I grew up on a struggling family farm in the Midwest and left the farm for the East Coast where I worked
A few years ago I moved back home to the Heartland and traded in my house in the suburbs for a farm, which I have slowly been transforming to certified organic.
I started raising hogs in the woods on the back part of our property. Why hogs? Well, when we lived in the city I REFUSED to eat pork from the grocery store. To me, it tasted
I’m a carnivore, but I'm a tender-hearted one. 7 years on a pork hiatus and I just wanted a pork chop! I knew if I raised a hogs like my mother used to (outdoors on clean, green grass) I would get a pork chop that I would want to eat. So I did.
Our Small Community Begins...Organically
Next, my friend Kim (who raises grass-fed beef) called to see if we had any ideas for connecting other tender-hearted carnivores with this awesome meat we were raising. You see, the real reason farmers don't raise animals in a more biodynamic way is that there isn't a market for it. There is no established supply chain. And without that farmers can risk losing their family farms. And well, that's not a risk most of us are willing to take.
Then, our friend Janel began talking with me about her chicken. It’s the best chicken you ever did eat. Why is her chicken so delicious? She raises them outdoors, with plenty of fresh grass and a diet of bugs and Non-GMO grains. The same thing came up...how do we get this to the consumer? How do we create a marketplace?
Right now the food system is set up so that if you raise animals you can sell them, but only at the local "sale barn"
From our experience, it seems that these companies have no desire to help the farmer to make an honest day's pay or care for an animal. Everything comes down to making money and both the farmer and the animals suffer as a result. And it seems like a tragedy to let our animals end up in their hands.
So I thought, what about the people all over the country facing the same pork chop dilemma that I faced? Maybe they can help us work together to fix this broken food system. I mean I can't imagine that anyone purposefully walks into a grocery store and says "Oh yes, let me screw a farmer and eat funky chicken today." I bet if they knew what we were up against as farmers, and how good quality meat really tastes they would stand shoulder to shoulder with us as we seek to fix this broken system.
And then everything clicked.
What if we set up a process like we do with the produce boxes and ship it? It would be easy for the consumers (make a few selections and meat arrives on their doorstep) and would help us farmers have a consistent marketplace for our meats.
I knew that in order to sell nationwide we would need more growers. Our farms are not big enough to feed everyone and, quite frankly, we don’t want them to be. Part of the reason our meat tastes so delicious is that we are small.
- Our animals are cared for properly, with plenty of room to live well. We farm in the old ways, like our grandparents did, so your meat taste like it should.
Our farmers are not the biggest, they are the best.
Building Partnerships with Like-Minded Farmers
There are plenty of farmers out there in our same shoes. They are raising their animals in a biodynamic way and they're fed up with the hijacked food system. They also want a way to connect to the consumer and desperately need a marketplace. So, we connected the dots between you -the tender-hearted carnivore, and us the regenerative family farmers.
We are THRILLED to launch Moink as part of the solution. We are connecting ethically-conscious meat lovers to quality food by helping farmers farm and people eat.
Our vision? To save American family farms, revitalize rural America and provide you with the highest-quality meat on God's green earth.
We can’t do it alone and it won’t be easy, but together we can become a formidable opponent to the corporate giants currently hijacking our food system. Together we can reclaim our land and our dinner plates...all while enjoying the best darn ribeye you ever did taste!
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