'Know Your Farmer Know Your Food'
'Farm to Table'
Really great slogans. But, what’s really happening on the farm that’s producing food for your table?
Close your eyes. Imaging a farm. Do you see lush pastures. Animals grazing. Pigs sleeping in the warm sunshine surrounded by shade trees and green grass.
I drove past a farm yesterday with a new van parked out front. The signs on the side read, 'Farm to Table’ and ‘Know Your Farmer Know Your Food’. This particular farmer has several confinement hog houses.
Do they qualify for the ‘Farm to Table’ campaign? Of course. They’re farmers. They sell direct from their farm to customer’s tables.
Do they fit the model for the ‘Know Your Farmer Know Your Food’ campaign? Yep, they do.They sell at farmers markets. Customers get to know them.
But, DO YOU, as a customer picture something different when you support a farm?
Are you thinking of pigs in a pasture or hogs crowded inside of a building.
Are you thinking of cattle grazing under a blue sky and sunshine or steers stuffed under a shed roof with just a few square feet to move around.
Across the mid-west farmers markets are re-opening for the season. I suggest that you really get to know your farmer. Ask questions. Things aren’t always as they seem
How familiar are you with these terms:
Free Range vs Cage Free
Pasture raised vs Confinement
Organic vs 'Beyond Organic'
The California Supreme Court ruled that producers who mislabeled products as organic are open to lawsuits as protection from fraud in the organic industry.
I’m not sure whether the farms that label themselves as ‘Beyond Organic’ will have to change their advertising but it 's food for thought.
And remember; If we are what we eat most of us are fast, cheap and easy. Lets change that!
