Cannon Valley Grown Animal Product Q&A
AUTHOR: Leslie Wander
Answering questions about foods from Cannon Valley Grown (CVG) animal product providers
Many questions arise about the foods available from CVG producers. Since the answers vary somewhat depending on the type of food, this article will focus on animal products. A previous article focused on produce products. For animal products, the Cannon Valley Grown commitment provides many of the key benefits, and the local component provides the final benefits for the consumer.
Who grows the food and under what conditions? For Cannon Valley Grown products, you can talk directly with the farmer if you wish, so the “implied contract for quality” is made directly with the farmer. The farmer commits to you how they are growing the food, and you accept your responsibility for the proper cleaning, storing, and preparation of the food. You can also be assured that the producers have committed to adhere to several important practices:
The Cannon Valley Grown commitment: CVG products
- Have the majority of the product is sourced from within the Cannon Valley Foodshed,
- Use sustainable farming practices and minimize environmental harm to the land and watershed,
- Assure humane treatment of animals,
- Assure open and transparent marketing,
- Balance profits with fair wages and a safe and healthy workplace,
- Strengthen the Cannon Valley Foodshed through sharing and collaboration.
You can also discuss with the farmer if organic practices are followed, if the product is certified organic, etc. if these practices are of interest to you.
Sustainable farming practices/minimizing harm. As I spend more time driving through farm country, I am occasionally overwhelmed by the smells emanating from large feedlot operations for dairy, beef, and poultry. When my husband and I fly over the glacial pothole lakes in our area, I am saddened by the early onset and duration of the bright green algae covering the water’s surface. As I talk with a friend who laid drain tiles in fields as a youth about the feet of topsoil that has been lost over his lifetime, and then view the satellite photos of the “dead zone” at the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico, I realize the truth of the statement that modern, high output farming practices can be more appropriately viewed as mining the land rather than farming the soil. The sign at the sink at a little recreational airport admonishes you to not drink the water because of nitrate infiltration and redirects you to drink the bottled water instead. All of these things are manifestations of the concept of “negative externalities” that I learned about in Economics class. Stated bluntly, a negative externality is letting figurative or literal sh*t roll downhill to let someone else clean it up.
As a city kid, I didn’t see these things for much of my life. But now, I can’t unsee them. So CVG’s commitment to “use sustainable farming practices and minimize environmental harm to the land and watershed” is very important and influences my purchase decisions wherever possible.
Animal treatment. Likewise, CVG’s commitment to “assure humane treatment of animals” becomes especially important once you learn more about the animal husbandry practices commonly used to raise the animal products in large scale operations. If you dig into the large-scale practices, even those stamped “certified humane”, you learn that the animals may have relatively little space, may spend all of their life on concrete or in cages, may practically never see the sun, have very limited opportunities for natural feeding behaviors. But, where I can, I’d like to know the animal that provides my food had a kind life. From the farmers I’ve met in the CVG system, their definition of humane meets that expectation. And since they are local, I can ask to visit their farm, and see for myself how the animals are treated. I’m not reliant on some marketing campaign showing pretty pictures of chickens basking in a large pasture when that is the reality at all. Their commitment to “open and transparent marketing” really matters.
Why is CVG better for you and your taste buds? The main benefits of local animal products accrue from at least two major differences: Breed options and on-farm/harvest handling.
When I was a child, my mom made the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Later in life, she found she couldn’t replicate it. So many things had changed in the food industry over those years, the same recipe did not produce the same results. We solved the problems from changes in ground pepper and Crisco. But she never was able to find chicken that tasted the way it did when I was a child, despite buying every brand and chicken source she could access.
Two summers ago, I purchased chickens of two different breeds lovingly grown by a CVG farmer with continuous access to fresh pasture and sunshine. The two chickens looked different, they had different behavioral characteristics, one was leaner, more muscled than the other, but both absolutely had the flavor from my childhood. Because we saw the significantly improved flavor in two breeds, that suggests that breed and environment both played a role.
My family has seen the same sorts of major quality differences in the eggs, pork, and beef we have purchased as well. The breeds are expressly chosen for product quality and the ability to withstand our local climate, and are all raised with humane, sustainable farm practices.
Here in Minnesota, CVG food also generally means seasonal food. Previously, I certainly didn’t think that animal products were seasonal, except perhaps for turkeys. Eggs, chickens, pork, beef were all available at the store whenever I wanted them. Prices might vary, but availability was constant. But of course, there is seasonality in animal products in a farm, unless there is some sort of human intervention. Chicken egg production varies with sunlight and other factors. Many animals breed so their young are born in spring. Food sources shift with the season, which can result in measurable differences in food composition and nutrient values. So, like produce, animal products do have a natural seasonality that is evidenced by availability of products at the farm. I can easily see how to adjust vegetable recipes by season, and as I learn more, I see how I can similarly adjust animal-based recipes to take advantage of times of abundance and prepare for times when availability is less.
During the Pandemic, we’ve experienced significant disruptions in our food chains. The interruptions in animal products supplies were stunning in magnitude and heartbreaking to watch. As workers in large slaughter/meat processing operations work very closely together, these workplaces became hotspots for viral transmission in the early portion of the pandemic. Since those operations are finely tuned for efficiency, and the animals are grown to meet a precise, tight production schedule, when the operations closed, many of the animals were destroyed. Large scale operations produce real economies of scale but have no room for variations Mother Nature can inflict.
Availability of small scale meat slaughter and processing operations has been a big issue for small farmers, and the pandemic has further increased demand for those limited facilities. While the “marketplace” has encouraged farm and processor consolidation, we are perhaps better served by assuring support for robust, small scale processing availability. Local farmers quickly sold out of all available animal products and have gained new converts to small scale farm products.
Shopping for Cannon Valley Grown foods can enhance the taste (and nutrition) of animal products while enhancing our community, countryside, and food security. Seems like a win-win for all of us.
