Thomas Levine and his young son raise Animal Welfare Approved laying hens, beef cattle and pigs at Longmeadow Farm LLC in West Cornwall, CT. Longmeadow Farm’s hens are pasture-raised, their Black Angus cows are grassfed and finished, and their pigs are forest-raised.

Chuck and Allison Schaum raise Animal Welfare Approved sheep in Woodruff, South Carolina. The couple has been farming for about six years; Allison says they were drawn into agriculture while looking for career change and “just jumped in there.”

Karma and Michael Glos and their daughter Rosemary raise Animal Welfare Approved pigs, beef cattle and laying hens at Kingbird Farm in Berkshire, NY. Before starting Kingbird Farm, Karma and Michael both gardened extensively with their families growing up and then went on to apprentice with farmers. They purchased their current land in 1995, became certified organic in 1998 and ever since they’ve worked to build a diverse, productive, and sustainable family farm. Karma says, “It is very important to us that our farm be ecologically, financially, socially, and emotionally sustainable. We want to raise food in the very best way we can so we can feed the community around us.”

After years of working for a confinement hog operation, Sean Bansley and his wife Carol began raising Berkshire pigs “the right way” in 2009 at Bansley’s Berkshire Ridge. The Berkshire breed is known for its adaption to living on pasture and its high quality meat and the Bansley’s pastured pigs give birth and live outdoors on their 40 acres of pasture in great contrast to conventional hog operations. Carol and Sean choose to raise their animals in a high-welfare system because they believe that “you are what you eat—if you feed them well, they’ll be good food for us.”

Cathy Kassab and Dave Abler raise Animal Welfare Approved laying hens, laying ducks and geese at Four Paws Farm & Vineyard in West Decatur, PA. As the name would suggest they’ve also started a vineyard with wine grape varieties of Riesling, Marechal Foch, and Vidal Blanc and Concord for their table grape variety. In season, they also sell a wide range of sustainably-raised herbs, including basil, rosemary, chives, thyme, and French tarragon.

While Lesley Million grew up on a cattle farm, it’s goats that she wanted from the time she was three years old. She finally got her opportunity when she and her husband Barry bought Terrell Creek Farm, 25 miles east of Springfield, Missouri in 2006. The couple bought dairy goats in 2007 to make a profit from the pastures, forage and woods on their land, which was well suited to the browsing eating habits of goats.

Garner and Nancy Klein established Eagle Catcher Farm and Ranch in Southern Texas’s Rio Grande Valley in 2008. The small farm where Garner grew up had raised cattle, but it wasn’t until he had retired as a physician in Harlingen for 40 years that he and his wife began raising cattle for themselves. Garner’s experience advising his patients on dietary matters inspired him to raise healthier beef that is lower in saturated fats and hasn’t been exposed to antibiotics, growth hormones or pesticides.

Meagan Blank raises Animal Welfare Approved beef cattle on pasture or range at Rosie’s Beef, Emsig Farm in Granville, NY.

Philip and Patricia Bennett’s mixed produce and chicken farm grew slowly. In 1992, they left the suburbs to live on 50 acres in McDonough, Georgia, 40 miles south of Atlanta. Patricia, who had grown up with a family garden, started to grow food for the family’s consumption on a small plot. Every year, the garden grew and grew and after a successful trip to the farmers’ market to sell a bumper crop of cucumbers in 2004, the family’s farm business was born.

In October of 2009, Gary and Ranell Bridges left the city life in Raleigh and moved onto 21 acres in rural north-central North Carolina. Ranell, who considered herself a “country girl” and had grown up with horses, shared a dream with Gary of living and working on a farm, but neither had raised livestock. Their dream quickly began to materialize when they bought a herd of goats and a flock of chickens within the first month of their move. For the next year, as Gary and Ranell acclimated to farm life, the groundwork was laid for commercial production and in 2011, after being joined by their son, Austin, Two Bridges Farm began to sell goat meat, eggs and produce.