Eliza MacLean began her work with animals as a veterinary technician and wildlife rehabilitator who then went on to become an environmental toxicologist. She has now decided to combine the best of all these worlds as a ground breaking farmer who treats her animals with the greatest possible care on a beautiful farm. Cane Creek Farm has even been described as “a storybook or child’s vision of a farm”.

Eliza became a farmer because she “came to realize that the worst things in the world were the things we were doing to farm animals and the loss of farmland diversity. We were losing an entire knowledge base so I started working with rare breeds. We’re never going to stop eating meat. It’s in our history and in our traditions. It’s about food and good nutrition. Meats and fish and poultry have always been a part of our diet. We can’t ignore that so instead of boycotting, I jumped into ensuring that these animals had good welfare.”

Cane Creek Farm’s customers recognize the Animal Welfare Approved label and Eliza always describes the standards to them. She said her customers are most concerned with what the animals eat. Ten percent of her customers come to her because they are seeking the highest nutrition they can find in order to heal them from disease and a third of her customers are ex-vegetarians.

While Eliza is famous for her Ossabaw pigs, she also has an excellent laying hen system for which she has most recently been certified by the Animal Welfare Approved program. When asked about how she runs such a great farm for her animals, Eliza said, “It’s an incredibly labor intensive way to do things, but it seems worth it when you think about the benefits that are given to the land, to the animals and to the consumer. When talking about it to consumers and giving tours it just makes sense.”