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Community matters! Your support benefits more than just our farm.

written by

Michelle Sroka

posted on

May 18, 2023

This week is THE week - the week your farmers become television stars! 

Hopefully that got your attention. Although we probably won't become famous TV stars anytime soon, we are going to be featured this week on a local program - the CW 22's "Community Matters" program.

Back in March, we were asked to partner with MeatSuite, an organization through NC State that helps spotlight farmers and encourage bulk meat purchases. Our task? To share why you should know your farmer - and buy from them. 

Since you're one of our loyal newsletter readers, you can probably come up with some ideas of your own about this topic. 

We highlighted a few that you probably already know: sourcing humane and high-quality meat; knowing and trusting what's in your food; and supporting small, local businesses. 

But since we're on a show called "Community Matters", we also talked about another important aspect of buying directly from farmers: it has a "ripple effect" on the community at large. 

The longer we farm, the more important this idea becomes to us. Our farm is only as strong as the local economy around us. 

This means that we don't just need our farm to be successful.

We need our feed suppliers to be successful, so that we have a local, reliable grower who can tell us exactly how our feed is grown - and if it meets our standards for land management. 

We need the butcher shops and restaurants that buy our meat to thrive, so that they can nourish and educate customers about quality food in their community. 

We need the neighboring farms to succeed - the ones that we partner with directly to offer additional food, AND the ones that we know and cheer on. 

We need our regional processors to survive, the ones who process our meat and make it possible for you to buy food directly from a local farm, and not a large corporation. 

When you purchase directly from a farm, it creates a ripple effect that makes all of this possible. 

It provides income to our feed grower, because we can purchase his grains to meet the demand for our animals and customers. 

It allows butcher shops and restaurants to source ethically grown, high-quality meat that they can customize for their customers. 

It permits neighboring farms to stay in business, by expanding their customer base. 

It creates future appointments and jobs for our regional processors, without whom purchasing meat from a small, local farm would be impossible. 

And most importantly, it permits people to spend their lives caring for the land. This isn't just a hobby. What good farmers do, when they build up the soil and manage land responsibly, is to create health that extends beyond their farm. 

Good farmers steward grasslands and wooded areas that sequester carbon and help combat climate change. They cultivate diverse ecosystems that bolster the population of wildlife species. They maintain and protect native plants and forage. 

In other words, supporting local businesses - and creating this ripple effect - is pretty essential for our world at large. 

I'm excited for you to see the beginning of this conversation this weekend on our Community Matters segment. If you have cable, you can tune in to CW22 this Sunday, May 21 at 11:30 am. 

Don't have TV (like us)? You can stream the episode on the CW22 Youtube channel, which you can access here. 

And right now, you can see a preview on our social media - check out our Facebook or Instagram stories. 

And thank you for everything you do to ensure that community matters - and that a robust, healthy local economy can be possible.

community

More from the blog

Can we care about animals - and still raise them for food?

Can we care about animals - and still raise them for food?

I probably spend the most time with the pigs on our farm. Part of this is practical: since pigs can’t sweat, we spray them down twice a day to help them wallow in the mud and stay cool.  But part of it is emotional, too. I enjoy being around the pigs. When there’s a lot on my mind, or I’ve spent too much time on the computer and need to get outside, wandering over to that week’s pig paddock is one of the ways I can clear my mind.  Pigs are highly emotive and responsive. When I spray them down with the hose, they like to sit back on their haunches, prick back their ears, and snap playfully at the water as it showers down on them. And then joyfully roll around in the mud afterward, of course.  But they’re responsive to humans in general, too. They are naturally curious and, in the case of our heritage breed Red Wattles, gentle. They’ll come up and sniff you, rub their mud-streaked bellies over you, and let you scratch their ears.  And maybe this is the part where you start to wonder: But aren’t you raising them for food?  Why would you want an emotional connection to an animal that you are raising for food?  I understand where this question is coming from. I was a vegetarian for nearly a decade because I didn’t like the thought of killing animals, especially within the framework of our industrial food system.  But actually, it isn’t a problem or moral quandary for me. Yes, we grow fond of and attached to our animals, including our pigs.  Yes, we still send them to the butcher or process them on our farm for food. And yes, this still makes sense to me.  I would gently suggest that the idea that we shouldn’t have any emotional connection to our food - that we can only eat meat that comes from animals we withhold our emotions or affection from - is a sign of our disconnection to the way food is grown.  That is, after all, one of the premises of industrial agriculture. Designate animals with one sole purpose - “becoming food” - and then shut them away in buildings, cramped quarters, or far away from humans who might interact with them beyond the farmer.  And the farmer, too, should be as disconnected as possible. After all, this is an efficient machine.  The problem, from a regenerative perspective, is that growing food is never just about growing food. Food is the gift you receive at the end of your work, but it’s the work itself - and the consequences of the work beyond the food - that is the point.  The work, on our farm, is caring for the land. That means working alongside animals to nurture native plants, clear forest areas to make existing trees healthier, and create habitats for birds, pollinators, and wildlife.  And that means becoming attentive and thoughtful - to animals and to the land. Watching, learning, and yes, developing bonds with the habitats you’re nurturing and the animals that are helping you do so.  Is it sad to load up animals and take them to the butcher at the end of the season? Yes, it often can be. But I don’t feel guilty about it. I know that we’ve given them the best life possible, and that we’ve partnered with them to leave our farm better than we found it each year.  And if that doesn’t make sense, that’s okay. I’m not saying that everyone has to agree with me. I’d simply like to advocate for a way of farming and consuming meat that includes this experience - one of affection and bonding between animals and humans.  After all, this is one of the many ways we try to do things differently on our farm. We don’t want to just provide you with food that meets your standards - non-GMO, no vaccines, no antibiotics, grass-fed and pasture-raised.  We also want to help you reconnect with that food. And part of that is knowing the animals, hearing stories about them, and yes, maybe even having an emotional connection with them, despite the end goal of providing meat to you.

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5776 Siler City Snow Camp Road, Siler City, NC 27344