A Year in Review: 2024
Building a direct to consumer farm, especially one that challenges a powerful, conventional food system and governmental bureaucracy is not comfortable or easy.
For those of you new on this journey with Rebel, Justin and I did not call ourselves farmers 5 years ago.
The Beginning of Rebel
During the early part of 2020 and in the midst of COVID measures, we found ourselves overcome with complete disgust for the people in charge of making decisions in our country.
But we aren't people to sit around and complain. We knew the best way forward for ourselves, our family and our country was to become healthier and that started from the soil up.
We started with some meat chickens, then added more, ultimately raising 300 regeneratively our first year. We sold them out of coolers on our front porch. The next year we 12x'd our chicken production. Then we added in pasture raised hogs. Then grass fed cattle and sheep. We purchased more land and built out a completely new infrastructure of water lines and fencing to raise animals there.
Let me tell you, it's been a wild ride.
And what we figured out very quickly as we grew our farm, was that we were also building a direct to consumer platform, cold storage warehouse, and order fulfillment center.
A Look Back at 2024
2024 was a year focused on building out our own infrastructure - hiring a badass team of Rebel staff, securing more freezer space, learning more about order fulfillment and assembly lines, and attending conferences to fuel our growth.
We began thoughtfully building a network of regenerative partner farms, empowering them to focus on what they do best—raising animals regeneratively on pasture for meat—while we concentrated on growing the team and systems to bring all of these products to your table.
We've realized over the past 5 years that Rebel Pastures is more than just a small farm. It's a new type of food system - A network of small, regenerative farms that are working together to provide badass proteins to people that want healthy, nutritious, good tasting food that regenerates not only their bodies but the soil and earth, too.
The Exciting and Challenging Parts
I think you have to be a little crazy to start a direct to consumer farm. But the challenging and exciting parts are all wrapped up together and they are the reason we continue to stand behind our mission:
👉 Unlike Big Ag raisers who hide behind label claims and layers of middlemen, we answer directly to our customers. Just through our website messaging system in 2024, we've had over 1,800 conversations with customers about regenerative proteins.
👉 Shipping frozen meat was a HUGE hurdle to jump over. In 2024 we shipped to 43 states! With new states of New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, Vermont, Delaware, Arizona, Oregon, South Dakota, Arkansas, Nebraska, West Virginia!
👉 Managing and maintaining inventory has become Justin's craft. We constantly balance incoming animals for processing and outgoing product with future growth. In 2024 alone we sold over 6,400 packages of ground beef, 6,300 packages of chicken breasts and 4,400 packages of beef patties.
👉 Overall, 46,254 packages of meat were produced, packaged, packed, and delivered to customers in 2024.
👉 In 2024, thanks to your support, Rebel was able to employ 10 dedicated team members, both full-time and part-time.
👉 In the past, as consumers shifted away from small farms, many local processors disappeared, creating a significant bottleneck for farmers like us. However, we’re excited to share some great news: Michigan now has a brand-new beef processing facility! Plus, our incredible butcher, Byron Center Meats—a company that truly embraces growth—is expanding with the addition of their own cold storage facility to support continued growth. This progress is a big win for small farms and sustainable food systems!
👉 We finished 2024 with 5 partner farms.They are all located in Michigan and raise animals regeneratively on pasture. When you purchase products from Rebel Pastures, you are supporting over 910 acres of regenerative, small family farmland IN OUR COUNTRY.
2025
We are going into 2025 with tremendous excitement. We've focused on building relationships and infrastructure and supporting our team which gives us a platform to soar.
Consumers are ready for change. Ready for health. They see through the BS and have the tools and knowledge to make better decisions.
We’re committed to making 2025 our boldest year yet. This means doubling down on what we do best: providing exceptional, pasture-raised meats while growing a movement that empowers people like you to take control of their health and food choices.
From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU. We can’t do this without you. Every order you place, every message you send, and every story you share about Rebel Pastures fuels this mission. Together, we’re not just feeding families—we’re rebuilding a broken food system, one pasture at a time.
🍻 Cheers to you, Rebels. May this be your best year yet.