Going Organic

So the other day one of my FB "friends" posted this article by Time. For those of you who thought the article was well-written, you really need to get out of the city and come visit America's Heartland where your food really comes from. My biggest laugh was this quote "The crop is heavily fertilized — both with chemicals like nitrogen and with subsidies from Washington." Nitrogen?? Really?? Nitrogen is your big complaint? Did you not know that nitrogen makes up 78.1% of the earth's air? That's darn harmful if you ask me. And those subsidies from Washington? Don't even go there. America's farmers certainly aren't getting rich, Wallstreet bailouts.

Ok, let's think this through. Do you like to eat? Ok, then we need genetic engineering, fertilizer, and chemical weed killers in order to produce enough of that corn syrup in your coke, or the wheat in your bread. You want your chickens cage free and your cattle raised on grass, (which you really don't, but I'll get to that)? Where are you going to put them? We don't have enough land to graze our cattle and with land prices still at record highs, we certainly can't afford to buy more land. Oh, and that land means less corn, less soy, less wheat for you, and less alfalfa hay to feed those animals in the winter.

So you want your meat and dairy products organic still? Do you like your meat lean and tender? That doesn't happen to grass fed cattle. There are reasons cattle producers went to feed lots. That's where the tender, lean meat comes from. You want your meat free of antibiotics? Do you give your kids penicillin when they get an ear infection? Why should our animals be different? We have to raise animals in feedlots, and like our kids in school, being around lots of different beings of the same species means illness abounds. Why does organic cost so much? There is a lot of death loss to figure in to that equation. Do you vaccinate your kids? Why shouldn't we vaccinate our animals? We don't use BST on our cows. We feed them what they need so that they produce the most and stay healthy. If we have to treat a cow, that cow's milk gets dumped so you, the consumer, never get that antibiotic in your milk, cheese, or butter. That's what good farmers do. There are good organic farms out there, but even they can't produce enough for everyone, keep their fields weed free, or their animals perfectly healthy. Organic doesn't mean clean and healthy.

We work hard every day so the world can eat. Before you criticize the way we work come for a visit. We start at 4:30 AM and are usually done for the day around 9 PM. 7 days a week. 365 days a year.