Happy #nationalfarmersday to everyone who grows food for their communities, AND to everyone who supports regional food systems by purchasing local food! 🥳
Every time a new batch of lambs is born to our flock I’m gripped by the sense that food costs so much. Justin, the kids and I love these sweet wooly babies! But before our sheep can nourish and sustain our customers, we have a lot of nourishing and sustaining to give to our sheep.
I live on a really tight grocery budget but when it comes to meat, I know that if I were to buy cheap meat that somebody else absorbed the real cost.
In all likelihood the animal paid the cost by living a stressful, medicated life crammed in ammonia-choked, feces-smeared confinement. (@farmforward)
Or my health will ultimately pay the cost if the antibiotics that made my meat cheaper prevents me from recovering from a mutated bacteria. (@drmarkhyman)
Or my kids will foot the bill when the land degradation caused by bad practices in animal agriculture inflicts more damage to the planet. (@sustainabledish)
Or would I rather the vulnerable populations working in livestock operations and meat factories pay for my meat by accepting low wages for dangerous work —only to be sold out, rounded up, and incarcerated by the very companies who gave them unstable work visas or straight up exploited their immigration status? (@foodchainworkers)
If reading that feels uncomfortable, I get it. It’s not your fault that the system is intentionally designed to hide all these flaws. Food labels can be confusing!
But we all can help carry the cost of eating meat by getting closer to the source.
Know your farmer. Get on Facebook or Eatwild.com’s directory and find a farmer or farmer-centric cooperative near you.
Pay your farmer what all that work, stress, and risk is worth. If that feels like a lot of money, use recipes that stretch the poundage of meat (like soups,) learn ways to use cheaper cuts, or split a whole animal with several friends to get that bulk discount.
Celebrate National Farmer Day by enjoying delicious food raised by someone in your community!