Our regional focus for the grass-fed party was so much fun! We hope you all enjoyed our regional recipes, interviews and issues because we certainly enjoyed all the research and the people we met and talked to. I found it to be not only fascinating, but it also reinforced how important our grass-fed message is to America.  It provides solutions to all the issues that we face: energy independence, astronomical health costs and the economic decline of our rural communities not to mention all the environmental issues that the production of our food has on our land and communities.

 

America is such a vast, resource rich, land and grass has always been something that has tied our communities together. Whether it is the brittle rangelands of Texas or the lush pastures of New England grass-fed farming has become a moooovement.  We talked to ranchers and farmers across the nation and so much of what we heard was the same.  Our interview with Mark really is a great discussion of the obstacles that grass-fed producers face.

One thing that really struck Franny and I was the large amount of grass-fed producers who are not only changing how we grow food but also the thousands of customers that are supporting  grass-fed ranching because they are committed to what grass-fed farming represents.  Unfortunately, we also found a total lack of public policy initiative, all across the nation and it became clear that not only do politicians not want to address agricultural policy they continue to support legislation that hurts our family farmers.   

In California it was the people not elected officials that proposed and passed Proposition 2 which stipulates that farm animals must be able to stand and lie down in confinement. The proposition was a mandate with over 63 percent of the state voting in favor of the Proposition and yet there has been an eerie quite when it comes to our elected officials. Why is this?  I think this is because so many of us no longer farm, and those in office are particularly removed from the land. They do not want to be viewed as “anti-farmer” or out of touch and find an honest look into our agricultural policy as a political can of worms more safely kept sealed.  Well, I want the can opened!   I am a farm girl, and I have no issue with raising awareness about how broken our agricultural system is.  Grass-fed farming is a solution that really helps us all and we need public policy to address this. 

We have an historic inauguration happening next week.  The election of Barack Obama, as our president, happened because we as a nation want change: we feel insecure, anxious and troubled.  I think it is interesting that Barack Obama first gained footing in Iowa, an agricultural state; his message does resonate with farmers. I think this is due to the fact that farmers feel so squeezed.  Farmers were the first sufferers of the vast consolidation that has impacted all of America; before Wal-Mart, there were the big packers that bought and closed a lot of small independent slaughtering plants.  This has hurt small farmers and favored feedlots. There certainly is a lot of hope for change.

The question still is.  What will our elected officials do? What can they do?
My hope is that Washington will start to TALK about our agricultural policy and its impact on us all instead of passing the same laws that only give large agricultural corporations more control over our food.

 

It is time for change!  Grass-fed Change!