Cage Free, Free Range, and Pasture Raised, oh my!

Sound like the egg section in your grocer's dairy aisle? We thought so. The Story of an Egg, a short film part of a larger project titled "The Lexicon of Sustainability" takes a closer look at agriculture by utilizing varied modes of communication and sharing such as photo collage, animation, hand-written typography, and social networking to navigate words and ideas.

Click here if you'd like to watch The Story of an Egg thanks to PBS.org. Filmmaker, photographer and writer, Douglas Gayeton, was the director and photographer for this amazing production. Check it out. Tell your friends about it. We heart (re)thinking.  Thank you, PBS!
 

Foodie Memory: This is What Sara Said

I grew up spending most of my time outside. Creek swimming, family hikes, fort building, camping- “Go outside” was the answer to any suggestion of boredom. To go with my generally outdoorsy upbringing, my family engrained an environmental ethic and awareness into both me and my brother which has stayed with both of us for our entire lives. Discussions of energy use, climate change, pollution, preservation, development, and sustainability were common. My parents did, and do, believe these issues were and are important, and it was not unusual for conversations to drift to these subjects over dinner. 

But over what dinner? While my mom always meant well, supplementing veggies from the garden or farm stand with items from the one lone little grocery store in my town, environmental concern never really drifted from the conversation down to the dinner plate. As we kids got bigger, schedules got busier, and more and more cheap and processed food made a presence in our house. Grab it! Go! It didn’t take long before the family with such strong environmental values was eating in a way that regularly undermined their own beliefs. I went away to college with the eating habits I had developed. While I’d eat fruits and vegetables, I didn’t really think about if they were organic and more often than not I subscribed to the collegiate concept of dinner: If it comes from a packet and can be boiled and sauced- it’s dinner. Cheap meat on the Foreman Grill? Dish up.

Once away at school, I took environmental class after environmental class- and more and more I was faced with the conflict between the conventional food system and my values. Food miles, the treatment of animals, water pollution, energy use, endocrine disruption and the bioaccumulation of chemicals and antibiotics, the more I learned about the conventional food system, the more uncomfortable with my eating habits I became, but little change was made. Graduate school led to even more conversations about food and ethics and sustainable development. Although I had been exposed to a great deal of information about the industrialized food system and importance of alternative models while in college, it wasn’t until I was working through Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation for Environmental Ethics that I came face to face with the hypocrisy of my eating and consumption habits. I could no longer make excuses for my consumption habits clashing directly with my environmental values. I promptly dropped meat entirely and began the transition to a primarily organic diet.

The shift to a more ethical and sustainable diet has been a relatively easy one. Having access to organic produce and on rare occasions, ethically and humanely raised meat, through LFFC has been wonderful and allows me to better reconcile my environmental values with my diet. It’s not necessarily practical for many of us to completely eliminate our impact on the environment, but changing your food, making the simple choice to pick food produced in a way that does no harm to the workers, land, water, and animals that create it, that’s an easy choice and simple change and one I’m glad I’ve made.
Thank you, Google Images and CSA Files for included pictures. 

Fooding Part-way Down Memory Lane and All-the-way Back.

We, the CSA chatter-people, were doing just that the other day—talking about food (as we always do) and (this time) what we remember about it growing up, you know how it has or hasn’t changed for each of us. Because we were in our office space, we circled back to favorite meals we had as kids after we touched base about dietary staples growing up. If we’d had this conversation offline over a jovial cup of coffee at a local brew house, we would have just allowed the conversation to happen itself back to childhood memories rather than circle back, but at the end of the day, we are grown-up professionals now.

Truth: some of my favorite things to eat as a kid were the processed, prepared and preserved meat and cheese meals laden with preservatives and additives that now make me sick to my stomach. Microwavable chili. Abnormally large cans of beef stew. Hot dogs. Frozen, like delivery, pizza. Bread pockets of scalding meat and molten cheese. Vacuum-packed plastic trays of seemingly always unequal amounts of meat, crackers, and cheese. Crispy cookie cereal. Anything non-perishable, sugary, and cheap. (Blue) box (blues) macaroni and cheese was always a treat at home, and mozzarella sticks were the holy (edible) grail at horse shows and events from the food vendor.

I only realized the cliché-ness of my experience when I was getting tattooed recently, and the artist asked after hearing I’m vegan, “so did you watch all the necessary documentaries?” I laughed and said yes. She was right. However, and there is always a however, I’m glad I did—cliché or not. I only started questioning my own food when I switched my dogs to holistic food after learning kibbles and bits more about the dog food industry’s misleading labeling. Some defining personal food moments were cliché no doubt, yet the assumed societal commonality of my experience didn’t dilute my later comprehension and enactment of change. Thankfully.

In our collective experience and pooled memories, it seems the changes in our moral eating and eating morale, began after the questions did. Where does the food we eat come from? Where does the chicken in my chicken Caesar salad come from when I’m at [insert chain or independent restaurant here]? What was the factory or farm like? Were this chicken’s friends nice? And, what about the dairy products in the bright orange cheese powder for mac n’ cheese—were the cows involved treated well and free of hormones, antibiotics, and GMOs? As kids, this is what was missing—doing the food meta. Food was food was food was food. Some things like tomatoes came from a garden or nearby farmer’s field, and the rest of it, the boxed stuff, only came from the store. We didn’t ask questions about the who, what, where, when, and why that were involved. We didn’t understand the relationships between sourcing and silverware or money and its monopolization of our food choices at home, school, work, and play.

Despite the apparently generic packaging of my vegan-branded food transformation, I’m still happy with it. I would still pick its similar main ingredients comparison out at a store, despite it’s lower retail price and lower budgeted advertising. That is, I would still pick it out if said store were local and organic like a CSA share.

We’re in alignment about a few things in the CSA office. While administrivia may not rock our socks off, working to provide and improve access to some of the best organic veggies in our locality does, and is awesome, worthy work. We’re in agreeance about it, we’ve aired it out, and we’ve even circled back to it plenty of times. We come by our work through varied disciplines, but we love it. We are always happy to talk about (and eat) good food.

Thanks to Google Images for all pictures.

Community Supported Medicine shares are awesome

Take the becoming-more-common foodie and locavore adage, “food as medicine,” and push it further. Food is medicine. Medicine is food.

"Hanging Milky Oats to dry. Oats are considered a nutritive herb help replenish the body. They are loaded with calcium. It is a nervine tonic which means it helps with stress and anxiety. This is the same plant your oatmeal comes from...just harvested at a different stage of maturity" (lancasterfarmacy.blogspot.com).

Winter is commonly heralded as an external cold and slow slumber. Thanks to children’s books about bears and butterflies, and many times our own empirical evidence, we recognize winter as a temporal space which allows for necessary but unseen incubation to enable recuperation, regeneration, and a later on outward growth.  The same could be said for Lancaster Farmacy.

"Wild Bergamont harvest with a hint of Bee Balm. The bees and butterflies love this plant and it grows in the wild. We love it so much we had to grow it at the farm. It tastes and smells like oregano, and helps with digestive problems. A poultice of it helps draw infection from things like bee stings too" (lancasterfarmacy.blogspot.com).

About four winters ago (in 2009), Casey and Eli founded Farmacy after moving home to Lancaster. With varying but complimentary backgrounds and ideological allegiances in herbalism, rewilding, community organization, grassroots activism, cooperative modeling, and farming, the Community Supported Medicine share was planted. The CSM is a crop that’s grown out of the winters away from Lancaster and the mutual labor and love on Casey and Eli’s return. Their mission was and still is to use their herbal medicine shares to heal the local community and land naturally.

Bio dynamic farmers, Casey and Eli, resist the confines of conventional, mainstream food and medicine by working to rewild their land through decisive and cooperative—both community- and environment-based—farming. Their goals are to not only supply our community with local, organic medicine but also to support our local bioregion by sustaining accessibility to food and medicine for all community members.

"Just like the sun, Calendula opens up everyday. This flower does wonders for skin ailments including eczema, sunburns, rashes, you name it. Internally great for stomach problems and makes a mouthwash for helping canker sores. The flowers are edible and we make a colorful gazpacho with it" (lancasterfarmacy.blogspot.com).

 Their CSM share is excellently unique to LFFC—healing based on the CSA model with organic herbs and local herbalist wisdom. Each share is a monthly (3^rd week of each month) delivery of 3-5 items. You can expect any of these items to be healing salves, a bunch of fresh or dried herbs, tea blends, syrups, infused oils, bath salts, tonics, or tinctures. CSM shareholders will also receive an educational guide about each share inclusion whether it’s chickweed salve, Echinacea drops, a bunch of mint julep, or tea.

Photo and Information credit: Lancasterfarmacy.blogspot.com 

Want some cheeeese with that veggie share?

Cheese share? Guaranteed, if you eat dairy, you haven't had your share of cheese until you experience our cheese share—three locally crafted, artisan cheeses delivered with your veggies every month. You may also find yourself unwilling to share the cheese you receive from cheese share deliveries ironically enough. You will be showered with a varying, once-a-monthly array of three different local, artisan cheeses made from cow’s, sheep’s, or goat’s milk. Our cooperating cheese makers are from Hope Springs Farm, Misty Creek Goat Dairy, Green Acres Farm, Conestoga Creamery, Millwood Springs Organics, De-Glae Organics, and Dove Song Dairy.

Gone are the days of eating Cheez-Itz dipped in Cheez Whiz or Ritz crackers with a dollop of high pressured, canned American Easy Cheese on top. Kraft singles anyone? Blue box blues? Okay, too-early/mid nineties and Nickelodeon. Velveeta shells and cheese? Awkwardly thin cardboard box of cheese-like substance wrapped in equally as awkward and thin foil? Check. How is this stuff labeled per USDA regulations? I’m not sure yet.

Cheese doesn’t naturally melt into a uniform mass of orangey, velvety, smooth-and-creamy goo. Though Willy Wonka wasn’t a cheese maker--only candy as far as I can remember--some other major, big box brands do make "cheese." Alas, it is cheese food, processed cheese, and pasteurized prepared (better than processed?) cheese product(s) that they make, and it is these products that do this smoothly melting wonder. Cheese food stuffs that have been emulsified with unnaturally occurring additives and sets of ingredients that vary in degrees melt well without bleeding grease--unlike their all natural, aged cheddar or other legally so-named cheese counterparts.

Next question: what is American cheese? Historically, American cheese was a blend of varieties of Colby and Cheddar. Now, beyond its ubiquitous dairy aisle and fast food presence in addition to individual (and greasy) packaging, American cheese is actually just a loose term that refers to mild flavored, smooth and creamy cheese product, food, spread, or other cheese-like consistency product which cannot legally be called only cheese. You’ll notice many of the major brands of American cheese leave “cheese” out of the labeling altogether getting straight to the marketing point with “American slices” or “American singles.” While the cheese share will not include packages of stacked, individually wrapped slices of cheese that were formed by injection molding into cellophane envelopes, we have heard rave reviews about what we do offer.

 

Try, for example, a fresh goat cheese from nearby Dove Song Dairy in Bernville, PA. The goats, and all other livestock, are turned out year round on pastures that have not been treated with pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, or sludge. In addition to the goats’ organic pastures, they eat a special ration custom combined by the folks at Dove Song which consists of their own organically grown barley, spelt, and sunflower seeds. Kelp, flaxseed, minerals are also added to keep the goats as happy and healthy as possible. To this end, they’re never fed corn or soy or given antibiotics, vaccines, or hormones.

At the right, you'll notice a yellow cup of chili topped with Dove Song's fresh goat chevre aptly named Bonfire for it's wood smoked and chipotle flavor. Aside from being a welcome flavor of warmth to any cup or bowl of chili, Bonfire would also be great with a pulled pork sandwich or chicken fajita. Their chevre, Fig-a-licious, sounds delightful with organic black mission figs in a creamy, fresh goat cheese lightly sweetened with local wildflower honey and nutmeg, too. Dove Song recommends trying this as a bagel spread or compliment to fresh pear slices. Or, you might also receive Raw Feta which has been aged for two months and cured in sea salt brine. Of course, this feta is great on salads, sprinkled over soup (or white or margherita pizza!), and even equally as amazing right out of the 8 oz. container with a spoon, fork, even a spork. 

Photos and meal ideas courtesy of Dove Song Dairy's website. All other photos were ripped from Google. Many thanks. 

Roses are red, violets are blue, flowers from the grocery are dirty and ew.

Organic flower shares. Why does it matter if the flowers are organic? It’s easy to recognize the benefits of an organic diet, eating food from LFFC allows you to be sure you are in control of the chemicals you are, or in this case, aren’t, consuming every time you dish up a meal for you and your family. But what is the harm behind picking up a bunch of flowers at the local store or florist? As the daughter of a former florist and regular purchaser of the grocery store rose bouquet (prior to researching this article anyway), I have to say I never gave my flowers much thought other than to decide what color I felt like looking at for the week ahead, but there is so much more to the story.

A face mask speaks a thousand words.

The typical florist or grocery store sourced bouquet has most likely come to you by way of Africa or South America. Due to the delicate nature and temperature sensitivity of flowers, they must be transported along a cold chain of temperature controlled trucks and cold storage boxes until they have reached their final destination, requiring huge amounts of energy along the way. In addition to energy resources, conventional flower farms use enormous amounts of water. As many of the large flower farms are based in developing countries in areas where water access is not always guaranteed, there can often be clashes over priority use of water. In Kenya, one of the primary exporters of flowers to Europe and the UK, the Lake Naivasha region has faced many water issues as a result of heavy water use by the many flower farms surrounding the lake. The water volume of Lake Naivasha has dropped by half since flower farming in the area took off, and the water remaining is so polluted that the survival rate of native hippo and fish populations have decreased significantly. As a result of declining fish populations in the lake, many local fishermen have been forced to pursue alternate careers.

In addition to the energy and water concerns associated with conventional international flower production, chemical use is widespread, including the use of many chemicals that have been banned in industrialized countries including the US.  DDT, Dieldrin, Methyl bromide and Methyl parathion are just a few of the toxic chemicals used on conventional flower farms around the world. A 2007 study by the International Labor Rights Fund determined that over 66% of Ecuadorian and Colombian flower workers showed signs of work related illnesses including “skin rashes, respiratory problems, and eye problems due to chronic exposure to toxic pesticides and fungicides.” A different study conducted of working conditions for Colombian flower farm workers reports workers are exposed to “as many as 127 different chemicals, mostly fungicides and pesticides” and has been linked to higher rates of miscarriages, premature births, and babies with congenital defects born to women working in the farms.

 Health issues associated with work on flower farms are not isolated to farms in developing countries. Dutch floral workers “are often exposed to 60 times the recognized safe levels” of chemicals where their indoor working environment prevents chemical residues and vapors from dissipating. As flowers entering the US are monitored not for chemical residue, but rather for insects, when imported- there is an incentive for flower farmers abroad to use large amounts of chemicals to ensure their products make their way to paying consumers. This widespread use of pesticides and fungicides in the flower industry means the flower bouquet from the grocery store that you happily shove your face in to and breathe deeply contains toxicity levels high enough to warrant being handled with gloves.  

Lovely LFFC flower shares

If you are like me, and now realize that the weekly treat of innocent flowers on your bedside table or book shelf is actually a hardship inducing poison bouquet, fear not- guilt (and chemical) free flowers are available! Our flower share contains flowers sourced from our member farms Millwood Springs Organics, Maple Lawn Organics, Lancaster Farmacy, and Windmill Farm Organics. Our locally sourced flowers make the long, high energy, and carbon emitting cold chain of transport obsolete. Using the same organic, chemical free methods of production that you have come to count on for your LFFC sourced produce, our flower shares contain none of the chemical residue you will find on the florist or grocery store bouquet which means you can feel free to breathe the wonderful scent of our local, seasonal bouquets without worry that the farmer who grew your flowers fell ill growing them for you to enjoy. 

The Incredible (Profitable and Shouldn’t be) Edible Egg

While we may not know if the chicken or the egg came first, we do know eggs do not come from the grocery store despite sales and shelving. Like milk, eggs come from cognitive animals that blink in the sun and have preferences about which of their peers they befriend or which area of their pasture is the best. Those refrigerated grocery store aisles have been expertly-designed, applauded, and promoted by the industry leaders like the American Egg Board (AEB). The AEB’s website uses rhetorically kitschy lists of 12 bullet points and 12 organizational suggestions for plan-o-grams to boost sales. Or, wait; revise that. Some eggs do come from there, and when I say there I mean there as the institution that is huge-scale, commercial, industrial, factory food production. The eggs from there are indeed eggs you may want to consider before eating.

Despite the time span of one paragraph, we probably still don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first; however, we do know where our LFFC chickens and eggs come from. A good night’s rest (preferably in flannel winter sheets) assured, the eggs laid by LFFC lady chickens are raised in a way that looks nothing like the life of chickens you read PETA horror stories about. Rather, LFFC’s eggs are laid in environments that look like the imagery conjured by “pastured”—soft, green grass, overgrown dandelions here and there, and chickens dwadalling around foraging for bugs to munch. Perhaps the areas of overgrown dandelions aren’t the dairy cows’ and chickens’ favorite area of the pasture.

Rewind it back: you may want to reconsider eating the eggs that do come from an institution/culture/misunderstanding of food/place like the refrigerated shelves near your grocer’s freezer. Those shelves are:

(1) places that have been designed to encourage consumers to buy—because once they/we buy they/we will use—eggs despite the prior irrelevant egg vacancy in their home fridge;

(2) places that assume “consumer as swayable vehicle for profit;”

(3) places that are stocked by agribusiness that completely ignore everything except the bottom line;

(4) places that are never above wielding the logically fallacious savvy from their professional PR and marketing firms in all written and codified material;

(5) and places that buy from eggmen who want the most return on the least investment.

 These places are designed so the eggs are on the opposite end of the milk not because of categorical belonging but because there are many other dairy somethings to need-upon-noticing between point eggs and point milk. Note: high margin items are shelved at eye level. Notice we’ve only thus far ranted on grocery stores, eggs, government-affiliated/funded (is there a difference?) organizations, and consumers. What about the birds? This is for the birds! 

With simple, rudimentary browsing of a few different, but all government-af-fund-iated, websites that the egg industry (like most I guess) is concerned less with the welfare of its parts (animals, workers, environment, communities) and more with the end to which those parts are means, is an easy conclusion. A conclusion that is gross and upsetting which many times is concluded long after already having purchased from the source or one of its af-fund-iate places. Super bummer. The good news is we never stop learning.

By and large, the white eggs that dominate the egg market are laid in cage systems. Automation is imperative in system of cages because, “care, feeding, maintenance, sanitation, and gathering all take time and money.” Lucky for the egg industry, the Single Comb White Leghorn matures early (more eggs sooner), utilizes feed efficiently (cheap to feed), are relatively small (more birds per minimum space requirements), adapts to a variety of climates (can make money for the industry in a variety of locations), and “produces a relatively large number of white-shelled eggs, the color preferred by most consumers” (money maker).

The eggs that supply LFFC’s organic egg shares are raised from rotationally pastured (not green-washed rhetoric like cage-free) chickens. The idea of rotational pasturing is that the chickens always have new grass full of bugs and yumminess to forage rather than a dry lot of dirt from overworking a particular area until all the bugs are gone. When our chickens are fed supplemental feed—supplemental—it, too, is organic wheat, corn, or soy which means the eggs are certifiable. Our chickens are never, ever de-beaked, or have their beaks trimmed as the euphemistic dishonest egg industry folks might refer to it. Savvy. 

Commercial egg-laying hens are commonly debeaked in an effort to counteract environmentally-induced behaviors like cannibalism, injurious pecking, and stress. Commercial broiler chickens, or those raised for meat, aren’t usually debeaked because they reach slaughter weight before injurious behaviors manifest. Studies have shown that reducing the size of the groups of chickens also reduces pecking and cannibalism— one of many egg industry arguments for cage systems (aside from efficiency and profit) as the cages prohibit the chickens from ever hanging out with any other chickens besides the 6 or so stuffed into each cage. However, if laying hens weren’t stashed in laying houses with hundreds of thousands of their peers in or out of cages, they may not eat each other.

United Egg Producers (UEP) is a group of industry veterans and professionals that represents about 95% of the egg producers in the country. Many UEP group members are former government officials, poultry professionals, or otherwise affiliated individuals. UEP asserts the United States’ egg farmers “provide a safe and humane environment for the flocks of hens that provide the nation’s egg supplies.” Really. I guess that’s why male chicks are ground up alive because they’re of no use for the egg or chicken meat industry. I guess that’s also why they endorse “therapeutic beak trimming” (code speak: repeated debeaking at any age despite the increased stress after a certain age) to curb “outbreaks of cannibalism.” Google “undercover investigation at hyline hatchery.” 

  

Checkmate. 

Photo Credits: Happy chickens in doorway and egg dozen with LFFC logo, CSA Files, all others borrowed from Google images.