disconnected from my food. The only thing that I knew was what I got at the grocery store, which I knew came from large factory farms,” Gallegos told AgTechNavigator.
She added, “I watched this film, Sweetgrass, and I had this feeling deep in my bones that I was meant to be raising sheep. I was meant to be a sheep farmer, and that has turned out to be true.”
‘I went from being vegan to slaughtering and butchering 100 chickens’
After arriving in Washington, Gallegos worked on farms to learn firsthand what it takes to be a rancher, Gallegos said. “I went from being vegan to slaughtering and butchering 100 chickens with a farmer,” she added.
When she got to run her own farm, Gallegos wanted to raise her livestock in a regenerative way that mimicked the local ecosystem, down to the worms and fungus, and the pollinators that buzzed around her farm.
“During COVID, the larger supply chain started to fail under the pressure of that time, and we saw that local farms really became a solution for people. These were farmers who were already plugged into their local ecosystem, already plugged into their local economies, and could feed their communities. So, we really need our local farmers.”
Aubrey Gallegos, owner and operator of PearlJack Farm
For instance, she uses rotational grazing where sheep and chicken would graze on fields at different times, mimicking the process of bison evenly grazing on grass, she explained. This process stimulates root growth, while animal droppings serve as fertilisers, she added.
“Regenerative agriculture is really about working with your local ecosystem and mimicking nature – that is the way that I think about it for our farm,” Gallegos emphasised.
The vital role smallholder farms play in the global food chain
Like many small food producers, Gallegos faces many challenges when it comes to ranching, from securing capital to finding a local USDA processor.
‘Processing is a huge pain point for small to mid-scale livestock farms. There are not enough USDA processors, and the few that exist really are not built for small animals and for small-scale. And that poses a lot of challenges, as far as is outlets and opportunities for us to be able to sell our products properly,” Gallegos said.
She added, “Our closest USDA processor for chicken is about a four-hour drive. You have to be there at 6 AM, and we cross a time zone to get there. So, I have to leave the farm around midnight to make sure that I get there in time.”
This comes as smallholder farmers play a crucial role in securing the global supply chain, as major shocks like COVID demonstrated, Gallegos noted. Farms under two hectares produce 30-34% of the global food supply on 24% of the total agricultural land, according to a 2017 survey.
“During COVID, the larger supply chain started to fail under the pressure of that time, and we saw that local farms really became a solution for people. These were farmers who were already plugged into their local ecosystem, already plugged into their local economies, and could feed their communities. So, we really need our local farmers,” she elaborated.