The Local Food System is the key to a Sustainable Food System. I don’t believe in stirring fear into people in hopes of selling something. But what is being projected by the commercial meat industry in the weeks and months ahead should cause you to stop, research and make a move to finally invest in small, direct to consumer farms around you. 

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY

In the the comments I have posted a link of a rancher talking about the “system” to which cattle are bought and sold in America. He does a great job of walking you through, from beginning to end, how the the process works. So watch the video and what I say below will make more sense to you. In some senses this is how pork, chicken, eggs, and lamb are produced as well. I usually don’t talk about this. Honestly, most around us that are part of the traditional system deem us as kinda crazy. But now more than ever, I think the waters are clearing up and the broken system that was below is being brought to light. 

I’ve always said, no other business in the country operates the way farmers feel they have to. (I say “feel they have to” on purpose as I will get to that shortly) No restaurant serves you a meal and then at the end of it asks “what will you pay me for that?” No hotel at the end of your stay goes “what was that nights sleep worth to you?” Heck even when selling your products wholesale, you’re in charge of negotiations based on volume used and frequency of purchases. The price can move, but you never have to “settle” on a price that doesn’t fit unless.......there’s just no other way. So that brings us to the Farmer. 

For forever. Truly. This is how it’s always been, the model laid out in the video has been the way farmers and ranchers operate. Watch the video. I’m not going to write out the system when you can watch it and he explains it well. But what I see in this video is a strong man. He does what he does well. Works his tail off day in and day out to produce a product that has great value. Knowing what all his input costs are, factoring labor (which is probably undervalued because that gets depressing when you see how little you make an hour), fuel, land and lease payments, feed, livestock wellness expenses, the list goes on. Lots and lots of input costs. Yet, knowing all these costs, while every other profession out there has a price charged to ensure a profit over input costs at the end of the day, this doesn’t happen for the farmer. They put in all the work. Incur all the risk of production along with high input costs to then take their product to a market and ask “What will you give me for my work?” Day in and day out. Year after year. Generation after generation. Knowing it’s very rarely in their favor. They do it anyways, expecting a different outcome. This is the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. 

We saw this from the beginning when we started our farm. Now I know we aren’t a giant farm or ranch. (Whatever floats your boat in what you want to call yourself or business.) But business is business. Numbers are numbers. And as my dad always told me. Numbers don’t lie. People do. And people can manipulate numbers to benefit themselves while screwing you so you better know your numbers so you don’t get lied to or screwed. I saw a system that was controlled by a few corporations.  Corporations that have always been based on profit maximization rather than simply profit. We all have to be profitable. But profit maximization means squeezing every penny out of something no matter the cost which usually means at the expense of others. Since a few control the Kings portion of the pie, the producers have very little say so in how business is done. They don’t even get to bring a chair to the table for negotiations. They simple ask “what piece of the little amount of pie that’s left can we have?” That’s depressing from the get go. That’s no way to do business and honestly why would you want to get in the bed with those corporations when you know this is how they have operated since their existence?  As the man in the video said without really knowing he said it “we are stuck”. And those corporations know that. 

These crazy times are like none anyone alive today has ever seen. Not just on the national

level but globally. We’ve seen a change in nearly every aspect of our life that none of us a month ago would have ever believed if you said it was going to happen. “No way!!” But the silver lining in all this, at least a flash of light, is many things that were accepted as ignorance is bliss are now being questioned. When you see the food system around us failing, not because there is a shortage of food, but because the system is so large. Feed lots are having to hold cattle longer than ever because packing plants are shutting down. This trickles down all the way to the local level of everyone’s small towns. Dairies are dumping milk because the DFA doesn’t have anywhere to put it because so many businesses aren’t open. Veggies are being plowed under for the same reasons. Piglets are being put down because pork processors are closing. Yet we worry about a food shortage. That’s not the problem here. Relying on these big corporations and entities to take your product and get them to the end user is putting a lot of power in their hands and as we are seeing now, essentially makes the hard work of farmers useless. This is truly a drawing of a line in the sand. Farmers/ranchers vs the big guys. They need us for product and have tricked us into thinking we need them because there’s no other way to sell our product. Well, the good thing is, we don’t need them. We aren’t stuck. We just have to be innovative. 

That’s why you are seeing two models in America at work doing exactly the opposite in terms of success and failure. Every farm that has been built on direct to consumer sales has experienced insane growth the last 6 weeks. I mean growth that is only limited by the amount of product you have to sell. We can’t keep up and are expanding as fast as possible to meet the demand. What people are seeing is the difference between efficient vs effective. Our food system at the local level is not near as efficient or precise as the commercial system. But we are highly effective because everything is done in house and we are in control of 100% of our food circle. There’s a lot of moving parts in the commercial food system that many don’t understand just on the processing and distribution side. Food has to travel large distances to get to and from where it’s going and it does it very efficiently when pumping on all cylinders. However, it’s misfiring a lot right now and is down a few cyclinders and it’s evident in the problems we are fixing to face at a much greater scale than we already are. When food is produced, processed and sold all at the local level, to local people all parties involved win. The farmers get to set the prices of their goods based on the input costs they have in it. They then take them to local processors who take that walking product and covert it to packaged goods that are then brought back to the farm and sold to those people that live within our local communities. All money stays right here. There is no disruption in food distribution and for once, the farmer is paid like every other business in America. “A fair deal for a square meal” as we call it. 

I know lots of producers right now who are hurting really bad because they have always been a part of the system. But right now more than ever my hope is they begin to think outside the box. That they see there is a better way of doing business but this means making some changes and pivoting at a time everyone else in the country has had to pivot. Right now more than ever, people are giving thanks to the farmer and it’s made us feel more proud and purposeful doing what we do day in and day out. It’s made our kids proud to see so many drive to the farm, meet us at deliveries and want to have our meats shipped to them in our great state of Texas. I know many farmers don’t like dealing with people but I can tell you it’s one of the most satisfying parts of what we do. Connecting to the community around you through food. We call this COMMUNITY THROUGH FOOD. 

Listen, we (farmers) are innovative, gritty, scrappy, hard working, optimistic, and truly the most faith filled profession you will find. We don’t have to settle. We don’t have to be defined as the definition of insanity. We are the backbone of this country, a macro percent of the population who day in and day out feed the masses. Let’s celebrate that. Pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Wipe that dust and dirt out of our eyes and get back to work doing what we do best. Pushing forward and feeding folks.