|
| Philosophy |
As a “back-to-the-lander”, ex-Calgarian who has been a small scale livestock producer for the last twenty five years, I have been on both ends of the commercial food chain. As a farmer and country resident, I am able to enjoy the luxury of knowing exactly where my food comes from and what has happened during the production stages. If I don’t grow it myself, I buy from neighbours whose management practices are in sync with my own philosophy. This is an opportunity I would like to offer to folks that have chosen to maintain an urban lifestyle but would like to have some of the benefits of country living.
From an environmental perspective, I believe that it is important to live as lightly on the land as possible.
No hormones or antibiotics or animal by-products are used in the production of any of the meat sold by Country Natural Foods. Although none of the producers are certified organic; the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers in the feed production is very limited. All livestock are raised in the fresh air and sunshine using low stress animal friendly management systems.
I also believe that is up to all of us, as consumers, to reduce the size of our individual footprint on the land by supporting local producers who are doing a better job for both the land and the animals in their care. I believe that we must remove our financial support from factory farming operations that pollute the air, water and land and from the huge corporate entities that prosper while our small farmers go under.
"Organic farming preserves and sustains the great ecological cycles,
integrating their biological processes into the processes of food
production. When soil is cultivated organically, its carbon content
increases, and thus organic farming contributes to reducing global
warming. Physicist Amory Lovins estimates that increasing the carbon
content of the world's depleted soils at plausible rates would absorb
about as much carbon as all human activity emits."
pg 190: The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra who quotes from
Natural Capitalism by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins, 1999
|
|
