How to Support Your Local Farmer

I know many people have lost sleep thinking about how to best support their local farmer. But in all of the confusion, it is much easier to continue to go to the grocery store, purchase your produce for the night or the week, and do the same thing next week. After all, exactly what you need is usually right there, on the shelf, day after day and week after week.

That's not the case with small, family-owned farms. Silly variables such as seasons, weather, and planning ahead can get in the way of being able to immediately supply consumer demand. During the good times, a farmer will have exactly what a customer wants and be able to meet that demand. Both parties walk away happy. During the bad times, farmers produced too much or too little, and they are either forced to slash prices on products which already have too-low of profit margins, or they lose customers because they can't supply the demand and the consumer goes elsewhere.

So what is a thoughtful consumer to do?

Pre-order.

Find a farmer who is producing a product you want. Tell that farmer that you would like to pre-order their product, tell them WHEN you would like it, tell them HOW MUCH you need, and become a loyal customer. In some situations, you may need to purchase an additional freezer, but you will find that you can get the best deals and have a reliable product when you communicate with your producer.

Want pasture-raised chicken? Find a producer who does that and tell them you would like 4 chickens per month. Many times they will even deliver for you, or arrange for pick-up. Want a freezer full of chicken? Order 25 chickens for the spring and 25 for the fall. Want a certain size turkey? Tell your producer what you want and when you want it, and voila!

But didn't I just tell you that you can go to the grocery store and get whatever you want whenever you want?!? Why would you work with a farmer and their silly schedules?

Take a minute to read the ingredient labels next time you buy something at the grocery store. Do you know what your chicken was fed? Do you know how your duck was raised? Do you know what chemicals were used to keep your ground beef looking appetizing? Do you know how the animal was processed?

That information is not on the label.

In addition to being a step closer to knowing exactly what's in the food you are eating and exactly how those animals were treated, you are also working to ensure security in your local food chain. What happens when there is an outbreak of avian influenza at the large poultry houses of the largest producers in the country? Chicken inventory plummets, prices skyrocket, and consumers suffer. But if you are already supporting your local farmer, you have a safe, local supply and you are not impacted. Plus, there is a farmer in your community who is better able to make ends meet.

The luxury of $0.99/lb chicken comes with a hefty price tag; pesticides, herbicides, and other heavy-metal residues from industrial feed contaminating the meat, large-scale slaughtering practices and increased risk of food-borne illnesses, drastically low nutrient, mineral, and vitamin content, and the ever-present risk of supply-chain breakdown.

So eat healthier. Meet your local producer. Pre-order! The national giants don't care if their products contribute to your health in any meaningful way, but your local farmer just might.