Help Save Old McDonald!
Are you concerned about what you put in your body? Are you concerned about what your child eats.....pesticides, chemicals..... Please SUPPORT your local farmer, eat healthy food and help our rural farmers and their families stay in business! Our world has become too fast-paced and needing instant gratification, let's slow down and enjoy the little things, like a healthy meal with our family and becoming concerned with what goes in our bodies. Buy LOCAL, support LOCAL, eat LOCAL. ~Old McDonald thanks you!
Visit your local farm and purchase food
made with love-
from the ground up!
In 2000, I began becoming concerned about what I was eating, I was pregnat with my first child and knew that what I was eating she was too. I started to shy away from the big chain grpcery stores and processed foods and produce covered in god-knows-what, and began exploring the whole food grocers, farmer's markets and all-natural shops. What a relief it was to be offered FRESH, HEALTHY & ALL-NATURAL options! I also L O V E D the idea of helping the local farms in the area! Isn't this the way it was supposed to be anyway? I started only shopping at these places and felt happier and healthier and knew my growing child was taking in good things- now that's a great way to start out! I know people complain that eating healthy is more expensive, and it can be, but what are you paying for????? I'd prefer to pay a little bit more to ensure a chemical-free and pesticde-free healthy option any day of the week! I also felt it was VERY important to support the farms in the area and keep that tradition going. I am proud to support the local farms in the area and I hpe you will make the decision to do the same! Go meet your local farmer, talk with them about their produce and you will see yuo are making the right choice for your family!
Want to chat more? Or have a farm you'd like me to visit? Then send me an email! kimber.dion@yahoo.com
A Giggle & A Chuckle......
Try To Grow A Chicken
A New York City yuppie moved to the country and bought a piece of land. He went to the local feed and livestock store and talked to the proprietor about how he was going to take up chicken farming. He then asked to buy 100 chicks.
"That's a lot of chicks," commented the proprietor. "I mean business," the city slicker replied.
A week later the yuppie was back again. "I need another 100 chicks," he said. "Boy, you are serious about this chicken farming," the man told him.
"Yeah," the yuppie replied. "If I can iron out a few problems." "Problems?" asked the proprietor. "Yeah," replied the yuppie, "I think I planted that last batch too close together."
Thanks to Aha! Jokes for this one!
Top 10 Reasons Why This Makes Sense
1. FRESHER AND BETTER FOR YOU.
2. PRESERVES GENTIC DIVERSITY.
3. NO GMO'S!
4. SUPPORTS FARMING FAMILIES.
5. BUILDS STRONGER MORE VIBRANT LOCAL ECONOMIES.
6. IMPROVES FOOD SECURITY IN OUR COMMUNITY.
7. TASTES BETTER!
8. BETTER FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT.
9. BENEFITS WILDLIFE.
10. ASSISTS IN PRESERVING CLEAN WATER.
[some from--> http://www.eatlocalnow.org/top-10-reasons]
“The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.”
― Joel Salatin
BUY LOCAL!
IT ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!
“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land's inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows. These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery.”
― Wendell Berry
B U Y L O C A L
NEED SOME MORE GREAT REASONS?
From the very amazing
Annie B. Bond
1. Free of antibiotics, added hormones, GMO feed and other drugs; no GMO animals
Animals raised organically are not allowed to be fed antibiotics, the bovine human growth hormone (rbGH), or other artificial drugs. Animals are also not allowed to eat genetically modified foods. Further, animal products certified as organic can not have their genes modified (for example, a scorpion gene cannot be spliced into a cow gene).
How: The animals are raised in a healthier environment, fed organic feed, and often eat a wider range of nutrients than those raised in factory farms (such as would be the case of free-range chickens and ranch cattle). The animals are not from a test tube.
Highlights: Organically raised animals have been shown to be significantly healthier than their factory-raised counterparts.
More: Visit the Organic Trade Association Web site for updates on the U.S. federal organic standards.
2. Mad cow safeguard: Animals aren’t forced to be cannibals
The practice of feeding cattle the ground up remains of their same species appears to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a horrific disease that destroys the central nervous system and brain, can be given to humans who eat the cows. The disease in humans has a very long latency period, and is called Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
How: Animals are fed 100 percent organic feed without ground up animal parts.
Highlights: By eating 100 percent organic meat you are protected by a label insuring the cow has only been fed 100 percent organic feed.
3. More humane, ethical treatment of animals
Factory farms treat animals like commodities, and they are kept in tightly confined pens and often never move more than a few feet their whole lives.
How: Buy meat and eggs raised from chickens raised outdoors free ranging and grazing.
Highlights: Animals are more likely to be raised without cruelty.
4. Animals free-range and graze
The words “free-range,” and “ranch raised” are clues that the animals were raised in a more humane way. Their diet tends to be more well-rounded; the animals are not confined and spend time outdoors in the fresh air.
How: Free range chickens eat more grubs and bugs than their industrially-raised counterparts; free range animals graze as they are inclined.
Highlights: Humane and ethical treatment of animals; more nutritious food.
5. Manure
Small farms use it, industrial farms pollute with it.
How: On small, diverse farms, manure is used to naturally fertilize soil. Industrial farms produce so much manure, on the other hand, that it is a human health risk. The overspill of manure can contaminate wells with E. coli and other pathogens. In one region of North Carolina, for example, hog farms produce 10 million metric tons of waste annually.
Highlights: Sustainable farms use their manure productively as organic fertilizer. The manure is “pure,” coming from animals fed organic diets.
6. Animals are integral to small farms
Using animal manure is considered recycling of nutrients. No farm can cope with all the animal offspring, so selling some makes economic sense. Sustainable farms tend to provide and sell a range of products, and organic eggs and animal products would be included.
How: Most organic farms have a few cows, chickens, etc.
Highlights: The animals—many of diverse gene pools—serve a purpose besides providing food.
7. Fewer chemicals used
Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are not used on the food or land. Residues of persistent chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, dioxin, and many pesticides concentrate in animal fat. Eating organic animal fat reduces your exposure to these chemicals.
Farmers working on organic farms are exposed to fewer chemicals.
How: Organic agriculture works for a healthy balance of the soil, including using crop rotation and other techniques to improve soil fertility, instead of controlling the environment with chemicals. The animals are not fed food containing pesticides, and so the amount of persistent pesticides in their fat is reduced.
Highlights: Safeguards groundwater, farmers’ health, topsoil, habitats, and neighborhood health.
8. Diversity
Industrial farms rely on just a few species of cattle, chickens, pigs, etc., whereas small sustainable farms tend to raise a wider variety of livestock. Entire species of livestock can die out if they are not raised on farms.
How: Support our food supply by buying food representative of a wide gene pool. Every time you even buy a brown instead of a white egg you are helping to support diversity.
Highlights: Support diversity by supporting diversity on your local farms. Buy their milk, eggs, and meat.
9. Factory farms use huge amounts of resources
The factory farm industry is run with cheap, nonrenewable fossil fuel. Producing, transporting, processing, and marketing the food all depend heavily on it. Without cheap fuel, industrial agriculture would be impossible because it would be too expensive, notes organic farming expert Fred Kirschenmann. The heavy pesticide use on industrial farms contaminates groundwater and soil. Kirschenmann believes industrial farms are responsible for the loss of over half of U.S. topsoil.
How: Organic farms uses less energy with careful ecological management, and using natural ecological balances to solve pest problems. Buying animal products from local farms further reduces energy by reducing the amount of miles the food travels to your table.
Highlights: Organic farms use 70 percent less energy than industrial farms, and since they don’t use pesticides they help preserve ground water. The farming techniques of organic farms builds topsoil and doesn’t contribute to its erosion.
10. Your dollars support the farm you buy from
If you buy your meat from an organic farmstand at a farmer’s market you support that farm. On the other hand, if you buy non-organic meat that isn’t local, free-range, or ranch-raised from a supermarket chain, you most likely support a multinational food conglomerate.
How: You can contribute to the well-being of your community by supporting small, local, diverse organic farms.
Highlights: Buying organic animal products is better for your health, your local community, and the larger community as a whole.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-buy-organic-dairy-meat.html#ixzz2lreRuY2h
And a little bit of the T R U T H from the
Food & Water Watch group:
Animal Welfare
These unhealthy conditions and additives not only pose threats to the environment and public health, they are also detrimental to the animals themselves. Most factory-farmed hogs and chickens have no access to the outdoors and never see daylight. Beef cattle and dairy cows spend time outside, but they are crammed onto feedlots with no access to pasture or grass, which is what they are built to eat. The lack of outdoor access, inability to express natural behaviors, health problems and stress caused by production practices, and breeding designed to maximize weight gain or egg and milk production take a toll on animal welfare.
Independent Farmers Suffer
Nor do most farmers benefit from the shift to factory farming. The number of dairy, hog and beef cattle producers in America has declined sharply over the last twenty years as the meatpacking, processing and dairy industries have pressed farmers to increase in scale. Most farmers barely break even. In 2007, more than half of family farmers lost money on their farming operation.iii The tiny handful of companies that dominate each livestock sector exert tremendous control over the prices farmers receive, and they micromanage the day-to-day operations of many farms. The real price that farmers receive for livestock has fallen steadily for the last two decades.
The rapid transformation of livestock production from hundreds of thousands of independent farmers with reasonably sized operations to a few thousand mega-farms did not evolve naturally. Factory farming was facilitated by three policy changes pushed by the largest agribusinesses: A series of farm bills artificially lowered the cost of crops destined for livestock feed; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ignored factory farm pollution; and the Department of Justice allowed the largest meatpackers to merge into a virtual monopoly.
"How Factory Farms Impact You." Factory Farm Map. Food & Water Watch, 2010. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/problems/>.
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