Strong Local Food Systems Create Food Security

Rapidly rising food prices, fuel prices, interest rates, inflation, talk of food shortages.

Friends, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you things are kind of a mess out there right now.

I feel our global food system is absolutely unstable and like we saw during COVID, is easily broken with any little interruption.

I think the price of food will continue to rise.

I don’t think we will see widespread extreme food shortages where there’s no food at all, but I do believe we will continue to see more supply chain interruptions with items out of stock more than we’re used to and for longer periods of time.

All the usual advice like stocking up on food if you’re able is useful, but I believe the absolute best ways to protect ourselves against food shortages in the long term is to build a strong local food system and learn to cook with real food.

Our local farmers are already raising all the basics we need from meats, eggs, fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products. We may not have the wide variety of food we’re used to, and we’ll have to cook more from scratch, but the essentials are here.

When our food is being raised, processed, sold, and eaten all within our communities, we are much better protected against outside supply chain interruptions or extra costs for transportation.

When the initial COVID lockdowns caused empty grocery store shelves, most local farms saw a huge demand for their products. That is AMAZING and we were all thrilled to be serving our communities, but we quickly sold through months worth of inventory in weeks.

It’s important to remember that farms like ours can’t flip a switch and quickly have more beef steers, hogs or chickens ready to process, more acres of produce ready to eat, or more milk to bottle.

As demand for local products increases, more local food will be grown, but it realistically takes months or years for all the infrastructure and systems to catch up to a giant increase in local food demand.

If you’ve ever read my post on The Bigger Impacts of Buying Local, there are so many other businesses that need to grow right along with us as our farm and others start raising more food and selling it to our community.

That takes time, which means now is the time to start supporting local farms and businesses to give all of us a chance to grow and be ready to feed more people.

Please don’t wait until we’re in another empty grocery store shelves scenario. Small farms need your support now so we’re ready for whatever comes next.

Every time we shop from local farms we support a stronger and more abundant local food system. When we shop the grocery store, we tell the dangerously fragile global food system that’s how we want our food produced and sold.

I know it’s cliche, but we truly do vote for the type of food system and world we want every single time we shop for food.

I’ll be real that in times of emergency or shortages - farms like ours will prioritize making sure the families we’ve built relationships with have what they need before we open up sales to the public.

It’s not because I don’t want to feed our entire community, I would love to be able to do that, but we raise meat and eggs based on demand. I feel strongly that my first responsibility is to feed the families who have supported and believed in us in all times, not just when grocery store shelves are empty.

I obviously can't forsee the future, who knows what curveball could be thrown at us next, but whatever happens my solution is the same - food security comes from strong local food systems and communities.

Whether you live in a rural area and shop directly from farmer neighbors or you live in the city and have local foods shipped to your door, building relationships and supporting small farms makes our food more secure.

If you’d like to shop directly from our farm - here’s a link directly into our Online Farm Store.

We ship meats across Ohio and most of the Midwest every Tuesday.

Our Farm Store is open Saturdays from 9-Noon and Tuesdays from 5-6pm.

And we deliver from Hillsboro to Cincinnati and Waverly, Chillicothe, Circleville, Kingston, Bainbridge, Greenfield areas once per month.

If you’re not already part of our farm community, our email list is the best place to start to connect with your farmers and the source of your food! Watch your inbox for, recipes, first dibs on restocks, and to follow along with our farming journey.

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It's Never Happened Unless by Conquest - And Never Peacefully

Earlier this month, I spent two days at a Homesteaders of America conference and it was WONDERFUL.

When you gather people who are passionate about raising quality food and saving family farms, there’s an energy in the room that’s indescribable.

Within our sessions about all things farming and homestead, there was one piece that stuck out.

I could feel the entire room almost stop breathing for a second while we absorbed the reality of what this could look like.

In the next 15 years, 50% of America’s farmland will transfer as farmers retire or pass away.

This kind of massive land transfer has never happened in our civilization.

It has never happened unless seized by conquest.

And it has never happened peacefully.

How this might impact family farms, our communities, and our food security, is honestly pretty scary.

Even in rural areas right now, farmers often can’t afford to buy the land. What can be earned from raising crops or livestock on the farm isn't enough to pay the mortgage and taxes anymore.

Millions of acres of farmland are being bought by developers and investors, including foreign investment companies. What they are willing to pay for the land is much higher than farmers can afford. This is causing the price of farmland to rise rapidly.

Unless we find ways to stop it from happening, when half of America's farmland transfers in the next 15 years, much of it will be purchased by people who are not our farmers, neighbors, or people who care anything about the land, our community, or making sure we have enough to eat.

I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers for solving this, but I do know that supporting our local farmers and getting more young people into farming is part of what’s going to keep land in the hands of family farms like ours instead of developers and investors.

If farms like ours are strong and well supported, we can purchase land when property around us comes up for sale, and hopefully our family will be raising food on it for generations.

Lots of demand for locally raised products also opens up opportunities for more families to get started farming and make their living from the land, which will hopefully stay in their family for generations.

I know that buying from local farms isn't always the most convenient or cheapest option, but please know you are making such a huge difference for the farm families you support and you're shaping the future of family farms with every purchase.

Thank you for being part of keeping farmers like us on the land. Thank you for being part of keeping our food supply secure now and in the future. Thank you for believing in what we do and supporting us on this journey!

~ Dana

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The Bigger Impact of Buying Local

I've shared pretty openly about how shopping from our farm has directly impacted our family, but what you may not see is just how many other local families and businesses your food dollars benefit when you shop with us.

The positive impact our community is huge, and the more our farm has grown we've been able to help many other businesses grow and expand right along with us!

- Our baby chicks and turkey poults are hatched by a family owned hatchery in Cincinnati. Not only do they provide healthy chicks for us, but we don't have to rely on shipping them through the mail - we can go pick them up the day they hatch.

- We purchase our non-GMO feed from a local Amish family. Mark has been mixing the feed for our animals for many years. We've watched him go from operating out of one small pole building by himself to adding his brother full-time to the business, hiring office staff, delivery drivers, and building multiple new buildings to keep up with demand.

- Our feed maker purchases the non-GMO grains for our feeds locally. We know the farmer who raised the corn for our feed this year, and it was raised organically!

- Our hay is raised by and purchased from local farmers.

- We purchase our basic supplies like new heat lamps for the brooder, buckets, shavings, etc. from a locally owned feed store.

- The piglets we raise into finished hogs are purchased from local farmers. We have a few farms we support to get as many pigs as we need.

- Our beef animals are bred, born and raised without ever leaving our county. Our friend Alex cares for the Mama cows, bull and baby calves, then once the calves are weaning age, we purchase them.

- When it comes time for processing, all 4 processors we use for poultry, beef and pork are local family owned operations.

- Our friend Mike purchased a delivery van and has started a new business hauling and delivering products for small farms like ours. It’s brought multiple farms together as we coordinate trips and help each other get what we need picked up and delivered.

- Even the custom labels we have put on our chicken products are designed and sold by a family business in Cincinnati!

- Our fencing and building project materials are purchased from locally owned businesses, and we hired local building and concrete crews to help with our barn.

- When we need tires (seriously, there are so many tires around here) or mechanic work done, we have wonderful local businesses who know us and take great care of us.

- Those amazing photos you see of our family and farm were taken by local photographers - either Hollie from Holden Photography or Anna from Anamedia.

- Our soaps and tallow balms are made with Twisted Violet Homestead in Hillsboro and Butterhide in Jackson, both women owned small businesses.

- The chai tea, canned goods and kombucha you see in our store are made by Red Holler Homestead in Chillicothe and Fair Ridge Farms in Hillsboro, both local crafters who share our vision for a sustainable local food system.

- Our taxes are done by a local accountant, we bank locally, we use local lenders when we've needed financing, and we partner with other local small businesses for our needs whenever possible.

- The dollars we earn by selling our products allow us to purchase food we don’t produce for ourselves from other local farms.

I've probably even missed some of the directions your dollars move out into the community after purchasing from us, but I hope this helps you see just how big of an impact you're making! 

One of these days I'll go even bigger picture into the price of farm land, supply and demand plus pressure from developers and foreign investors, but that's probably a little much for this post. :)

Thank you for being a part of what we're doing. We are so incredibly grateful for your support, and allowing us to support the growth of so many other small businesses in our community too.

If you’re not part of our community yet, we would love to have you! Add your name and email address below and you’ll be in. And don’t worry - you can expect emails like this about every week or two, we’re too busy to spam your inbox with nonsense!

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Bringing Back the Victory Garden

Bringing Back the Victory Garden!

Have you ever heard the history of Victory Gardens?

I had never heard of them until I took a pastured poultry course at a northern Ohio farm a few years ago. They had what they called a “victory garden” and when I went home I had to google it to find out what exactly that meant.

The condensed history of the Victory Garden - these were gardens grown during World War I and especially during WWII when food was scarce. A lot of the canned goods being produced were shipped overseas to troops, food supplies were being rationed, and the government encouraged anyone who could to grow and preserve some of their own foods to take the pressure off the public food supply. It was also a morale booster since it gave families something to work on and everyone felt like they had a part in feeding themselves, helping to support their country, and feeding the troops overseas.

At that time, 40% of the nations vegetables were being produced by home gardeners! They even encouraged people to have their own backyard chickens instead of creating zoning regulations to prohibit it. There were information books, plans for what and how much to grow for a family, and they had the coolest promotion posters! Seriously, if you have a minute to do a google search on Victory Gardens, the pictures of their posters are amazing.

I think I partly fell in love with this idea because my Grandfather was a WWII veteran. He just passed away a few weeks ago at 94 years old. He was a radioman in a B-24 bomber and flew over 20 missions. Our family has always had a special interest in WWII history and a special appreciation for the people like my Grandfather who truly risked everything to give us the opportunities we have today.

A few years ago I had the chance to take a short flight in a B-17 with my Grandfather. It was such a powerful moment in my life because as we were taking off I let myself feel what these young men must have been feeling - as that airplane left the ground knowing they were going to be in danger, understanding that each mission they flew decreased the chances they would make it back home alive, knowing that many many of their friends didn’t.

We took a short 20 minute flight and I was hot and airsick. My Grandfather said he flew over 20 missions that lasted hours.

At the time I’m writing this blog post our country is at war with COVID-19. In most of our lifetimes, this is the first time we’ve really felt uncertain about what life will look like tomorrow, next week, or next year. Everything changed in the blink of an eye. The things we took for granted like grocery store shelves full of endless supplies of food, the opportunity to work and support our families, abundance, freedom, travel, security, the ability to buy whatever we wanted from Amazon and have it delivered in 2 days - some of that is gone now.

But I also feel a deep sense of pride watching our communities and our country come together. I’m choosing to see the positives of what’s happening despite my fear and I have zero doubts our country will recover and our communities will be stronger because of this experience.

While our specialty here at our farm is raising forage, livestock and eggs, this year we will be expanding our vegetable and fruit growing areas and raising our own Victory Garden. I hope that it will not only feed our family, but that we can share the surplus with our neighbors and community.

As a farmer, I’ve been very aware of the food security issues this has caused across the country. I think that we all need to take back some control over our own access to food. In the last couple weeks we’ve seen grocery store shelves cleared and the global food system struggling to shift resources to keep up with demand. In any major weather event, disease, war, etc. it’s easy for these supply chains to be cut off and food doesn’t get where it’s needed.

Having a strong local food system helps to solve these issues. The food is here already, and small farms and businesses can quickly adapt to marketplace changes. Farms that were selling to mainly restaurants and schools quickly switched gears to fill individual customers freezers. Farms that were already selling direct to consumer made some quick changes to how customers accessed their products and kept on rolling. Our area has farmers raising meat, eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables, and more.

I know our farm and others have seen huge demand for our products in the last couple weeks. We are doing the best we can to keep up, scale up, and keep everyone fed. The struggle for us is going to be - will this continue? Our greatest fear is investing in growing more products only to be left behind when the grocery store shelves are full and more convenient to shop from.

We want to feed you. We want to be here for our community in the good times and in the uncertain times, but this means we need the support of our communities more than just when the grocery store shelves are empty.

I want to encourage and challenge you to continue supporting your local farms even when we go back to “normal” and to do what you can to take back some control over your food security. There’s still plenty of time to start your own Victory Garden!

While this entire situation is tragic, I hope it changes us for the better. I hope we remember to value the time we get to spend with friends and family, the food on our plates, unlimited supplies of toilet paper, and the luxury of peace and security more than we did before.

Our country and my grandparents went through harder times, we can do this. They were a level of brave and selfless most of us can’t fathom. Let’s come together and prove to those who risked or gave their lives for us that we are a country and a people who were worth fighting for. Stop hoarding the toilet paper, go wash your hands, give your elderly neighbor a call to check on them, and let’s take care of each other.

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