A Win Win Win Type of Situation

It’s kind of fun to think about our farming/food supply chains and how everything is connected. Here’s an example:

Several years ago, our farm made the commitment to buy only Organic feed for our chickens and pigs. This increases our cost of production. However, with the environmental and health benefits that come with Organic feed, we think it was worth the extra cost. Luckily, our customers agree with us and have been willing to pay more for the food we grow.

So how does this affect the farm/food supply chain you may wonder? Well, here is the deal. We buy from a farmer owned Organic feed cooperative that supplies Organic feed to dairies and farms in Kentucky and Tennessee. We are several hours away from the feed mill, so they need a minimum of 9 tons of feed per order to make the trip cost effective. Since it’s a co-op model, the more feed you order, the less the trucking cost per ton delivered costs. We order once per month for our farm, that’s five to ten tons per month, depending on how many animals we have. But here’s the really cool thing. With half a dozen or so other small farms in the area that can have their feed dropped off the same day, the delivery cost becomes significantly more reasonable. The more Organic feed we buy, the more incentive crop farmers have to devote their acreage to Organic crop production. With this, yes, every dozen eggs (or chicken, pork, milk, etc) that you buy from local farms using Organic feed, the more resilient and sustainable the entire farming infrastructure becomes, and that means less chemical/ industrialized food is produced. It’s kind of what you might call a “Win Win Win” type of situation.