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Monthly Archives: February 2011
How farms should be: Polyface, Inc.
You may have heard of the Salatins and Polyface Farms from the farm’s feature in Omnivore’s Dilemma. Building their family farm from scratch, the Salatins formed strong principles regarding how a farm should treat both its denizens and customers. They believe that the earth and animals should be respected, so they allow the livestock free-range access to foods that they would naturally eat in the wild, and they compost and encourage healthy soil. They also respect customers, and do not ship food in order to give consumers the freshest possible food, and therefore the best possible experience.
All animals, including chickens, cows, turkeys, rabbits, and pigs, at Polyface are allowed to eat as much grass as they’d like. Cows are moved to new grazing areas daily, and chickens roll in behind them to enjoy the newly-cropped grass. As the chickens graze and scratch, they break up the manure, cleansing the ground. Pigs root through the fermenting hay and corn bedding in the cows’ shed, aerating it, and turning it into rich compost that is used around the farm. Poultry birds’ diets are supplemented with local grain, and the rabbits are specially bred to thrive on a roughage-only diet.
To get the best sense for how Polyface operates, visit the farm for a special tour, and if you live in the area, be sure to patronize restaurants that purchase Polyface products.
Shepherd
Chickens
“A journey toward independence from an industrial food system”
The Paleo diet and its relatives preach the importance of choosing free range meat and animal products over factory farmed options, for health reasons. Unhealthy, stressed animals have toxins and sickness flowing through their bodies, which are then transferred to humans upon consumption of the meat, eggs, or dairy products the animals produced. The Paleo argument tends to focus primarily on “think about what you’re putting into your body” and less on “think about the treatment of the animals.” However, FitFemaleForty has a reprint of an article written by Jeremy Gordon, a CrossFit instructor, that addresses the humane treatment of livestock to a Paleo audience.
http://fitfemaleforty.com/2010/07/21/paleo-diet-why-grass-fed/
The article presents some horrifying information about the effects of a grain diet on a cow’s digestive system. The grain raises the acidity in the digestive tract of the cows, who were built to eat grass only, which can lead to an abscessed liver and the introduction of E. Coli. From a nutritional standpoint, the fatty acid composition of the meat is negatively affected, and fat soluble vitamin content decreases.
Factory farmed meat eaters who aren’t concerned about the treatment of the animals could be swayed to change their ways based on the descriptions and evidence in this article.
Pigs
Eat Well Guide
This is an interesting tool:
http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home
It accepts an address or zip code, and returns a list of nearby markets and restaurants that carry local food, along with lists of CSAs and farms. (One result for this little town: Chipotle.) For a responsible consumer traveling to an unfamiliar place, this tool could be a great asset. The site can also map a route and show you ethical food options along the way. Very impressive!
Farm Aid: Helping family farmers
Many people are familiar with Farm Aid as an organization that puts on star-studded concerts to raise money for something related to farms, but that something may be unclear. Farm Aid’s mission is to promote family farming, and since 1985 they have raised more than $37 million for the cause. They support family farms through both donations and support networks, including a crisis hotline and grassroots political action.
Key messages of Farm Aid stress the importance of eating local food, and of knowing how your food was raised, which go hand-in-hand. It’s much easier to confirm that the animals and environment are treated well on a smaller, close-by farm than on a huge corporate factory farm that’s far away. That’s good for your health: it has been proven that meat from animals who experience less stress is healthier than that from stressed animals; and good for the environment: the closer the source of the food is to the market, the less fuel burned and exhaust generated in transporting it there. Spending your dollars close to home is also good for your local economy.
Kudos to Farm Aid for doing so much to fight the decline of the small family farm.
Horse
What is Food with Integrity?
The answer can be found here:
http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/fwi/fwi.aspx
–at least as far as Chipotle is concerned. Whenever possible, they use locally farmed produce and meat, and meat that was not fed hormones or antibiotics.
They’ve had their best success with pork. Since 2001, 100% of Chipotle’s pork has come from “naturally raised” pigs, who eat a vegetarian diet without antibiotics and live outdoors or in a deeply-bedded pen. Beef has been more challenging, but the company has used the weight of its large demand to lean on suppliers and push them to improve standards, to the point that 85% of the beef they purchase comes from farms that meet the company’s “naturally raised” standards. They won’t purchase any dairy from cows that have been treated with rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone, to increase milk production, and they won’t buy chickens that have been fed antibiotics or other dangerous feed additives. Their goal is that one day soon all their meat and dairy animals will be pasture-raised.
Chipotle prefers to use organic produce, but is realistic about weighing the value of the “organic” label against the importance of sourcing produce from smaller farms that may follow organic-type practices but are not certified organic due to the required bureaucratic hoop-jumping. They also purchase produce locally as much as is practicable.
So the next time you, as a responsible consumer, have a craving for a burrito, patronize Chipotle over other burrito chains.