This past Thanksgiving, we asked our readers why they were thankful for the family farmers in their life. Read their comments below, and add your own here.

1. From Wendy – November 23, 2009:

I’m thankful for family farmers because both my parents came from lineages of farmers! I buy local as possible and frequently remind my friends and family to do the same… and remind them that it’s not THAT hard to do. It’s just a matter of reprogramming how we think/shop. Family farmers are the hardest working most underappreciated folks I know, and I think God for them and their hands that feed us daily.

As a personal chef, when I do meals and events, I design seasonal menus so I can BUY LOCAL! I buy around me out here in the country whenever possible, the Wake Forest (NC) Farmer’s Market and shop at the NC Farmer’s Market in Raleigh too… trekked there just last week for a 150p feed’n last Friday! Got my sweet taters just up the road.
THANK YOU and GOD BLESS ALL THE FAMILY FARMERS OF THE WORLD!

2. From Sarah M. — November 23, 2009:

Just a word of thanks to all of the farmers out there who care enough to do it right! Up until very recently when I had to sell my pastured pigs due to a job transfer, I was very much involved in the day-to-day care of these wonderful animals. It only makes sense to treat them well – and in the end you have the wonderful feeling of letting them live the life they were intended to, not the horrible subsistence that the vast majority of the animals in this country have to endure. Thank you noble AWA farmers – you are the salt of the earth.

3. From Beth — November 23, 2009:

I would like to thank John Wright of Graceland Farm in Midland, Virginia.
For half of the year, each Thursday morning, come rain or shine, John delivers 10 CSA shares to my suburban Virginia carport for my neighbors and myself. The vegetables are fresh and healthy and raised with steady hands; the egg yolks from his pastured chickens are golden yellow–sadly nothing in the grocery store comes anywhere close. But it’s John’s smiling face and true commitment to and love of what he does that is the real gift. John, all the best to you and your family for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

http://gracelandmidland.com/meet-the-farmer/

4. From Mary-Beth — November 23, 2009:

I would like to thank two local farms of whose gorgeous vegetables will grace our table this year. The first is Rothcamps Farms, a family owned farm right here in Glen Cove. They will be closing for the winter season and we will miss them very much. It’s such a pleasure to have them nearby, purchasing directly from the farmers and workers. I would also like to thank our CSA (community supported agriculture) program farm, Golden Earthworm in Jamesport, NY for their locally grown ORGANIC produce from May through November. We look so forward to our weekly box of goodies!

Keep up the GREAT, often overlooked, work all you farmers do.

5. From Ariel R. Fugate – November 23, 2009:

6. From Jessica Taken — November 23, 2009:

I’m thankful for family farmers because it shows there are still somehard working people left in the world that know the value of what growing/raising your own food and resources.

7. From Dan Nelson — November 23, 2009:

We are humble and grateful for all the community support and the blessed opportunity to have our small, family farm here in the heartland of America. My wife and I spent our careers away from our family farms which we grew up in an attempt to “find the good life” in the city.

When we found ourselves with children of our own, our roots in rural farming took hold pulling us back to the country. Ten years later we have “found a great life” with fond family memories, clean air and solid nutrition from naturally-raised vegetables, nuts, berries, fruit, herbs, grains and meat.

Our lives have changed because of your support and belief in us. Thank you from the bottom our hearts. May our peaceful food revolution continue forward in a bright hope of feeding everybody and creature upon the face of this earth.

8.    From Jacky Saint-John – November 23, 2009:

I’m thankful that the animals are not stuffed in cages to the point of not being able to breath! I’m thankful that they’re able to roam free & are killed respectfully without fear. I’m thankful that there are still some HUMANE people in this world that we live in! Thank you.

9. From Robert Doering — November 23, 2009:

I am thankful for the chance to continue my family’s legacy of farming. I am thankful for the ability to raise my own food and for the chance to help feed others. I am thankful for the ability to spend my days and nights with my wife. I am thankful for the ability to take care of my mother as she gets older. I am thankful for the chance to have nature as my boss and to work with her everyday. I can not think of a better life.

10. From Kristina Morton-Jones — November 23, 2009:

I am thankful for family farmers because now I don’t worry so much about what is in the meat I’m feeding my family. And of course for all the other reasons mentioned above!

11. From Ranjini I — November 24, 2009:

I am thankful for family farms for their humane treatment of animals. As a former vegan who recently married a meat eater, I made the tough decision to eat meat again. I was vegan for compassion reasons as I could not knowingly contribute to the profits of the inhumane conventional animal industry. But, as a compromise, my husband and I have decided to exclusively purchase pasture-raised animal products.

After doing much research to learn about pasture-raised practices, I am comfortable in my decision and am proud to support local family farms who treat the animals with respect. It is a blessing and a privilege to eat meat and should not be taken for granted. These animals lives are being sacrificed for us and deserve to be treated humanely. Pasture-based farming is the only true farming method.

In particular I would like to mention Fox Hollow Farm and Jehovah-Jireh Farm. Thank you for upholding real values in raising the animals on your farms.

12. From Jennifer Spediacci Fellows — November 24, 2009:

I am thankful that a friend opened my eyes to the cruel world of how our animals are treated in the “factories”. I am thankful that AWA has taken the guesswork out of the beef, chicken and eggs I buy. I have found AWA eggs easily, but not meat. Do you know if Whole Foods sells meat that is approved?

Dear Jennifer: Thanks for your interest! In response to multiple inquiries like yours, we created a handy guide to AWA grassfed beef and pasture-raised pork at Whole Foods Market stores. View it online and download a printable pdf here: http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org/consumers/whole-foods/

13. From Mary Ann Canterbury — November 24, 2009:

My father’s father farmed in Kansas. Some of the happiest times of my life were spent on a dairy farm outside of Olpe, Kansas with my friend, Leona Hoelting.

14. From Lorraine — November 24, 2009:

I’m thankful to the Hayes Family who own Sap Bush Hollow Farm where I buy almost all of my grassfed, pastured humanely raised meat and chickens. I know this kind of labor-intensive farming–moving animals from pasture to pasture, caring for the land so it supports the animals, processing chickens on site and larger animals at a small nearby slaughterhouse–is arduous, It certainly doesn’t yield the same profit margins as Big AG.

Thanks why I’m so thankful to the Hayes–and to other farmers I’ve come to know including Oliver Ranch, Chaffin Orchards, Tropical Traditions, Ronnybrook Farm and the McNeil Ranch. Theirs is truly a labor of love and devotion.

15. From Angela Brown — November 25, 2009:

I love that I get to interact with family farms with most of the food that my family consumes. We are all so grateful with how the family farms and ranches that we do business with are only acting in trying to take care of God’s world and his animals the way He asked them to be cared for. Keep up the God work!

16. From Donna Putney — November 25, 2009:

We at Upstate Locally Grown Market, an on-line local farmer’s Market, are so grateful for the enthusiastic community support of our local sustainable farmers. On our site, at the local farmer’s markets, and at farmer’s CSA drop-offs, the Greater Greenville, SC community comes out in droves to purchase fresh, sustainable, humanely raised products from all of us. We are proud of nearby Furman University, who is on target to be a green school in a couple of years. Also, Clemson University’s Sustainable Ag efforts, with a student organic farm and farm markets.

We are truly blessed to have such a well informed and supportive community!

17. From Frank Morison — November 25, 2009:

I would like to thank all family farmers who raise their animals to the AWA standards. I know that they are producing a high quality product which surpasses all commerically raised products in taste and appearance and also that the livestock were raised humanely with plenty of outdoor space and fresh air. Keep up the GREAT WORK!

18. From Tai Johnson-Spratt — November 25, 2009:

We are thankful for friends, new and old, family, our bountiful harvest of birds and Animal Welfare Approved. Our poultry is thankful for Animal Welfare Approved too!!

19. From Virginia Harman-Harris — November 26, 2009:

I’d like to say a Blessed Thank You to all Family Farms and Farmers but especially to the relatives whom I went to visit on their farm. There was hard work starting before daylight getting up and milking and feeding the mainly grass fed cows, slopping the pigs, feeding the chickens. We bottled fed calves and made certain the baby chicks were warm enough under the incubator lights then headed out to the fields to plow, plant, or harvest. When we would gather the wheat we would throw a mouthful in and chew till it turned into gum, haying season we would throw hay bays on the trailer to be taken back to the farm from the field and ride on them like Kings surveying our Kingdom, there was de-tasseling the corn, and a zillion other jobs that happened on the farm from upkeep of machinery to sheds and even farm houses. We had to clean out the barn and the disgusting chicken coops. We’d run next door an d help our neighbors if they were over whelmed or hurt and couldn’t get their harvest in because that’s what they’d do for us.

Somewhere in there… wash was done and hung out on the line to dry in the sunshine, lunches would be fixed and taken to the guys in the field, dinner would be cooked and desserts made. Depending on the season, preserves would be put up for the following year after the fruit was harvested from the trees or vegetables canned or frozen for future years. In the evenings I remember cutting out paper dolls from old magazines, sitting close to the old heat vent in the floor with the fancy grill, listening to the farm reports and weather report and going to bed early compared to city standards. We’d run up stairs that were narrow and twisting in the old family farmstead and bundling blankets over my head in the feather bed. It was a hard living with big skies and fresh clean air and the joys of birthing the baby animals. We were a simple people devoted to God and the land and our families. We were living in heaven, the children knew that as they cavorted in the cow tank with the green slime squeezing between our toes and being able to go anywhere and not being in danger of harm from others. We had our trusty farm dog to warn us if people were coming to the farm as well as rounding up the cattle and we always had kittens to cuddle and to keep down the mice population. Yes, it was hard back breaking work that wore you down over the decades and that’s why the kids went to the city to work rather than stay on the farm even though they knew it was a good life on the farm. Our Grandparents lived long lives and enjoyed their Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren and family holidays were always spent together. God Bless farmers, they nurture the world!

20.  From Galen Zamarra [via Twitter] — November 26, 2009:

@AWAapproved Happy Thanksgiving AWA! I’m very thankful for all of our local farmers and producers for doing things the right way!

Galen Zamarra, executive chef of Mas (farmhouse) in NYC

21. From Alease Williams — November 27, 2009:

My farm is in Autryville, NC. I’m proud to be a Free Range Pasture Pork Producer, love working with my pigs and watching them @ play. My husband Donnie also enjoys our farm and we’re proud to be AWA!

22. From Andrea Wallick — November 27, 2009:

I am very grateful to family farmers. Raising their animals with love and great care means the world to me. That these beautiful animals & birds live a happy, natural life, eating what nature means for them to eat and are killed with minimum fear & pain is practiced by these noble farmers brings farming back to the way it should be done. And meat and poultry healthy for humans to eat again. It’s good for the land, the air and for people. Thank you to all family farmers. You enrich all our lives!

Support your local farmers!

23. From Nasha — December 2, 2009:

I am deeply and profoundly appreciative of all the special care these farmers create. with the highest concern for animal welfare and the planet earth, I can sleep easier at night. Please please keep up the great work!!!!!