Pining For the Fields

The Chicken That Ate Brazil

Brian Moyer — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:28:24 GMT

    Way back when, I started farming so I could have food that I wanted to eat. Clean, healthy, nutritious food that I new the source and had control of from start to finish. Now, I find the way I farm and how I market my food is also becoming an act of social justice.
    Urban sprawl, eroding infrastructure and industrial food systems have for many decades made it almost impossible to find much less encourage local food production. The food industry has become a modern mechanized global behemoth like any other modern business with the attitude that as long as it is cheap enough, the consumer doesn't care where it comes from or how it is made.
    Growing food for ones community has been the hallmark and survival of human civilization. Now, we are faced with little choice and no knowledge or information about where our food comes from. The government continually drags its feet on implementing the COOL (country of origin labeling) labeling law even though any other industry must label the origin of their products. The main reason I suspect is because they are afraid of scaring the consumer.
    One third of our beef can come from other countries and the feed for that cattle can be sourced from anywhere. After all, grain is a world wide commodity.
    We no longer can claim that "we feed the world". Instead, the world is now feeding us. We finally reached the point where we import more food then we export. That chicken you purchased in the store may have come to you at the expense of the rain forest. That's right. Brazil has been cutting down the rain forest at an alarming rate and planting soy bean fields in its place. So much so, that Brazil is now the worlds largest exporter of soy beans.
    You may ask "What is the alternative? People need to eat don't they?" True, that would be a valid argument if Brazil was feeding it self, but they aren't. There is still a large starving peasant population. It is about corporate rule and money. Heck, in this country we still have farmers growing wheat and then buying bread with food stamps.
    It would seem that farmers and consumers have little choice. The same company that farmers buy their seed from will also purchase their harvest. Farmers have been told to "get big or get out" for about 50 years now and the result is a modern day serfdom. Pig and poultry farms have become a model of anti trust. The company supplies the livestock and the feed and the farmer is a kind of employee (or serf) with no benefits and all the risk. The farmer takes a mortgage to build the confinement building and in return usually receives a one year contract in which the company can cancel at any time for any reason. As the environmental regulations continue to get tougher on these kinds of farms, I predict that these large confinement operations will eventually be driven overseas to "more friendly" developing countries with more "friendly" regulations. Lets face it. Modern agriculture was the last to enter the industrial age and it will be the last to leave. Food has been reduced to the same kind of industrial manufacturing which has left this country in search of cheep labor. So, in the future we can all enjoy chicken made in China, that was fed Brazilian rain forest soy beans and shipped thousands of miles and sold at an affordable price that Americans have come expect. Yum!
    I am so glad this is happening. Every time corporations act in some Orwelian manor, my business increases and more farms like mine spring up. The food industry seems to take the attitude that consumers should just shut up and believe them when they say this food is good for you. It would seem that agri business has never herd the saying "the customer is always right" because the customers are changing their minds. Customers are starting ask question. Good, important questions like "how do you raise your animals? What are they fed? Are they outside on grass?" These questions (and I am asked these questions all the time) demonstrate an ever increasing knowledge about our nations food supply. These questions show me, the farmer, that someone is doing a little homework and have a concern about the food they eat. The demographic of those new customers I see are mostly young families with children under 5 years of age. I am very encouraged by this. Not only will we see healthier children but future adults who will know what real food tastes like and, hopefully, will bring THEIR children to this farm.
    This is why small farms like mine can and will survive. I have customers now and in the future who demand a better, healthier food system and more sustainable communities. So I would like thank Cargil, Tyson, ADM, all the big boys, I can now proudly add to my product description that "my chickens don't eat the rain forest".

Fall Harvest

Brian Moyer — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:18:59 GMT

    In Fall, work on the farm starts to heat up just as the weather cools down. Fall is the traditional time of year for building up food supplies to get through the long winter to come. There is no other feeling of security like having a full supply of food. When Thanksgiving arrives on our farm, it is a true feeling of thanks for another successful season and the hope of another to come.

    Here is an update on what will be available at our farm to help you get through your long winter.
    *Chickens are still available every week through October but don't wait until then to stock up.
    *If you ordered pork, we will start harvesting them in October and November.
    *Turkeys arrived here at the end of July and are growing nicely so place your turkey orders now to be sure of one for Thanksgiving.
    *Lamb will be available starting the end of September through December. We will have cuts here at our farm store or you can order halves or whole (see price list page).
    *We will still be carrying Holben Valley Grass Fed Beef at our store through the fall. We can arrange special orders for quarters or halves if you would like to stock up.

    Some fall events you might wish to attend and find out more about local food:
    *September 14 PASA's annual Harvest Dinner.
       This is a great event with great food provided by local farmers and the proceeds go to help PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) continue their great work of helping farmers and communities create local, sustainable food systems. www.pasafarming.org for more info or ask me when you come to the farm.

    *September 22 & 23 The PA Renewable Energy Festival.
       The 3rd annual Renewable Energy Festival is located at the Kempton Fair Grounds in Berks county and is a great time for the whole family. Their will be a farmers market at the festival sponsored by PASA with local farmers offering their goods including yours truly.
Go to www.paenergyfest.com for more info.

We have had a record number of people that came to the farm this year and for that we thank you! The season ain't over yet. Not until the fat farmer sings.

Brian Moyer

What's For Dinner?

Brian Moyer — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:03:06 GMT

OK, you decided to serve a nice healthy, nutritious sit down meal for your family this evening. What are you going to serve? You go to the store. Lets see, you could have some chicken. You've heard that conventional chicken might not be so good so how about "free range" chicken? Label says "access to out doors," "fed a vegetarian diet," what does all that mean exactly? How much better is it then conventional? How about some beef? Corn fed? Grass fed? Should you worry about "mad cow"? What does "natural" mean? Well, maybe a salad. Hum, organic lettuce from California. Is that safer then conventional? What about that spinach scare from California? Well, while your here, the dog needs food but, wasn't there a recall of some brands of dog food? Who ever thought that in the 21st century it would be so challenging to feed you and your family and now feeding Sparky ain't no picnic either. Endless labels, diets, facts, myths and food recalls make it increasingly difficult to fulfill one of the basic requirements for our existence. Who and what are you supposed to believe? Heck, McDonalds and Tyson are running television ads with children running and playing while they make the argument that their products should be part of your "healthy" food choice. How can you the consumer make healthy choices of what to feed your family? It does require some homework. But this should not be a surprise. After all, you have to make these decisions every day. What pre school to send the kids, what family doctor to use, what contractor for my home repairs, What kind of car to buy. Now, you should ask yourself what farmer will feed my family. Sound strange? It could be argued that this question is the most important. Making those all important life decisions might come down to where your fresh, local, trustworthy food supply is located. Knowing how you are going to feed you and your family first, might be the deciding factor on where you live, what car you will drive and how your children will be educated. Just asking the simple question of how will we feed ourselves could have a powerful effect on our communities. It could change our zoning. In Pennsylvania, we have to provide every kind of zoning for every township except, we DON'T have to zone for agriculture. Imagine if we DID have to zone for agriculture what our landscape would look like not to mention having a secure food source for every community. No more farm subsidies, no more poor access or NO access to food in inner cities or rural areas and we could have landscape and development designs that make sense. Healthcare costs could be lowered because people would have access to food that is fresher and more nutritious and more diverse. Companies may even consider what the local food system is like for their employees before they decide to move into a community in order to keep their healthcare costs down. Perhaps the best benefit of all is folks will know who grows the food. Farmers and consumers together could decide what they want to eat. Still sounds strange? Think I'm dreaming'? There are many more folks who are questioning our conventional food system. This is evident by the rapid growth of Whole Foods stores. Whole Foods is a 3.6 billion dollar company that claims to double its sales every three years. There is no other retail food sector that has this kind of growth. What was once thought of as "leftist, freaky, elitist food" is now part of the "main stream" and it was the consumers and farmers that put it there. Small family farms that use sustainable farming practices are seeing 20 to 30% annual increase in sales. The demand for local farmers markets is increasing every year to the point where there aren't enough farmers to fill them and more and more restaurants are looking for local ingredients. What we are witnessing is a grass roots reclamation of our food system. A joint venture between farmers and consumers. Consumers can no longer trust the food companies or our government to provide us with safe, healthy food and farmers no longer trust companies or government to keep them in business. Farmers and consumers do the hard work of finding eachother and eliminate the questionable "middleman" whose only goal profit for the shareholders with no regard for quality, safety or community. With all this "big picture" stuff in mind, isn't it worth taking a few extra steps and a few Internet searches to find those farmers, those stores and restaurants who buy local? It's only a small step, one forkful at a time, to building a better, healthier community. So let me ask you, what's for dinner?

Food Freedom, Lost and Found

Brian Moyer — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:13:00 GMT

Food Freedom, Lost and Found Today you can walk into a super market and find anything you want right? The stores are large, there’s more selection, what is there to worry about? Food seems cheap enough. The average person spends only 10% of their income on food. But every day we hear news stories about food health and safety concerns and product recalls but still the stores look bigger and better and have more selections. Loosing your freedom of choice What looks like variety is really produced by a handful of companies that continue to swallow up other companies to control the products from field to plate thus giving less option to choose from in the store, higher quantity of food at a smaller price but lower quality. A report from the University of Missouri that came out in 2001 says: “horizontal integration through consolidation has occurred very rapidly in the last three years. Today, Kroger, Albertsons, Wal-Mart, Safeway and Ahold USA account for 42% of retail food sales in the US, whereas in 1997 top five food retailers had only 24% of the market.” That means that 5 companies control almost half the food sales in this country in just three years. With consolidation comes power. This same report from the University of Missouri says “Retailers are now in a position to dictate terms to food manufacturers who then force changes back through the system to the farm level. Perhaps 50 - 75% of the total net profit for large retailers comes from retailer fees, presentation fees, slotting allowances, display fees and failure fees.” Consolidation of food processors 4 companies control 89% of the cereal market. 4 meatpacking companies control 81% of the beef market. 4 companies control 50% of the production and processing of broilers. 1 company controls 30% of the dairy industry. You are looking at a future where food production is centralized and no longer regional. Not the most secure system of food production. Everything is shipped across the country. A food item on average travels 1500 miles to reach the consumer. Farms become fewer and larger. 100 years ago, farms were small and diversified. They raised many types of products and sold most of them directly to the consumer. After W.W.II farms stopped being diversified and became specialized. Dairy farms, beef farms, corn and soy bean farms. Farms stopped selling to consumers and sold to processing companies because of the higher volume of production needed to stay in business. Today the farmer might not even own the livestock. In many poultry and pork farms the processor owns the livestock and the farmer is just an employee. What are the alternatives? There is a movement these days by farmers and consumers known as sustainable agriculture. Sustainable ag means building farms that can sustain a healthy soil, produce healthy food and be profitable as well. The farm then becomes a vital economic part of the community. Where can I find these alternatives? Producer only Farmers’ Markets Producer only means just that. The only people that can sell at the market are the folks who actually produce the food. No reselling. The markets are generally once a week through the season (June thru Oct.).In the last 10 years the number of farmers markets has doubled in this country. CSA (community supported agriculture) CSA’s or subscription farms are mainly organic produce farms. Customers are shareholders in that they purchase shares for however many people they want to feed in their household. Shares are purchased before the season starts then the customer comes to the farm every week to pickup their share of produce for that week throughout the season. Directly from the farm Many sustainable farms have sales right on the farm. You can purchase meat, poultry, eggs, milk, produce, cheese, just about anything. Having a diverse, local, sustainable food system benefits you the consumer because you have not only a choice but a say in how your food is produced. Sustainable farms grow what the consumer wants NOT just what the farmer would like to sell. After all, they don’t have a multimillion dollar ad budget to sway consumer opinion. As peoples tastes and needs change the small sustainable farm can change with them. Large farms can not do that. It’s like turning an elephant. This true Jeffersonian idea needs your help. The farmers can not do it alone. After all, this is not just the farmers food, it is YOUR food. I believe the keystone to sustainability is community and good community starts with good food.