Nov 21, 2011
Notes from Your Farmer
Regarding Food…What really matters?
Picture this…
You just hung up the phone while waiting on hold with the IRS because your boss walked up. He needs the numbers that you were working on last week and didn’t finish, within 2 hours. The layoffs are continuing and you don’t know when you will get yours. The IRS call was all about an audit and your 16 year old was busted at school for pot and has been expelled. The doctor wants you to come back in for another look at that lump and, oh, by the way, you’re broke. Can’t make the house payment and are juggling bills. You have also ignored that your spouse seems to be engaged elsewhere…now how ya doing? Feeling a little stressed out? Do you think that your body may be undergoing any reactions to the buildup of stress in your life?
Now think about a commercial turkey. Vaccinated even before hatching, medicated water after hatching. Raised for 1 month on a cold floor with thousands of other birds, some dead under foot. Put into a pen with hundreds or even thousands of other birds with beak and toe nails clipped so as not to peck the other birds, due to stress. Feathers fall out. Feed is mostly GMO corn or soy and no greens. Grown so big so fast they can’t walk or mate due to weight gain and lack of space. Medications (antibiotics) come along with the food to keep them alive. 3 to 4 months and then they are processed. What do you think about the effects of this life style on the turkey?
Now consider your life - work is going well and is exciting. The projects are on topics you are good at and enjoy. The boss reminds you that you are valuable and not to worry about layoffs. Your children are doing well at school and actually curb their sarcasm because they see their parents are happy and create a lifestyle that fits the family. Life is good and low stress.
Turkeys on pasture…free to roam, eat bugs, worms, slugs and enjoy the sun. Exercising and resting in the grass up on the hill. Warm house to walk into at night that is predator safe. Toms romancing the hens. Life is good and low stress.
It’s all about the stress or lack thereof…it is that simple. Animals raised in low stress environments - plenty of pasture to enjoy, fresh water and sunshine, safe house to sleep in at night, and the ability to be a chicken doing chicken things, or a pig in all its pig-ness or a cow in its cow-ness……or a turkey in its turkey-ness! The lack of stress is the single most important consideration, over everything else.
Consider where your meat comes from...how it was raised. Don’t let marketing fool you into a false sense of healthy eating. If it was not on pasture it doesn’t have the fats, vitamins, minerals, CLA’s, and all the other good stuff we need to sustain a healthy life style. Free range and/or organic does NOT mean pastured!
P.S. I get that you are probably a member and I am preaching to the choir…just wanted to give you another perspective when you talk with friends and family… ;)
Your Farmer, Tara Smith
Notes from Your Farmer
Regarding Food…What really matters?
Picture this…
You just hung up the phone while waiting on hold with the IRS because your boss walked up. He needs the numbers that you were working on last week and didn’t finish, within 2 hours. The layoffs are continuing and you don’t know when you will get yours. The IRS call was all about an audit and your 16 year old was busted at school for pot and has been expelled. The doctor wants you to come back in for another look at that lump and, oh, by the way, you’re broke. Can’t make the house payment and are juggling bills. You have also ignored that your spouse seems to be engaged elsewhere…now how ya doing? Feeling a little stressed out? Do you think that your body may be undergoing any reactions to the buildup of stress in your life?
Now think about a commercial turkey. Vaccinated even before hatching, medicated water after hatching. Raised for 1 month on a cold floor with thousands of other birds, some dead under foot. Put into a pen with hundreds or even thousands of other birds with beak and toe nails clipped so as not to peck the other birds, due to stress. Feathers fall out. Feed is mostly GMO corn or soy and no greens. Grown so big so fast they can’t walk or mate due to weight gain and lack of space. Medications (antibiotics) come along with the food to keep them alive. 3 to 4 months and then they are processed. What do you think about the effects of this life style on the turkey?
Now consider your life - work is going well and is exciting. The projects are on topics you are good at and enjoy. The boss reminds you that you are valuable and not to worry about layoffs. Your children are doing well at school and actually curb their sarcasm because they see their parents are happy and create a lifestyle that fits the family. Life is good and low stress.
Turkeys on pasture…free to roam, eat bugs, worms, slugs and enjoy the sun. Exercising and resting in the grass up on the hill. Warm house to walk into at night that is predator safe. Toms romancing the hens. Life is good and low stress.
It’s all about the stress or lack thereof…it is that simple. Animals raised in low stress environments - plenty of pasture to enjoy, fresh water and sunshine, safe house to sleep in at night, and the ability to be a chicken doing chicken things, or a pig in all its pig-ness or a cow in its cow-ness……or a turkey in its turkey-ness! The lack of stress is the single most important consideration, over everything else.
Consider where your meat comes from...how it was raised. Don’t let marketing fool you into a false sense of healthy eating. If it was not on pasture it doesn’t have the fats, vitamins, minerals, CLA’s, and all the other good stuff we need to sustain a healthy life style. Free range and/or organic does NOT mean pastured!
P.S. I get that you are probably a member and I am preaching to the choir…just wanted to give you another perspective when you talk with friends and family… ;)
Your Farmer, Tara Smith
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