If you believe in something, you should be willing to make sacrifices to support it, even if it's expensive or inconvenient. Wailing about farmers who use pesticides and then balking at paying extra for organic produce is hypocritical because the yields in organic farming are almost always lower.
Ten years ago I felt the same way. I wanted 'real' food but felt the prices at the farmer's markets were ridiculously inflated. I didn't know any better. Even though I had been raised on a farm, I thought the farmers selling at the markets were trying to take advantage of people through inflated pricing. Sure the veggies looked nicer than most supermarket fare but that didn't justify my spending the extra couple dollars for a few organic tomatoes. At that time I was living in town and started to plant my own vegetable garden. The taste of a tomato that we raised was so spectacularly good compared to the grocers that I couldn't ever buy another 'store' tomato again. Everyone thinks that if you grow your own food then you are getting it free. Well, this is far from true. I started to realize the time and effort it takes to produce such delectable edibles. Weeding, feeding, picking off bugs, everything is a cost-in time and of course quantity.
Quality is more expensive than quantity. Farming fruits and vegetables that are not just healthful but also have great flavor takes a lot of time and work and usually means not growing as much.
How could I begrudge a farmer for trying to produce quality produce and make a small living?
Ten years later and I am bombarded by people congratulating me on having all our meat free (we raise it) and milk and cheese and most of our veggies. Free??? It costs me much more to raise a pound of beef in the freezer than it would if I ran down to the store and bought a pound of feedlot beef. I call that crap 'bubble-gum' beef. A study in the USA fed gum and candy (wrappers and all) to beef cattle to determine it's feasibility as a food substitute and/or garbage disposal program:
1A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminum foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit---at least for the producers. I quote: "Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility." In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminum content was "within normal expected ranges." As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat.
Gross eh? The day I read that study was the last time I ever willingly ate a piece of 'bubble-gum' beef. But, we still believed farmers who told us that cattle had to be finished on grain, otherwise the beef would be tough and gamy. That year we bought 2 Dexter steers and spent a small fortune trying to fatten them up to look like those big feedlot steers. I was also learning a lot about the benefits of grass fed. Still, there was a stigma attached to the idea of grass fed being an inferior tasting product. The only thing better (than feed lot beef) about those first 2 steers was the knowledge that they were humanely raised and slaughtered and didn't contain antibiotics and hormones. At this time we had another couple younger steers who were out grazing with the cows. We were afraid to butcher them after only being on grass but also afraid of the cost of finishing them without cheap corn. In July I was invited to my friends Liz and Denis of
Eliden Farm for a family barbecue. The main course was barbecued 26 month old grass fed and finished Dexter beef.
The taste was phenominal. The flavor and tenderness an almost forgotten part of my youth. No, It was better than anything I had ever tasted before. When we got home, I called our butcher and scheduled one of our own grass fed steers to meet his destiny.
Now we were on to something. We were raising our own meat (beef, pork and poultry) and vegetables but still buying milk and cheese. Were these cows not supposed to be duo purpose? (providing both meat and milk in ample quantities) Since my hands are somewhat arthritic and a bit large for the teats on my Dexter cows, we bought a small portable milker last Christmas. Bingo! We were in business. Well it wasn't that easy at first but after a wonderful season of drinking fresh raw milk, learning to make cheese and savoring that creamy white butter I feel like somewhat of an expert. (Touch wood now because I am sure the next milking season will start out slightly skewed!-If the cows have their say!)
To Be Continued................................................................................................................................................................................................
People had kept their children out of school to attend this monumental day. They held placards attesting to the deliciousness of raw milk. I overheard an older couple telling a reporter "I am not a milk sharer, I am a farmer. This is about farmers and thats what we came to support." There was a lot of support from the landowners association too showing that there was more to the case than having the right to herd share.
