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What to Look For When Shopping for a Farm.
A surprising number of people believe that food comes from the grocery store. They are so disconnected from the source of their food that it never occurs to them to ask "What country did it come from?", "How was it grown?", "Were any herbicides, pesticides or other synthetic ingredients used?" or most importantly "How does your farm work?"
Something very sad has happened to American farming over the past 50 years. It has moved from being a family oriented business that served a local community to being an extension of large agribusiness conglomerates that provide commodity products around the world. It is a disconnected experience and has no more to do with farming than hydroponic tomatoes have to do with food.
Farms are supposed to be providers of health through good food. They need to know not only their own needs, but yours as well. In order to meet those needs they often need to cooperate with other local farmers to exchange animals, vegetables and minerals, because rarely does one farm have everything it needs. Likewise, they need you to communicate what your family's health needs are and to support them as they try to help you.
There are some key "signs of health" that you should look for when interviewing a new farm.
- Do the vegetables register well on a brix meter?
- Are the animals free to browse and graze?
- Is the farm free of toxic chemicals?
- Does the farm avoid feeding the animals anything that was grown with toxic chemicals?
- Does the farmer eat his own food, drink his own milk and show a real pride in why his food is better than that available at the grocery store?
- Does it taste better?
- Does it make you feel better?
Notice, not one word was mentioned about "is it pretty"?
The marketing people have done us a disservice by convincing the public that pretty food is better food. A bug sting on a vegetable, a corn worm that was removed from an ear or a worm in an apple are all GOOD SIGNS. They mean that the food has enough life in it to sustain the bug.
Their absence usually means the food was subjected to several rounds of poison. Your body already processes more toxins than any generation in history. Give it a break.
Heal it with some good food.
For details and scientific research see our friends at Eat Wild.Com.
