Happy Sunday!
posted on
June 7, 2020
More from the blog
What the bird flu means for you.
This past week I was at the APPPA Conference in Dallas — a 3-day conference where I had the pleasure to collaborate with many other pastured-poultry farmers, which will drastically help improve our pasture-raised poultry management. Ok, before you say “boring!” — we had LOTS of fun social activities. Especially with Aaron, our poultry manager, whom I took out of his cage for once and brought him with me, or should I say, "brought him out to pasture," haha. Our favorite was the rooster crow competition. You can watch Aaron’s crow here if you want a laugh. Joe and Aaron with cardboard Joel Salatin at the APPPA Conference. Lol, but I digress. A topic that somehow EVERYONE had on their minds and wouldn’t shut up about at the conference was Avian Influenza, which most of you have likely heard about in the news recently as: BIRD FLU. There’s been some speculation that this bird flu is just a deliberate hoax created to cause food shortages — but from my perspective, I’ll assure you that yes, it is REAL (and that’s coming from someone who’s DIRECTLY impacted). A few of the pastured-poultry producers (which I have spoken with) at the conference had experienced an outbreak from this flu on their very own farm at one point. A nice reminder for me to be grateful and thank God for his protection over our farm, and not take anything for granted. Most farms, though, being affected by this bird flu are the large, factory commercial operations. And you might actually be indifferent to it, including us even; especially considering that those ‘big’ commercial farms use conventional practices (resulting in “nocturnal” hens living in dark cages living off of pure GMOs) — which for Wanda Farms, are BIG NO NO. But… These big farms being impacted may actually SIGNIFICANTLY impact your day-to-day life as well (You’ll find out why later in this blog). At the same time, it is honestly very sad that in many of these large operations, hundreds of thousands to even MILLIONS of birds can just get wiped out in the snap of fingers. But this is nothing new. This 'AI' bird flu has been around in the poultry industry since 2016. Only In 2022, however, has it started to have such a prominent effect on the industry. ANY farms with flocks that show ANY signs of this flu must report it to USDA vet officials IMMEDIATELY — and not to mention, quarantine their farms with no birds for 150 days before bringing new flocks back to the farm (It is even recommended to cull all living birds right away to prevent the spread further). If you are curious, you can see how it’s affecting each state in real time here. So, what is Wanda Farms’ plan to be prepared? We plan to continue on as normal… Because we ALREADY take all the necessary precautions (being Divinely protected helps too, ig). I consider the precautions we take somewhat 'common sense' (but common sense ain't that common, huh?). For example, If we visit another poultry farm, or our chicken processing facility, we will wash our boots, and even our clothes if necessary. For our farm, it’s unrealistic to lock down our birds inside their houses with NO access to pasture just to “prevent the risk of infection”. If anything, the only reason they get sick would be because we locked them inside (poor birds). And by locking our birds inside they would NOT be "pasture-raised," and we are NOT going to change our egg operation from pasture-raised to 'cage-free.' The joyful hens of Wanda Farms And by the way, some brands that advertise as pasture-raised —- I’m not going to call anyone out but, probably *cough cough* your go-to grocery store eggs — are doing EXACTLY this (caging their hens), and STILL sell their eggs as pasture-raised?! Isn't that misleading? Anyways. Some folks might say Wanda Farms is in a high-risk situation as a regenerative pasture-raised farm; reason being that wild birds could potentially come in contact with our chickens. And I don’t disagree. I’m actually trying to fight my insurance company right now to insure ALL of our farm’s poultry. I guess they're also scared of the recent outbreaks and don’t want to take on that liability (FARMING is very high-risk. Anyone in this business who wants to succeed likely has to be driven by something outside of themselves). Now, to continue about how this impacts YOUR day-to-day life. The simple answer: Economics 101. Allow me to demonstrate. Chickens die from flu = no chickens… And with no chickens, who's gonna lay all these eggs? There's only so much pasture-raised eggs that can supply everyone’s desire to eat in a healthy way. This will, obviously, result in everyone fighting (gruesomely too, haha) to get their hands on those eggs before anyone else does — because the supply is so low. And what happens when SUPPLY is low? DEMAND increases. Which means that the prices go UP. But I bet you already knew that, haha; and that you'll thus have to pay MORE for the SAME dozen eggs. We are currently getting incredible pressure from existing wholesale accounts for more eggs — our wholesale prices and retail prices are less than the commodity priced caged white eggs on the open market. We recognize this demand and need for eggs, and are doing what we can to expand. It might take some time, though, as does anything worthwhile. I’m going to sign papers on a 80k loan to purchase upgraded layer poultry equipment, which will increase our flock capacity by another 60%. As you can see, yes, I’m quite invested in this. We will be doing some pricing adjustments on our eggs in the next week or 2 (as of writing this blog), and might need to implement a maximum purchase quantity if things get real crazy. I do expect this 'situation' to continue for most of 2025 as it’s going to take time for the big flocks to recover from these blows. Now that farming has changed from small family farms to industrial, mega farms it ONLY takes a few to get hit for the ENTIRE food supply to feel the blow. All this said, I think it shows us again how our food system may be in a bubble that can *POP* at any moment — and reconfirms our commitment to transform agricultural food production from a commodity to a service that nourishes our local community with not only sustainable food, but food of superior quality. Our prayers go out for all the farms taking these losses — and we pray for this to evoke a big positive change to our food system. God Bless, Joe
Your Farmer's Voice on Capital Hill
This past week I traveled to Washington DC with a group of fellow farmers and small meat companies to lobby our state's congressmen and state senators about the detrimental effects the EATS Act will have on animal welfare, family farms, and our customer's food supply long term. I was really honored to attend with a huge thank you to American’s for Family Farmers that help fund my trip and our farm team keeping up with all the farm duties in my absence. I also had the opportunity to be with other like minded small farmers and some up and coming meat companies like Butcher Box, Niman Ranch, and True Story Foods that I think are looking to reshape the food production standards in the US. The trip was my first time to D.C. and there were a few observations this country boy made that might make you laugh. #1. Pictures and movies don’t do the Capital building justice. It is beautiful, magnificent, and HUGEEE!!! #2. SO MANY all black and tinted window SUV’s! Lol #3. While, I thought I dressed up well in my nicest jeans and a button down collared shirt tucked in…I definitely felt a little underdressed at times as everyone wore slacks, suit jackets and a tie. I’ve never been somewhere where everyone dressed this way on a regular daily basis. #4. The U.S. policy's are pretty much run by 20-30 year old staffers. For whatever reason, I was expecting to see a majority of older people here in D.C. However this really wasn’t the case. The staffers actually have so much power as they are responsible for communicating with their boss (i.e. congressman or senator) our meetings and key issues that the people are presenting to them. Everything goes through a staffer before the congressman or senator hears about it. Now I give these young staffers a lot of credit in our meetings with them they were smart, well articulate in their conversation, and informed individuals. Definitely not individuals to take lightly in their ability to influence. Why Go to D.C. to oppose the EATS Act? The “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act" (S.2019; H.R.4417) as it stands is a bit of a misleading title. Which on the face of it sounds good. However this is really Big Ag’s attempt to take more power over the agricultural industry as it would take away individual state rights and harm the niche markets that are developing to comply with animal welfare laws previous instated. They’ve been attempting something like this for years and after California’s proposition 12 and Massachusetts Question 3 were put into law recently January 1st. They feel all the more need to get this passed in the upcoming farm bill. Prop 12 and Question 3 are state laws that require mother pigs, veal, and egg laying hens have enough space to turn around and that some of these products sold in that state meet those requirements as well. Voters in these states agreed by an overwhelming majority to put these laws into effect knowing it would increase their cost on these food products, but they felt giving these animals a better living condition was essential. I learned that mother pigs in a commercial factory farm are actually put into a gestation crate to live for 4 months where they can’t turn around or walk. Here they are bred and kept while in pregnancy (gestation). Then just before farrowing (having the baby) they are moved to the farrowing crate where it's a very similar living condition, but slightly wider so the babies access the mothers milk. Prop 12 law only required the gestation crates be removed and didn’t affect the farrowing crates. So in my opinion, it's an improvement, but still I think we have more progress to make in the way factory farms operate! While there, several hog farmers that provide pork to meat companies like Butcher box, Niman Ranch, and True Story Foods presented their story transitioning their hog farms to be compliant with Prop 12 and Q3. Investing millions of dollars to improve their facilities for the hog’s welfare by removing the gestation crates. Many since they switched not only found they could get a premium for their pork now that this law opened up a niche market, but it now was going to result in them being profitable vs risking to lose their farm. One farmer also shared the unintentional significant improvement in hog performance by removing these gestation crates! What a surprise…right? Duh folks....Pigs get stressed in this type of environment! I kept telling folks, “We are here in DC to honor the pig.” When young teenagers see pictures of these factory farms, it's no wonder, they stopped eating meat! This bible verse kept coming to my mind when I saw these pictures of pigs in the gestation crates. “The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel” Proverbs 12:10 At the end of the day, we have a responsibility as a farmer to honor these animals and provide a good living condition for them. Educating Congress All this said, we really tried to combat some of the lies that Big Ag are stating about this prop 12. Unfortunately they are stating so many misleading myths as facts. Some are just direct lies. One example of a misleading lie that set me off was they stated "Prop 12 will financially wreck family farms." This couldn't be further from the truth. Since Prop 12 the pork industries quarterly earnings report are positive. If anything their fight to insert the EATS Act in the farm bill has created more uncertainty for the niche family farmers as I described above as they could potentially lose their new markets! The reality is these “family farms” as Big Ag describes are under the thumb of big meat as they contract all their pork to 3 big meat companies. I invite you to watch this video that a fellow pork producer, Ron Mardesen, I had the honor to be with this week. He has an amazing farm with really high level animal welfare that I align so closely with. I think this video lays out how the hog industry has changed over the last 35 years and how it’s really not in the best interest of the family farms and rural communities, but rather the opposite. Rescinding State Rights The EATS Act will not only reverse the progress and investments farmers are taking towards animal welfare, but it's also going to threaten the future balance of power in the US government. This would erode the state’s rights to pass laws and regulations related to food safety, disease and pest control and other public health/welfare matters. In fact in 2023 the Supreme Court upheld California’s Prop 12 in court as constitutional. The EATS Act is really an attempt to take away state rights as taking it to court didn’t work for them. For me personally, this is probably the biggest reason I want to fight this. Prop 12 or not, EATS Act or not, in some ways, it doesn’t affect us as a farm all that much because we sell direct to consumers and folks buy from us because they do care about animal welfare and don’t trust what the grocery store has to offer. They know we are raising our livestock with care and to the highest standards! However, if the states lose their power and the Federal government has complete control of this, I think it could be a slippery slope of potentially more bad policy that individual states will have no say on the matter. If you have time to watch this video, here's another video explaining the EATS Act and it's history in detail. Take Action! If you can, I encourage you to send an email or phone call to your local congressman in your district and let them know you oppose the EATS Act. Here's the direct link to search for your congressman in your district. Currently this is bill is still in the house. So let's try to stop it now before it heads to the senate. We need to make this known that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want this Act or something similar in the upcoming farm bill. Thanks so much for reading and together we can shape a better food system for America! God bless, Joe
Top 5 Reasons to Buy 1/2 Beef from a Local Farm
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