Happy 4th of July weekend! Yes, I know we have had a few overcast days with some rain mixed in and it seems its awful out there. Rest assured these rains are a blessing from the sky for all the food and goodies you get in your boxes every week! We needed this bad and from seeing the footage of the drought out west, I consider us fortunate to have nice rain periods like this as their food economy crumbles from extensive drought.
I know most of us love 4th of July for a day or 2 off from work or the BBQ ( we love BBQ's and fireworks), but lets remember why we celebrate the 4th of July. As we come off a year+ of shutdowns, supply chain collapses, and food security concerns, supporting local farmers and businesses is more important then ever. That is why I can not thank you enough for being part of our farming family and supporting all the small farms and producers here on Long Island that make this possible. Food security is a real issue that often gets over looked when times are good as we are seeing more people go back to grocery stores and less concerned about shopping for local produce.
I got to spend some time this week on Acabonac Farms, where we are sourcing our meat from, right here on Long Island. It was a beautiful day as the cattle roamed the extensive fields of grass. The animals were not stressed, crammed into feed lots, or eating crappy field corn. This is where I did some digging about our beef industry and grass-fed beef specifically. I found that the large meat processors have a monopoly on the market and a real strangle hold on small local producers. The large producers who are in contracts with your large grocery chains (Costco, Walmart's, etc.) import most of the grass fed beef from Australia or Brazil and other South American countries (USA imports 90% of its grass fed beef). They then finish the cattle on a feedlot for a very short time and process the animals in America. They then call the finished packaged product we see at stores, USDA certified, grown in America, USA raised, etc, when in fact that animal was raised in another country for 98% of its life! Its sad but a real truth to our broken food system. It is no different for vegetables as states can have product brought in from other countries and re packaged in your specific state and they can put the label Grown in (your specific state), or locally grown, or product of USA. Its the sad truth we live in and why I constantly ask our communities to stop down to your local farmstand to ensure that dollar stays in our local economies. Yes the carrots you receive in your box get soft fast, and loose firmness, but did you know most of the carrots you see in your grocery stores are imported from Israel. Those carrots or Genetically made to withstand weeks of travel and still hold firmness, but they lack in vitamins and nutrients a carrot that was born only a few miles from your house. Lets not even go into the carbon footprint of transporting carrots by shipping containers from Israel to the USA then to your store.
So, in closing, keep spreading the word on being part of the local food economy and supporting your local farmers. The only real way to get this message out is constant word of mouth ( even if I feel like a broken record).
So this 4th of July, enjoy your time with family and friends, and remember we are more then just neighbors, we are are a community with a greater purpose and good. Thank you for supporting us and all the Farmers on Long Island!!
Have a happy and safe weekend and God Bless the USA!!
Farmer John
https://www.harvie.farm/farm/zilnicki-farms/signup
