Doc Hatfield of Oregon Country Natural Beef Passes Away

[Bendfeldt, Eric]

Dear Shenandoah Valley Food and Farm Network:

 

Hope you are doing well. I was fortunate to meet Doc and Connie Hatfield of Oregon Country Natural Beef at a national meeting in 2008 and was attracted to their story and passion for farming, ranching, and the dilemma of the disappearing Agriculture of the Middle. In March 2009, Doc and Connie Hatfield of Country Natural Beef visited Virginia to share their experience with farm family-centered local beef marketing cooperatives as part of a series of Agriculture of the Middle workshops in the Shenandoah Valley.

 

Everyone who attended the workshops were duly impressed and inspired by Doc and Connie's vision for agriculture and the story of Country Natural Beef. Their visit helped to inspire farmers in their own efforts to establish a Shenandoah Valley Beef Cooperative.

 

Doc Hatfield recently lost his long battle and fight with pancreatic cancer Shenandoah Valley farmers and ranchers have lost a good friend and an advocate for the Agriculture of the Middle, environmental stewardship, grazewell principles, values-based food supply chains, and holistic farm management.

 

For the farms we visited with Doc and Connie and the workshop participants, I have included a link to the poem that Doc recited standing on a chair at the meetings that were held in Page and Rockingham counties below. Doc and Connie were such a loving and close couple so please keep Connie and their family and friends in your thoughts.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric

 

Doc Hatfield of Country Natural Beef Passes

http://beefmagazine.com/people/doc-hatfield-country-natural-beef-founder-passes

 

Doc Hatfield reciting a poem about Country Natural Beef

http://beefmagazine.com/beeftv/1106-natural-beef-poem

 

 

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Eric S. Bendfeldt

Extension Specialist, Community Viability

Virginia Cooperative Extension

2322 Blue Stone Hills Drive, Suite 140

Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801

Phone: (540) 432-6029 Ext. 106 Cell: (540) 209-4705

Fax: (540) 432-6251

Email: eben...@vt.edu

Serving the Commonwealth of Virginia

 

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed

in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

~ Winston Churchill

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