Pete Evans' Arcadian adventure

The chef, who fronts the very popular television cooking show, has signed a 12-month endorsement contract with Arcadian Organic to promote its grassfed and organic ranges of meat.

Mr Evans has attracted a lot of attention - not all of it favourable - since embracing the paleo lifestyle, which promotes foods thought to have been eaten during the Paleolithic period.

Its emphasis on meat and other proteins, fruit and vegetables, and avoidance of legumes, grains and dairy food has aroused the ire of the Dieticians Association of Australia, but has the thumbs up from Arcadian's CEO Alister Ferguson and thousands of followers who claim great benefits by moving to a paleo diet.

"It's controversial, definitely, and we're not saying it's right or wrong," Mr Ferguson said.

"We're happy to supply the meat and people can make their own choices.

"We say, eat with health. The paleo diet calls for grassfed meat so it's a good fit."

The celebrity chef's first engagement for the group was a promotion for Borrowdale Free Range Pork in Sydney last November, where he continued his theme of food as medicine.

"We've lost touch with where our food comes from," he said.

"I'm passionate about this and so are Alister and Arcadian.

"Sixty per cent of food eaten globally has no nutrient value at all - there's no reason to put it in our diets.

"This is a grassroots movement to change, to get people to value their food, and consciously support the farmers who are producing it."

Mr Ferguson said Mr Evans had always been very pro-organic and grassfed with his meat choices, and the company believed his profile as Australia's best-known chef would help get their message to consumers.

"We were keen to get in touch with consumers and talk about why grassfed is better and why you pay a premium for it," he said.

"Pete is going to be taking our message out there, and we're using his knowledge to develop products as well. For example, people say they want a paleo sausage.

"We put him on an email group and we all talk about how to do it."

Mr Evans in turn sees Arcadian Organics as a large, commercially viable organisation that gives graziers a higher return.

"I have a number of avenues to get my message out about making wise choices about what you put in your mouth, and I see Arcadian as standing beside the product they sell.

"I like seeing graziers sharing their stories with consumers - it's all part of it."

He says the country has a lot to teach the city about eating for health and budgets, especially when it comes to eating offal and organs, which he describes as the best eating parts of an animal.

"We've got to get our kids eating it again. Every ancient culture knew that offal was the best, but we've steered away from that now."

Arcadian enjoys working with and supporting family farms that align with their markets, says CEO Alister Ferguson.

"In turn, they support us with supply that enables us to take our natural products to the markets on a 12-month basis," he said.

"This helps maintain a premium for the group annually."

Mr Ferguson said the company would continue to work with Pete Evans to help build its brand through social media, to help explain the price differences, and why grassfed organic meat costs more to buy than just grassfed.

"Grassfed organic is the next step up.

"When producers need to farm 100 per cent chemical-free and hormone-free, they need to stock at lower densities so they have fodder in reserve. They don't have the feeding options of conventional farmers in dry times, which reduces their overall returns."

It is the enhancement of these messages and consequent consumer education (Mr Evans lets customers with a story about why they support ethically raised natural and organic meats post to more than 750,000 followers on his Facebook page) that makes this latest arrangement work so well for Arcadian Organics.