Beyond Organic and Beyond Humane
;)
First and foremost, we see our jobs as healers. We need to heal the land naturally and allow nature to achieve it's delicate balance that has always so beautifully nurtured life.
We also feel the need to help heal the food system, which has become a machine with little regard for food safety, food taste, public health, pollution, energy consumption and animal welfare.
Finally, we feel the need to help heal the local communities we serve by providing a sustainable source of high quality food, supporting local farmers and merchants and bringing our patrons back in touch with nature. We hope to help people become reconnected with where their food comes from and, just as importantly, how to prepare it. We're committed to offering an ongoing series of educational events such as cheese making, butchering and curing classes to help people become reacquainted with what our grandparents all knew; how to preserve and prepare REAL food.
Our Views on Farm Certification Standards
While our land would easily qualify for certified organic status, we don't believe in certification programs, and in fact believe that we operate as "beyond organic". Regrettably, well-meaning standards such as organic have become abused, resulting in over used marketing jargon that is aimed at confusing and taking advantage of consumers. A perfect example of this is the "organic free-range" chicken that spends its entire, miserable life crowded in a chicken shed and never seeing the light of day, all because a never used door to a grassy area technically meets the requirement of the free-range label. And so consumers shell out their hard earned money, but don't get what they paid for.
We also believe that we operate "beyond humane". We'd go so far as to say that we provide a loving environment for all animals, even though we are well aware that most will become food for us. We are not part of the group that believes you can't name animals if they are going to be eaten. Rather, we give them a great life until they are great on the table.
So why don't we pursue 3rd party certification such as Certified Humane? Again, we go well beyond those standards. An example is how that standard clearly stipulates how baby piglets can be castrated without anaesthesia at just a few days old, or that the tusks of boar pigs may be trimmed. We are one of the few farms in the U.S. that does not castrate pigs...ever! Nor do we ring their noses, dock their tales, trim their tusks or adulterate in any way. Neither does nature, and we're out to mimic nature.
Transparency and Openness
If we were to choose a standard, we'd call it "transparency and openness". We believe that food producers should hide nothing and let the consumer see what they stand for and how they're raising their animals. For too long have words been minced just to sell a product. Our website, blog, podcast and numerous farm events are designed to pull the curtains back so that Nature's Harmony Farm practices are clearly visible. If you like what we do, great! If you don't, great! At least it's open so that you can decide if our farming model is consistent with your values.
A key focus of ours therefore is on our local food shed and in healing the land as well as healing our food chain. We operate our farm transparently, and invite anyone out to see exactly how their food is being raised. If you are interested in visiting, check out the tours/events page for tour dates.
Our primary goals, therefore, are to:
- Improve the soil
- Improve the health and welfare of our animals
- Improve the taste and security of food for our customers
- Mimic nature and allow nature to take its course
- Preserve rare breeds
- Serve as a local food shed
- Operate transparently and inclusively
- Operate sustainability
Please come see for yourself what it's like to farm in harmony with nature.
Liz & Tim Young
