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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
America feeding the world? We don't even feed ourselves!!!Next time you hear the phrase, "America has to feed the world.",
you are free to laugh! The truth of the matter is that America isn't even feeding it's own people. Here are some
facts from the USDA: vegetable imports into the US have gone from $3.4 Billion to $7 Billion in just 9 years
(between 1998 and 2007). Fruit and nut imports have tripled in that same time frame from $5.5 Billion to $14
Billion. The fact is that it is other countries that are feeding the US and the world. Not America. Why
are we paying other countries to feed us when we can do it ourselves!
Also according to the USDA, if every American
followed the dietary guidelines, this country would have to produce 7.6 million more acres of fruit, 6.5 million more
acres of vegetables and 11 billion pounds more milk than what we are currently doing.
Don't have
the land for that? Guess again! We have plenty of agricultural land available, if only we would stop growing
the billions of acres of corn and soybeans that are helping fuel our obesity epidemic, and are being wasted on ethanol production
and start growing healthy fruits and vegetables and raising grass-fed pasture-raised meat.
If we were
to chop up all those mega-farms into smaller 80 - 640 acre farms, we could employ hundreds of thousands of Americans in jobs
to raise, harvest, and distribute food to everyone in this country and have some left over. Think of the people who
could be put to work, raising barns, manufacturing and maintaining smaller, multipurpose farm equipment, growing crops, saving
and processing seed, processing the crops and distributing them, working in true grocery stores, butcher shops, bakeries,
etc. to sell that food locally to the people in their own community. We could virtually eliminate unemployment in this
country. And in doing so, the people who are working on these farms and in the processing and distribution of these
whole foods, would be much healthier because they would be active, getting exercise every day and they would be healthier
of mind and spirit as they also reconnect to what really matters - this land and each person's community and neighbors.
Please contact your local farmers and work this out. Convince them to change over from mega-corporate farming
to sustainable, chemical-free multicrop and multi-livestock farming methods. Get actively involved toward making this
change over. Even if you just stop mowing your lawns and put in a vegetable garden and a few fruit trees. You
will see a health difference. We need to start caring about ourselves, our health, and the health of this earth!
We can do this!!!
My husband and I are living proof. We are in our 6th year of farming without any outside
income source. Neither one of us work off of our farm. I'll bet you can't find a big corporate ag farmer that
can say that. They are relying on government subsidies and outside income - at least one to two jobs per household to
keep their unsustainable farms afloat. Those government subsidies come from your tax dollars. We can spend those
dollars better! Let's start feeding America - now!
Sampling Saturdays Were a Success!Thanks to all of you who stopped out to our farm store for the very first
time in June to sample our meats and to purchase some. We really enjoyed meeting you and hope you enjoy the meat.
Please come back again soon!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sampling Saturdays in JuneWell, June 4th will be our first Sampling Saturday in June! I can hardly wait.
I have rearranged things in the farm store and found a really neat table to set up my crock pot and sampling supplies on.
We will be serving up Beefalo Bourguignon. It is made with a beefalo roast and is absolutely delicious. I served
it up at a sampling at the Northfield Co-op a few years ago and it was a great hit! Everyone loved it!
I look forward
to seeing lots of people to try our meat and learn more about Beefalo and our farm. Come see us on Saturday 6/4 from
10:00 - 1:00 and 2:00 - 5:00!
See our events page to get directions from your place to ours.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Spring is Here!Wow, isn't this great! Spring weather! I'll be planting lots of veggies very soon and have already
started harvesting asparagus!
The buffalo and beefalo babies have been popping up with 3 new buffalo and 6 new beefalo
babies already! We look forward to holding our Sampling Saturdays in just a few short weeks - in the month of June.
See our "Events" page for more info! Hope to see you all very soon!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Does the recession affect us?A few of our customers have recently asked if by living off the land for the most part
the way we do, if we are not impacted by the recession. Unfortunately, we are probably more strongly impacted by the
recession than most people realize. Yes, we live simply, growing/raising 95% of our own food and doing without so much
of what society these days seems to think is necessity. We have a simple roof over our heads and only buy what is absolutely
needed to keep the farm going.
Even though we live very modestly, the recession has impacted us greatly. We have expenses
just like everyone else - utilities, insurance, farm supplies, equipment, fuel (lots of it to make hay and corn!), land
rent, processing fees, etc. that have risen dramatically in the last two years. And if that isn't bad enough, when our
customers feel the financial pinch in their lives, one of the first things to go seems to be our healthy meats.
They tend to buy the cheap junk instead. So between rising farm costs and decreasing meat sales, we are doubly impacted.
We want to continue to raise these healthy, wonderful animals, but we cannot do it without the support of you, the customer. What
we do is a more-than-full-time job. We don't do it for the money. We do it for the animals, for the health
of the land, and for the wonderful people that we sell our meat to that care about their health, the well-being of the animals,
and the well-being of the land. Together we can bring back the small farm and a better way of life.
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