Mel Coleman Jr.: Colorado meatpacker a natural.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: Executive Edge

MEL COLEMAN JR. REFLECTS ON HIS TEEN YEARS HAYING UNDER A BLAZING SUN on the Coleman family ranch in Saguache, where cattle gently graze on pesticide-free open land. He'd look up from the beauty of the San Luis Valley to see an airplane flying overhead--wishing he were in it.

Today as chairman of Denver-based Coleman Natural Meats, Coleman zips across the country closing business deals and spreading the legacy of his father, the late Mel Coleman Sr., who in 1979 pioneered the production and marketing of natural beef and sustainable ranching methods.

"Now I look out the airplane window and wish I were down there," laughs Coleman, a fifth generation Colorado rancher. "It always appears greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes I miss the work I used to do on the ranch even though it's hard work--12 months a year, 52 weeks a year, 24-7."

Coleman didn't immediately follow in his father's ranching footsteps--majoring in education at Western State and planning to be a small-town football coach. But a cousin got him involved in a Colorado Springs-based business that focused on new farm irrigation methods that reduced energy costs--a career path that would make a difference.

"We'd go into these small villages in Mexico where they had nothing and you could see what poverty really was," said Coleman, who today remains active in his church and Christian faith. "And after we'd put in these systems, you could see a real difference and it would change people's lives."

His father's struggles to save the family ranch and his drive to one day become the first meat company to receive the USDA-approved label for natural beef lured...