#13 - Sustainable Farming

I read the Omnivore's Dilemma not too long ago, and finally got around to watching Food, Inc. last week (streaming Netflix on the Wii rocks!). Both are about agribusiness and our food production process. I highly recommend both. They'll make you think, if nothing else.

As a result, I am making an effort to buy as much of our family's food at farmer's markets and local farms stands as possible. I buy organic when it's available and not outrageously priced. Caring for two small humans really changes the way you shop. Living on one income also really changes the way you shop. While we just can't afford to make everything we purchase organic, free-range or sustainable, we are trying to do our part in voting for better business with our food dollars.

All that being said, I loaded up the boys last week and visited Cherry Grove Farm. It's a little working farm with a darling farm store. The man who sold us our grass-fed beef, cheese, chocolate bars and free-range eggs popped in from the creamery next door where he was making brie. It wasn't fancy or commercial, but T loved the baby cows and tractors and I loved knowing that the food we purchased there wasn't brimming with antibiotics, hormones or nasty lil microbes. Our pound of ground beef, sweet italian sausages, dozen eggs, 2 pounds of cheese and chocolate bar cost us nearly $50. It's not a food choice we can make every week, but we can swing once a month.

It was also cool to see how farming probably used to be. The cows and lambs at Cherry Grove are driven from grass field to grass field, where they trim, fertilize and aerate the land. The pigs get the whey from the milk cows and the chickens eat the bugs living in the pastures. It's a cool little ecosystem where there is no manure pond, no dark, closed-in chicken house or cows standing in mud pits. You can't even smell the farm coming. Neato.

Sustainable Farming: AWESOME!!