Cole Mannix is a multi-generational rancher from central and western Montana who serves as the founder of Old Salt, a vertically integrated startup enterprise. Coming from a background rooted in mountain grazing and extensive holistic management, Cole spent decades working alongside his family and regional producers to optimize ecological function, riparian health, and predator coexistence on their expansive home landscapes.

Recognizing the vulnerabilities ranching families face as processing and retail channels become increasingly consolidated, Cole launched Old Salt to construct an alternative ecosystem of localized market power. Under his leadership, Old Salt has grown to incorporate a membership of ranches operating alongside processing hubs, a direct e-commerce engine, local restaurants, and an annual community festival hosted directly on his family's ranch. Cole is dedicated to creating experiential, relational marketplaces that adequately reward producers, support active workforce ownership, and increase the sheer volume of passionate hearts and hands managing the landscape.

In this episode, John and Cole discuss:

• How Cole engineered an LLC model with cooperative principles to access external capital without risking members' family lands.
  
  
• Constructing a vertically integrated market to disrupt highly consolidated, downstream corporate meat packing and processing monopolies.
  
  
• Establishing regional slaughter facilities and custom restaurants to stabilize profit margins and balance animal carcasses locally.
  
  
• Rerouting financial value directly back upstream to give independent ranchers viable financial alternatives to commodity supply chains.
  
  
• Why integrating livestock back into modern cropping systems is restricted by structural barriers like missing fences and scarce water infrastructure.
  
  
• Creating parallel government incentive programs focused on funding active farm labor rather than subsidizing crop insurance yields.