Homesteaders

[Chicken girl 15]

You really should look into each of your state's Sustainable Ag Society (they go by different names in each state, but if you Google Sustainable Ag and your State you should find yours)
They are a group of consumers and small farmers that have the exact concerns you do. They form a board and send out groups to raise awareness and campaign for everything you just talked about. Ours has the attention and support of several of our state senators. But they do need members.

sweet!!!! On my way to go look them up now. Everyone have a great night.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

sweet!!!! On my way to go look them up now. Everyone have a great night.

Great news. We are very active in ours. it is a fantastic group of people

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Great news. We are very active in ours. it is a fantastic group of people

yahoo!!! Tomorrow I have some calls to make and some paperwork to fill out. I am going to try and go all technical and business like with the certification stuff. There seems to be an endless amount of help and organizations I can benefit from as soon as I start the process.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

yahoo!!! Tomorrow I have some calls to make and some paperwork to fill out. I am going to try and go all technical and business like with the certification stuff. There seems to be an endless amount of help and organizations I can benefit from as soon as I start the process.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Ok soapbox time for me if all I need is an opinion. . Lol

I think the government should back off a bit and let small homesteaders like us group together and hold our own farmers market without all the dumb regulations of a big store. Just the small group I work with could feed a small community if we didn't have to come up with fees and stuff . I have 8 dozen eggs a week, seriously that's a lot for my family. Another family has enough pork to feed a large church group. Beef , fruits, vegetables you name it. One of us grows or raises it. I'm not trying to get rich I just want to not go broke helping those who need it.

Ok I'm finished.

People used to be able to do this - the problem is that small homesteaders aren't anymore reliable or scrupulous than large scale farmers - and people died pretty regularly of food-borne illnesses.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

People used to be able to do this - the problem is that small homesteaders aren't anymore reliable or scrupulous than large scale farmers - and people died pretty regularly of food-borne illnesses. 

I would love to see where you got this information. Not that I doubt there are unscrupulous people, or that people died/sickened from food born illnesses. But that most of this probably happened because of a lack of understanding of hygiene, bacteria, viruses, not unscrupulous farmers being lazy. Now if you have documented proof that counters this is really would be interested in it.
I agree some regulation is good, the trouble is people/government always take things to the extreem, when a little over site is all that is nessisary.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Whether deaths come from lack of knowledge, or laziness is irrelevant. Inspection makes our food supply drastically safer. A farm being small, or family run does not make it immune to food safety issues.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Whether deaths come from lack of knowledge, or laziness is irrelevant. Inspection makes our food supply drastically safer. A farm being small, or family run does not make it immune to food safety issues.

I disagree on both counts. Knowledge made us drastically safer, not over regulation. And while agreed no one is immune to food safety issues, small farms do have less. It is simply a numbers game, processing once or twice a year as opposed to daily, makes for cleaner safer food. Picking a small crop of tomatoes (or whatever) as opposed to giant fields with dozens of workers. (not to mention the unnatural environments these animals and plants are in) And large corporations get it wrong often enough still. Salmonella on spinach, etc.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

It is much more in the small farmers interests to sell safe food. If you buy something and it makes you sick, you are unlikely to buy from them again. You will probably also tell others of your bad experience, word of mouth is a small producers bread and butter. Large companies are more immune to this.

 

[CrazyTalk]

And while agreed no one is immune to food safety issues, small farms do have less.

Do you have evidence of this claim?