In the past month, I have driven more than 2,000 miles around the state, and each wet and lonely milepost has shaken my faith that rural Oregon will survive.
How curious, then, that a drive Wednesday morning to the Holiday Inn Airport has me believing again.
Waiting for me there were Doc and Connie Hatfield, founders of Country Natural Beef, an extraordinary ranching co-op that — in the words of Burgerville’s Alison Dennis — “has done more to close the rural/urban divide” than any entity in this state.
Now 120 ranches strong, Country Natural Beef is holding its spring meeting in Portland, members circling up to debate ways to strengthen their commitment to the land, their hormone-and-antibiotics-free cattle, and to each other.
Is this any way for ranchers to act?
You better believe it, says Doc Hatfield: “We’re a rural, redneck, conservative group that functions to the left of anything people in Portland can comprehend. We’re touchy-feely. Women and kids are important. It’s not your standard good ol’ boy hierarchy.”
Back in 1986, the Hatfields were selling their cattle on the good ol’ Chicago commodities market that, Hatfield notes, “is designed to produce a mediocre product at low cost.” Their 30,000-acre High Desert Ranch in Brothers was $200,000 in debt and Doc and Connie were at the end of their branding rope.
