Local foods aren’t for everyone. Only the people who care about fresh, properly processed, and high quality are the ones who go out of their way to stick with non-GMO, locally grown and raised food. No, buying locally sourced products isn’t as simple as heading to Wal-Mart for a package of cheap chicken, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges you face. There are plenty of good reasons to eat local, though.
We eat local, and so should you. Here’s why.
Today we visit a farm in Forest Hill, Maryland where the cows are grass fed and the customers come from miles and miles in every direction for meat they can trust. Grand View Farm is run by Nick Bailey where the food raised exceeds the quality of organic. He has plenty of stellar advice for the backyard farmer in training.
Hiland Naturals: Why have you chosen Hiland Naturals to support the diets of your chickens and pigs?
Nick Bailey: We are committed to producing the highest quality, most unadulterated food for our local customers and for that reason we don’t cut corners in our production. We feel very strongly that if we are going to provide the alternative to the industrial food system, that our products are going to be as opposite from grocery store-bought products as possible.
The debate rages. It isn’t simply scientists versus the agriculture community as their are proponents for GMOs on both sides. Today the hype is dying out and more and more non-farmers are trying to get healthy and are becoming better informed as to the dangers of genetically modified organisms. Admittedly, we don’t know a lot, but what we do have are solid reasons that non-GMO is the way to go.
At Hiland Naturals, we seek to inspire farmers to do better, to raise their animals in a way that is healthy for both animal and human alike. Sometimes, however, other people inspire us. A person that inspires us is one of our favorite customers, Robert Hutchins and family of Rehoboth Ranch in Greenville, Texas.
We recently sat down to talk with Mr. Hutchins about his farm and about his family to learn why he likes us so much, and he shared a story with us that we weren’t quite prepared for.
The backyard farmer is accustomed to growing vegetables and, typically, raising chickens, but there’s certainly room on pasture for another type of small, meat-bearing creature. Rabbits can easily be raised on the homestead, make good pets—and even better dinners. We certainly wouldn’t discourage you from raising non-GMO poultry, but there are a lot of great reasons to raise non-GMO rabbits as well.
The natural food movement is picking up momentum, and the new rhetoric surrounding it is all about informed choices and accountability. Most nations across the globe no not consider GMOs to be safe, but American regulations allow them in the food supply based on scientific studies—scientific studies conducted by the big corporations that benefit the most from their use.
While the health risks of GMOs are certainly up for debate, the fact that more and more Americans want to be informed of GMOs so they can steer clear of them is not. Many fight for product labeling when GMOs are involved, and others—like Joel Salatin—aren’t interested in more government interference in our food production. The companies that want consumers to know that their products are proven to be non-GMO, however, can take matters into their own hands.
The Non-GMO Project is a nonprofit which is now key in the fight to inform consumers about what they are ingesting every day. With the Non-GMO Project verified seal, you can be confident that you are opting for the healthiest choice possible.
There are lots of things up for debate in the world of healthy eating, but we don’t typically take the time to sit down and chat about which fatty spread poses the bigger risk to our health. Most people don’t even know the difference between margarine and butter, just that margarine has been hailed as the healthier option in our modern world. Have we ever stopped to ask ourselves why that is? Looking more in depth at these two delicious items may give us a clue.
We at Hiland Naturals use Fertrell in our GMO-free livestock feed because we think it’s important to give your family the best nature has to offer, so you, in turn, can raise healthy food. We recently spoke with Jeff Mattocks, Vice President and Animal Nutrition Specialist at Fertrell, about the importance of healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy people.
In the first part of our interview, we talked to Jeff about raising animals and feeding people in the best possible way. Here you’ll read all about eating organic and starting your own backyard farm.
Genetically modified organisms are causing problems for people who eat across America. So basically everyone. The majority of us don’t know when we are ingesting them because food is so easy to get and inexpensive to procure that we rarely take the time to check labels or become truly informed about what goes into the things we eat. Backyard farming is changing all of that. People are quick to jump on the organics food bandwagon, but there are somethings we all need to recognize when it comes to the organic movement and non-GMO foods.
We at Hiland Naturals use Fertrell in our GMO-free livestock feed because we think it’s important to give your family the best nature has to offer, so you, in turn, can raise healthy food. We recently spoke with Jeff Mattocks, Vice President and Animal Nutrition Specialist at Fertrell, about the importance of healthy soil, healthy animals, and healthy people.
In the first part of our two-part interview with Jeff, we talk about how farming practices have changed and what we as farmers can do to keep up with the times in a scientific, yet natural way.