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

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.