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Animal Welfare Approved | September 27, 2011
The 2811 (said, “Twenty-eight Eleven”) is a “sustainable, organic, all natural, family farm.” Half of the 55-acre family farm in western South Carolina is wooded and the other half is maintained in pasture, grazed by their Animal Welfare Approved livestock. Rhode Island Red laying hens, Angus and Hereford cattle, and Hampshire-Yorkshire cross pigs all make their home on The 2811, managed by Dr. Matthew Durham and his “business partners”—his wife Melissa and their four children, Caroline, Savannah, Meredith, and Noah.
Terrill Esposito raises Animal Welfare Approved laying hens and dairy goats in Loganville, Georgia. Terrill grew up helping her friends on their family farms, but it wasn’t until 2004 that she established Legacy Alpaca Farm outside Atlanta. Ten years earlier, she saw a tiny ad in the back of a magazine on an airplane for the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association and began amassing books, articles and knowledge about raising these South American fiber animals.
In 2007, David and Angela Bell retired from their careers with the Federal Aviation Administration and as a financial advisor respectively, and bought a farm in southern New Hampshire. They decided to raise cashmere goats, which they brush to harvest their soft fleecy undercoats. “They are really smart animals with personality,” says Angela. “They’re capricious and tenacious.” While still in what Angela calls the “incubator stage,” one of their bucklings won 1st prize at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival in October 2011.
In October 2009, Judith McKenna and Richard Barker bought 12 Palms Farm in Cocoa, Florida, 45 miles from Orlando on the East coast of the state. Their property, which had been a horse farm, required months of work clearing pastures and fixing fences before Judith and Richard began the slow business of starting a farm. First, they added a small flock of chickens with the intention of collecting eggs for their own consumption. After some research, they decided that goats would be a great addition to their farm and they added Nubian and Nigerian dairy goats to their 3.5 acre property.
Cherrie and Lee Nolden both came from agricultural backgrounds. Cherrie was raised on a five acre “farmette” and Lee spent his summers on his uncles’ farms in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The couple began their own farming ventures in 2001 and since then have raised livestock both in Wisconsin and Kansas. They presently raise Animal Welfare Approved laying hens, meat goats and meat sheep on their 56 acre property next to the farm Lee’s family still owns in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin.
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Animal Welfare Approved | September 20, 2011
Jude and Topher Sabot raise Animal Welfare Approved dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs and laying hens at Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, MA. Cricket Creek Farm is a grass-based dairy located in Williamstown, MA. Nestled on the slopes of the Taconic hills, the farm consists of over 500 acres of rolling fields and woodlots, old apple orchards and sugarbush. Their herd of 40 cows is made up of registered Brown Swiss and Jerseys.
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Andrew | September 17, 2011
When it comes to public relations there is spin and there is downright deceit. A recent press release from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) on the potential link between antibiotic resistant bacteria and industrialized farming definitely falls into the latter category. At issue here is a statement released by National Pork Producers Council President Doug Wolf on the new Government Accountability Office report, “Antibiotic Resistance: Agencies Have Made Limited Progress Addressing Antibiotic Use in Animals.” Wolf says, “Not only is there no scientific study linking antibiotic use in food animals to antibiotic resistance in humans, as the U.S. pork industry has continually pointed out, but there isn’t even adequate data to conduct a study.” He continues, “The GAO report on antibiotic resistance issued today confirms this.”
Wolf’s comments are hogwash and he knows it. The truth is that the GAO report does nothing of the sort, nor was that ever its intention. Even from the report title it’s already pretty clear what the overall conclusion is: key government agencies – namely the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA) which are primarily responsible for ensuring food safety in the U.S. – are not doing enough to combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria to public health.
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Animal Welfare Approved | September 14, 2011
Willow Creek Ranch is located on 150 acres of mixed woodlands, streams, springs and pasture in what is known as the “Driftless Zone” of Southwest Wisconsin, known for its bluffs, rivers, creeks, and glacier-fed springs. In addition to lush pastures, Willow Creek Ranch has seven springs that provide their animals and with water naturally filtered through hundreds of feet of limestone. The Ofte family has farmed the valley for over 150 years and adheres to sustainable practices in raising their Animal Welfare Approved Black Angus Beef.
Shelley Bouyea, Bart Charland and their children Andrew and Matthew raise Animal Welfare Approved laying hens and sheep (wool, breeding stock) at Gleann Dair Farm in West Chazy, NY. While Shelley grew up on a dairy farm and always wanted to farm as an adult Gleann Dair has only been a working farm since 2006.
Ralph Hayes has been farming most of his life on his third generation farm in central Alabama. Fifteen years ago, Ralph began raising goats, which were smaller and easier to handle than the cattle he and his family were accustomed to. Finding a market for his goat milk used to be his biggest challenge, but now, his partnership with Deborah Stone at Stone Hollow Farmstead allows him to focus on caring for and milking the animals, while Deborah makes farmstead goat cheese with his milk and markets it under the Stone Hollow Farmstead label.
