Tomato Harvest

My wife and I get asked from time to time “Why don’t you get certified Organic?”  

The short answer is - we would rather be transparent that organic!  

Our laying hens out on pasture

The long answer is much more complicated, but first a little background at least the way that we see it……Organic  food really started to get traction in the last 10 to 15 years and in  its beginning, you could by organic food from folks like us.  Food grown  and raised without harmful chemicals or medicated animals.  The food  was pure, simple and nutritious.  Some folks, like us, prefer a  different way of growing and raising food; we choose not to use  chemicals and hormones and anti-bio-tics in our processes.  This way,  became known as organic food production, and later shortened to just  organic.Well the inevitable happened and we started to take  market share away from the corporate production farmers and the  production animal producers.  This caused a problem and with any problem  the government thinks it has a solution…..

 Regulation……… 

 

Image Source

They  told everybody that the regulation was to protect the consumer from the  evil small farmer & homesteaders, because all that great food you  were eating is just too good!  So, the FDA  said you now need to be certified to be organic, a long expensive  process with over burdensome regulations.  Now you have to use chemicals  to be organic, you have to medicate your animals and so on.  The thing  that happens every time government gets involved, lower the standards to  meet the grade not raise them and of course collect fees and taxes to  pay for all the unnecessary regulation.

 Radish & Strawberry for dinner! 

 1 week old meat birds in brooder 

 Our Philosophy is  transparency, come on out see how our animals are raised, outside eating grass the  way nature intended animals to be grown, come see our gardens and soon  our aquaponics systems and see that they don’t have chemicals added to  them, see how we are regenerating the soils in our pastures and so on.   Everyone who has visited our farm has become a customer and most  importantly a friend!  You can taste the difference. 

 

Farm Tour

 

I  would suggest wherever you live start buying your food local from local  farmers and homesteaders, visit them, ask the hard questions, look and  see for yourself what you are eating.  The consumer has all the power,  it just takes a little time to do the research and become educated about  what you are putting in your body, once people take notice and demand  good food, the farmers will follow and produce good wholesome food!We  want our customers to certify us Organic not the government, a sticker  on a bag of vegetables means absolutely nothing to me but a little time  spent with the farmer that raises your food will mean everything in the  end! 

 Pasture raised Pork on the rotissorie 

 

In an effort to be more  transparent we will be blogging a transparency series on each of our  operations, keep an eye out for them in the future....

 

Sunset here at Serenity Valley Farms




We that's all for today, thanks for visiting with us.

Will see y’all next time! 

Bob & Colleen Browning

Serenity Valley Farms

Monticello, KY

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