June 05, 2019 0 Comments
Joyce Farms products were prominently featured at the most recent Soil Health Academy, hosted by BDA Farm in Uniontown, Alabama.
Attendees included farmers and ranchers from 17 different U.S. states, Canada, and even Columbia, South America.
While learning the ins and outs of soil health, adaptive grazing, and regenerative agriculture from nationally and internationally recognized experts Gabe Brown, Ray Archuleta, Kent Solberg, and Allen Williams (Joyce Farms Chief Ranching Officer), the attendees also enjoyed three hearty meals a day.
Meals were prepared using fresh garden vegetables from BDA Farm and Joyce Farms proteins, including Aberdeen Angus grass-fed beef, Poulet Rouge Fermier® pastured chicken, and Gloucestershire Old Spot pastured pork.
Attendees were highly complimentary of the meals!
Comments ranged from, “best food ever” to “This is the best chicken I have ever had. I did not realize that chicken could be so wonderfully flavorful.”
Some claimed, “I’ll never eat store-bought pork chops again,” and that the beef was “absolutely the most incredible steak I have ever experienced.”
And remember - these were all farmers and ranchers!
The Soil Health Academy (SHA) course covers a significant amount of material over 3 days - in the classroom and through in-field lessons. Much of the event's success depends on keeping the crowd well fed and fueled for learning.
SHA organizers also make sure that all proteins served are raised according to the regenerative practices they teach (which is a great demonstration of the quality that can be achieved!).
We take great pride in having our products included on the Soil Health Academy menu for this session and others, including one hosted last year by farmer Adam Grady. He raises our Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs and some of our Aberdeen Angus cattle in Kenansville, North Carolina. A few photos from that session:
The Soil Health Academy is a training program that teaches farmers and ranchers how to farm regeneratively in order to "increase profitability, build resiliency into the land, decrease input costs and improve the nutrient density of food and agricultural products."
Some achievements of SHA graduates include:
Learn more about the Soil Health Academy on their website: https://soilhealthacademy.org/
May 28, 2019 0 Comments
Written By Dr. Allen Williams, Ph.D.
A champion of the grass-fed beef industry and an expert in regenerative agriculture and animal genetics, Allen helps restore natural soil water retention and reduce runoff, increase land productivity, enhance plant and wildlife biodiversity, and produce healthier food. He also serves as Joyce Farms' CRO (Chief Ranching Officer). Learn more about Allen
Another Memorial Day weekend has come to an end, and many of you probably enjoyed spending time with your families - grilling out, water skiing at the lake, attending reunions, or other family-oriented activities. That is a great thing and a worthy endeavor. However, Memorial Day is about more than that. Far more. It is a time to remember those who placed themselves in harm’s way and may have even lost their lives, so that we can enjoy our time with family, free from fear and oppression.
Each Memorial Day, I think about those in my own family and circle of friends who have served our country admirably. I often wonder what they went through and how they managed to even stay alive in the horrors of war.
My own father, who passed away in 1990, fought in the Korean War that lasted from June 25, 1950, until July 27, 1953. He served in the U.S. Army Infantry, and even though he would never talk about what happened in Korea, we did know that the bitter cold he endured left him with permanent damage to his fingers and toes. For the rest of his life, he lost feeling in the tips of his fingers and toes when it got cold. He never complained but kept on working through those cold winters on the farm. He was an incredibly hard worker and instilled the work ethic that I carry to this day.
Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
My maternal grandmother’s brothers, my great uncles, all were U.S Marines in World War II. They fought in the island-hopping campaign that took them across Guam and Saipan to Peleliu to Iwo Jima to Okinawa. My uncles, like my father, would never talk about what they suffered and endured across those islands. I only know what I have been able to read.
When they landed on Peleliu on September 15, 1944, they initially encountered little resistance. However, as they pushed further ashore, they found that the 11,000 Japanese defenders were heavily dug in using a system of interconnecting bunkers, tunnels, and caves. Two months of brutal fighting claimed the lives of 2,336 American and 10,695 Japanese soldiers.
Iwo Jima proved even tougher. On February 19, 1945, U.S. ships started battering the island with shelling that lasted more than 12 hours. Then the 3 rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions came ashore. As with Peleliu, the initial resistance was light, but the next several days were hell on earth as the Marines pushed inland and encountered fierce resistance that included extremely heavy machine gun fire and artillery. Whenever the Marines thought they had an area secured, the Japanese would pop up behind them, having traveled through their series of underground tunnels completely undetected. The intense fighting lasted more than a month before Iwo Jima was finally secured. In the end, 6,821 American soldiers were killed along with 20,703 Japanese soldiers. There were 21,000 Japanese soldiers altogether before the fighting began.
United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, VA. Credit: Brandon Sorensen [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Okinawa was the largest land battle of the Pacific Theater with fighting raging on for almost three months. In the end, this battle cost the lives of 12,513 American soldiers and 66,000 Japanese soldiers.
Our freedom is not free. It comes at an enormous cost. When I look at pictures of my father in his Army uniform and the pictures of my uncles in their Marine uniforms, I realize they were all just kids fighting in these horrific wars. They looked far too young to be fighting a war on foreign soil. I look at my own 19-year-old son (our youngest) and my teenage grandsons, and I cannot fathom them going off to war. They look so young and innocent. Yet, in a different time, they may have been called upon to serve their country and to provide the ultimate sacrifice. How could 18, 19, and 20-year-olds have fought so fiercely and so courageously? Because they loved their country and their families.
We owe a deep debt of gratitude to each and every one who has ever served our country in the Armed Forces or who is serving now. Because of them, we have our freedom. Because of them, we have our hope. Do not forget them.
May 10, 2019 0 Comments
We can talk about our products, our heritage animals, and our regenerative practices all day, but nothing makes the impact of customers seeing and tasting for themselves on a farm tour.
Transparency is paramount for us at Joyce Farms, so we’re always happy to take customers out to the farms whenever we can. But last year we began hosting larger 2-day farm tour events that not only show the farms and animals, but really educate about why we do what we do, how we do it, and how our practices impact the bigger picture of human, animal, and environmental well-being.
Last week, we had our first Farm Tour event of the year. The 2-day event began with dinner, drinks, and a short introductory presentation at Ashley Christensen’s Bridge Club in downtown Raleigh.
There’s a reason Ashley was the James Beard Foundation’s pick for Outstanding Chef this year! The custom menu featured many of our Heritage products. It was a delicious way to kick things off!
Bright and early the next morning, we headed to the farms. Our first stop was in Kenansville, NC where we visited farm partner Adam Grady. Our guests were able to learn first-hand about his transition from sustainable to Regenerative Agriculture, and the incredible changes he has seen in only a few years.
We partnered with Adam a little over 2 years ago to begin raising animals for our Heritage Pork program. At that time, he was running a sustainable operation. Adam was willing to transition to Regenerative Agriculture, something we require for all of our Heritage farms, but it was not without a little healthy skepticism. After all, industrial practices are still the mainstream method that his neighbors and most farmers practice; they’re even still taught in agricultural school.
In a calculated leap of faith, Adam agreed to transition 30 acres to regenerative management- enough for us to begin our pork program. He worked closely with Dr. Allen Williams, our Chief Ranching Officer, to put regenerative practices in place.
Here’s what happened in less than one year:
After that first season, he said, “I wish I had just done it all!” The results were so incredible that now, he’s farming 100% of his land (over 1200 acres) regeneratively.
During our visit in Kenansville, our guests saw our livestock, but also examples of regenerative methods.
They saw our rotational grazing methods in action. We showed how we divide larger pastures into temporary smaller paddocks using poly wire, rotating livestock between those paddocks daily, sometimes multiple times a day. In fact, we moved some cattle while we were there, just to show quickly and easily this can be done.
We took a close look at the pastures themselves, as Dr. Allen Williams explained the 5 principles of soil health and how Adam implements each of them:
We talked about forbs (aka “weeds”) and Allen explained how they are actually a GOOD thing. They offer medicinal and anti-parasitic benefits to livestock when they eat just a few bites a day (which saves farmers money). They are also excellent microbe attractors because they are deeply and extensively rooted. Those roots send out root exudates or sugars that attract a wide variety of soil microbes, which are critical for soil health.
Adam showed some of his regenerative farming equipment, including the roller crimper he uses to turn live, grazed cover crop into a bed of organic matter that protects the soil. He uses a no-till planter to plant cash crops into that rolled bed of plant matter, for tremendously efficient growth and yield.
As the trolley ride continued, we talked about heritage breeds and how we are working to bring back some of these now-rare genetics that fell out of favor with the rise of industrial agriculture. First we visited the Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs that we raise for our Heritage Pork.
Then, we saw some of the Aberdeen Angus cattle used for our Heritage Beef.
On our last trolley stop, we saw the always impressive rainfall simulator and slake test demonstrations, to further display how land management practices impact the soil’s ability to absorb and hold water.
Our lunch pig pickin' was outstanding thanks to the folks at Original Grills who cooked a Joyce Farms whole hog for the occasion!
After lunch we hit the road for one of our Heritage Poulet Rouge® Chicken farms in Siler City, NC, managed by our farm partner Larry Lemons. Our guests were able to hear more about the steps we take to raise these birds, including bringing in breeder eggs from France and hatching them in our hatchery. They were also able to see multiple flocks of birds at different stages of growth, and get a first-hand look at the amount of space they have to run around and just be chickens!
We are so thankful to our guests who took the time to come out for a 2-day, information packed Farm Tour! All of us at Joyce Farms are incredibly proud of not only the products we produce, but how we produce them, and we are happy to have the opportunity to share more about that with our customers.
See more photos from the tour on our Facebook page!
April 19, 2019 0 Comments
Each year, Earth Day brings millions of people together to take action against threats to our planet, like climate change, desertification, and endangerment of native animal and plant species.
There are plenty of ways we all can give back to the planet: clean up trash, plant a tree, or volunteer for a conservationist effort, just to name a few.
As chefs and restauranteurs, you have another powerful opportunity to give back to the planet every day by using products from regenerative farms on your menu.
By serving products raised using regenerative agriculture (also known as carbon farming), you support a way of farming that fights threats to our planet and contributes to its rehabilitation from decades of industrial farming practices.
When you serve products grown regeneratively, you give back to the Earth by:
Regenerative agriculture can stop and even reverse climate change, which is the result of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Farming regeneratively builds soil health, and when soil is healthy and full of microbial life, it is able to draw down excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere where it can be used to grow plant life.
Think of how often you hear about reducing carbon emissions to stop climate change - probably every day. But reducing emissions does nothing for what is already there.
The fact is, even if we all stopped driving cars tomorrow, it would do nothing to fix the excess carbon dioxide already in our atmosphere. We need to put that carbon back into the soil, where it can be used. Regenerative agriculture does that and more.
This video from Kiss the Ground gives a quick primer on how the soil can help reverse climate change:
To produce healthy food for generations to come, we need healthy soil. Sadly, degenerative practices like tilling, chemical use, and overgrazing have left most of our soil degraded and barren.
Regenerative farms do not use chemicals or tilling, and use a variety of year-round cover crops to protect the soil from extreme temperatures.
Livestock graze, while naturally fertilizing the land and trampling organic matter into the soil.
Using adaptive grazing methods, the animals are moved to new areas of pasture regularly, allowing plant life to recover and preventing the effects of overgrazing. With a variety of plants, soil life and fertility thrive.
Regenerative farming requires integration of livestock, but that is only successful with animal breeds that fare well in pasture-centered conditions. Old-world heritage breeds are perfect for the pastured life, because they have hearty immune systems (eliminating the need for antibiotics) and flourish on what has always been their natural diet.
Before the rise of industrial agriculture, these historic breeds were preferred for meat production. Unfortunately, most fell out of favor as high yields became the priority in agriculture. Animals were selectively bred to grow bigger and faster in the name of efficiency and price. As a result, many heritage breeds are now threatened or endangered.
When you use heritage breed products, you help protect these breeds and our planet's biodiversity. For example, our Heritage Old Spot pigs are on the Livestock Conservancy’s list of endangered breeds. As we grow our Heritage Pork program, we continue to breed and grow our herd. In doing so, we are helping to preserve these historic genetics for future generations.
Since regenerative farming does not involve chemicals or pesticides, it does not add harmful toxins to the soil, which also prevents those toxins from running off and contaminating our rivers, streams, and other waterways. As the soil draws in carbon and becomes healthier, overall runoff is reduced because the soil is able to absorb water much more efficiently.
By choosing products from regenerative farms for your menu, like the meat, poultry and game products from Joyce Farms, you can take pride in serving memorable meals that are not only more flavorful and nutritious, but that help save the planet. Now that’s something worth bragging about in your menu notes!
March 01, 2019 0 Comments
Last Saturday, we joined over 350 chefs, butchers, and guests at White Oak Plantation in Baton Rouge for Chef John Folse’s 4th Annual Fête Des Bouchers, a traditional Louisiana boucherie.
The tradition of the boucherie, or communal butchering of pigs, has deep roots in Louisiana culture. Before the days of grocery stores, refrigeration, and the onset of industrial farming, families or small communities would come together to share in the work of harvesting and breaking down the animal for food. It would be an all-day event, with everyone sharing in the yield from their labor, and none of the animal going to waste. Not only did this instill a greater sense of community, but also an appreciation of the food and the life of the animal.
Boucheries would often take place in the winter months, to provide fresh meat and also smoked and salted meats for longer term use. So many of the Cajun delicacies we love - boudin, cracklins, hog head cheese (to name a few) - were born from this tradition.
Chef Folse is doing his part to keep the boucherie tradition alive. His event proved to be a true celebration of culinary arts, Cajun cuisine, the animals that feed us, and the age-old craft of the butcher.
To begin, the hog for the day’s meal was carried to Persimmon Hill in a silent procession, followed by a Butcher’s Prayer by Bishop Michael Duca.
While meat from the pig was prepared, there were educational sessions. Chef Folse and other experts shed light on a slew of culinary topics. There were Charcuterie 101 sessions, a demonstration of how to make sugar-cured ham, and a lesson on the importance of the butcher and pig in our society and economy, to name a few.
Then... there was the Spoils of the Boucherie lunch buffet, which included 10 mouth-watering stations:
And of course, there was crawfish! If you’re in Louisiana and you didn’t eat crawfish, did you really even go?
It’s hard to imagine a better location for the boucherie than White Oak Plantation, and we were thrilled to get a tour of the grounds while we were there. You can see that this place is steeped with history.
We saw several antique tractors at White Oak, but you might not know how old they were at a glance. For 60+ year-old tractors, these look as good as new!
We assumed they were showpieces, not for actual use, but John quickly corrected us. They use the tractors regularly, even as recently as that weekend. After each use, they are thoroughly cleaned and any scuffs repainted to keep them looking as good as new.
The Fete des Bouchers reminded us of an old culinary mantra, “Every animal deserves a good life, a good death, a good butcher, and a good chef.” While we aren’t certain of its original origin, it rings true for us every day in our business. Meat has been part of the human diet since the ice age, but only recently have we seen the emergence of “bad meat” - meat raised industrially, in excess, without care or respect for the animal, the environment, or the health of the people consuming it.
Chef Folse visited us for a farm tour last fall, and it was great to return the visit and “talk shop” on his stomping grounds. It’s clear he has a true passion for traditions and old-world methods in all he does, much like we do for old-world breeds and farming methods. Thank you for an unforgettable weekend, Chef!
February 18, 2019 0 Comments
The message is spreading about regenerative agriculture, and more and more farmers, consumers, and medical professionals are realizing the importance of making a big change, now.
One project taking big strides to promote the regenerative message is called Farmer's Footprint and is led by Seraphic Group and Dr. Zach Bush M.D. It's a powerful documentary series that shows how critical regenerative agriculture practices are in reviving the health of our environment and fighting chronic disease in humans. Their mission is to regenerate 5 million acres by 2025.
The first short documentary of the series was released last week and features our own Dr. Allen Williams. It shares the story of a small family farm in Minnesota transitioning from conventional farming to regenerative agriculture. It also presents eye-opening scientific findings from Dr. Zach Bush about the connection between destructive, chemically dependent farming practices and chronic disease.
Please take the time to watch and share this incredibly powerful film, and learn more about the project at farmersfootprint.us
Farmer's Footprint | Regeneration : The Beginning from Farmer's Footprint on Vimeo.
February 14, 2019 0 Comments
The love story between livestock and our land began a long time ago as large herds of grazing ruminants like bison roamed from coast to coast. Their natural behaviors helped shape the land as we know it.
As Dr. Allen Williams has explained, “from an ecological perspective, grazing and browsing ruminants have been an incredibly important part of every grassland, prairie, savanna, and woodland system. These ecosystems evolved under the influence of these grazing and browsing ruminants.”
After Mother Nature set them up, the animals and land flourished together, with a true give and take relationship. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, let’s take a closer look at why these two are so good together:
The land feeds the livestock with plant life
Grazing spurs plant regrowth and increased soil life
Historically, bison traveled across our nation in herds and would graze an area, then move on to another, never overgrazing any one spot. As the herds moved, the partially grazed plant life left behind would begin trying to regrow as quickly as possible.
To do that, the plants draw in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make sugars. They use some, and exchange some with soil microbes in exchange for important nutrients also needed for growth.
So basically, while the animals are enjoying a nutritious meal from the land, they’re also giving back by strengthening the soil. Each time they return and regraze (after complete regrowth), the process repeats, creating more and more microbial life in the soil and a variety of plant life above ground.
The land feeds the livestock with plant life
Livestock give the soil a protective cover
As livestock graze the land, they are also trampling the ground, creating a flattened cover of plants and grasses that protects and insulates the soil. As the trampled "mulch" of plants decomposes, more organic matter (carbon) is added to the ground. This helps build fertile and biologically active topsoil that is critical for ongoing productive and profitable farming.
The ground cover also creates a perfect environment for micro life, like bacteria, fungi, earthworms and dung beetles (all of which are important for forming new soil).
The land feeds the livestock with plant life
The livestock naturally fertilize the land
As livestock graze, they digest grasses and naturally fertilize the land, giving plant life access to all the nutrients needed to grow. Healthy soil can make use of this above-the-ground fertilization very effectively, but if the soil is already degraded, with no life and no dung beetles, it's unable to carry out this natural process.
As you can see, the relationship between livestock and land is strong - they need each other. Aside from providing meat, livestock plays a number of critical functions on a farm. Unfortunately, in recent years, industrialized farming drove quite a wedge between them. Farmers looked to machines and chemicals to do what livestock took care of naturally, which is expensive for the farmer, leads to dependence on chemical inputs, and produces food that lacks flavor and nutrients.
The fact is, livestock and farms belong together. In today’s world, we no longer have the natural, large roaming herds of bison that can carry out these functions. But by managing our farmland using regenerative practices, including adaptive multi-paddock grazing, we have a chance to put livestock and land back together, forever!
The Secret Is Out! Cows Are Not The Problem... It's How They're Raised.
Allen Williams on Replacing Monoculture Farms with Adaptive Grazing
Dr. Allen Williams Participates In New Study Of Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing
Adaptive Grazing: So Old It's New
November 15, 2018 0 Comments
As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, one thing we are extremely thankful for at Joyce Farms is the growing community of chefs, food and agriculture industry professionals, and consumers who are increasingly eager to learn about our mission and practices and how they promote animal welfare, regeneration of soil and ecosystems, and more flavorful and nutritious food.
Last month, we brought some of that growing community together for a series of four farm tour events. We welcomed chefs and culinary professionals from all around the country, and we were thrilled to find that they were just as eager to learn about what we do as we were to show them!
Our goal was to provide an educational experience on the importance of genetics, animal welfare, and regenerative farming as it relates to the flavor and quality of meat and poultry, and the effect different farming methods have on our environment.
Here's how it went...
Part 1: Bridge Club Dinners
Each farm tour was preceded with a dinner event the evening before, at Chef Ashley Christensen's Bridge Club in Raleigh.
The Bridge Club loft was a perfect backdrop for getting to know our guests better and enjoying a truly memorable meal of Joyce Farms products, expertly prepared by Chef Ashley and her team.
Each evening began with a few drinks, great conversation, plenty of delicious appetizers featuring Joyce Farms Heritage Poulet Rouge™ chicken and Heritage Bison!
Appetizers included picnic-style Poulet Rouge™ chicken with hot honey, Poulet Rouge™ chicken liver mousse, bison tenderloin tartare, deviled egg topped fried green tomatoes, and Poole's pimento cheese with saltines.
Next, we shared a mouthwatering family-style feast that featured our Heritage Beef and Heritage Pork. Main dishes were Chateaubriand of beef tenderloin and braised pork shanks with ramp chimichurri.
And while it doesn't look like it so far, we did more than eat and drink during our Bridge Club events! Before the meal, our guest saw a special screening of A Regenerative Secret, a recently released mini-documentary project that Joyce Farms sponsored and that features our Chief Ranching Officer Dr. Allen Williams along with Finian Makepeace of Kiss the Ground.
After each evening's dinner, we talked more with the groups about our mission and products, our unique heritage breeds, and our regenerative agriculture practices. We told our guests about the things they would see an experience on the farms the following day, including the recent damage from Hurricane Florence, which hit only two weeks before our first tour.
We prepared our guests to see real, working farms - not "show farms" like some producers use to put their best foot forward (and to hide their worst). We believe in full transparency, and in showing our customers the real story, including successes and challenges. Mother Nature can be unfair, and as farmers and producers, we have to learn to deal with, and recover from, those times. It was unfortunate that the pork farm was heavily flooded with rainfall from Hurricane Florence, and a lot of our pastures were damaged. Rather than canceling our tours, we chose to view the storm damage as a great opportunity to share more information about our regenerative farming practices and how they are helping the farm to recover more quickly.
Part 2: Days On The Farm
Our farm days were full ones with plenty to see and learn. We covered topics like animal genetics, soil biology, and regenerative agriculture, to name a few.
Each farm day started with a visit to Dark Branch Farms, owned and operated by our farm partner Adam Grady. Adam and his family primarily raise the Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs for our Heritage Pork, but the farm is also home to some of our Aberdeen Angus cattle. Our tour guests learned about the history and characteristics of these two old-world breeds, and how we are helping to revive heritage breeds like the Old Spot from endangerment or extinction.
Next, Allen Williams gave a powerful in-field lesson about regenerative agriculture practices and their potential to transform not just the food industry, but our environment overall. He spoke about desertification and the unhealthy state of most of the world's soil. He stressed the importance of healthy soil as a fertile growing environment for flavorful, nutrient-dense food for livestock and for us. With help from Adam Grady, he used real examples from the Heritage Pork farm to cover key regenerative principles like no tilling or chemical use, planting cover crops, and integrating livestock with planned grazing techniques to restore the health of the soil.
The regenerative lesson continued with a Rainfall Simulator demonstration led by a representative from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Our guests saw how different kinds of land and grazing management affect soil health. For this powerful demonstration, samples of soil are used from different pastures that have been managed in different ways - some with degenerative practices like tilling or chemical use, others were managed using regenerative practices like livestock integration and rotational grazing without tilling or use of chemicals. These samples are placed in trays side to side under an overhead sprinkler, with clear buckets underneath.
When the demonstration begins, the overhead sprinkler simulates a rainstorm. When the water hits the soil, the samples that have been subjected to degenerative management produce much more runoff into the buckets below, indicating the soil is unhealthy and has poor water infiltration. This runoff causes erosion and carries away nutrients and sediment with it. The samples from pastures with regenerative methods in place are able to take in more water, which decreases runoff.
After the rainfall simulator, our guests had plenty of time to "digest" what they learned and ask questions while enjoying a Pig Pickin' on the farm! For all of our farm tour lunches, we teamed up with Original Grills in Raleigh, and they did an outstanding job cooking up one of our Old Spot hogs with all the fixins.
After lunch, we headed to the small farm where our Heritage Black Turkeys and some of our Heritage Poulet Rouge™ chickens are raised by farmer Larry Lemons.
Coming to the farms, seeing our practices, meeting the farmers, and hearing our story first hand is the very best way to get to know our company and understand the care that goes into our products. Thank you to all of our farm tour guests - it was truly an honor to host such passionate and talented groups chefs and culinary professionals!
Another big thank you to the following groups and individuals who helped make our fall farm tours a success!
October 15, 2018 0 Comments
It was early September 14, 2018 when Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, and very few were prepared for the wrath she would bring. Heavy rain and extreme winds pounded the coast and swept inward through the Carolinas causing a widespread emergency for the state.
Right in the path of the storm sat our Heritage Pork farm in Kenansville, NC.
As the cone of uncertainty became more certainly pointed in the direction of the pork farm, we were in constant communication with Adam Grady, the farmer who raises our GOS Heritage pigs and lives on the farm with his family.
Adam sprung into action to make preparations. Thankfully, because of our small scale operation and close relationship with our farmers, we were able to move quickly to safeguard the farm and livestock as much as possible.
In the week before the storm made landfall, the pigs were moved to a sacrifice pasture on higher ground where they would be safe from rising floodwaters. Normally, the animals are rotated to fresh pasture every 2-3 days to keep the pastures in good condition and to prevent excessive rooting, which helps regenerate the soil.
During the first day of the storm, we saw wind damage to farm houses as strong gusts peeled back the rooftops. Water rose rapidly in the pastures. As heavy rain continued overnight, water continued to rise, rivers overflowed, and fields and roadways were completely submerged.
By September 15th, the winds were subsiding, but rain totals were reaching 24 inches, putting much of the farm, and Kenansville, under water. At this point, we could not be completely sure that the livestock were ok, but conditions were not conducive to safely check all areas.
Two days after landfall, on September 16th, floodwaters in the area had already risen past the historical highs of Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
The rain had stopped, and we were thankful to find that the hogs were ok. Most areas were only available by boat at this time.
In a very short time, Hurricane Florence brought significant damage to the Heritage Pork farm, particularly our pastures and farm houses. We are, however, extremely thankful that our farm partner, Adam Grady, and his family are safe, and that we were able to protect the animals. This was our top priority as we braced for impact.
Now, we are beginning recovery efforts to rebuild our pastures and farm houses. Unfortunately, by having to keep the pigs in a sacrifice pasture for an extended period of time, we lost a great deal of our healthy soil and forage in that particular pasture. Others were damaged by extreme storm surge that engulfed the farm.
Keep an eye on our blog over the next few weeks for updates and more information on our recovery efforts. Thank you to all of you who contacted us during and after the storm with well wishes and offering support!
October 12, 2018 0 Comments
We are so excited to finally debut a new documentary project, sponsored by Joyce Farms, produced by Finian Makepeace of Kiss the Ground and featuring Dr. Allen Williams, Ph.D, Joyce Farms' Chief Ranching Officer and a leading expert in soil health and regenerative agriculture.
A Regenerative Secret pulls back the curtain on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and their detrimental impact on our ecosystem. More importantly, it offers an incredible alternative that most farmers, producers, chefs, and consumers aren't even aware of yet - regenerative agriculture.
In the video, Finian visits Allen Williams' farm in Alabama, where Allen demonstrates how regenerative methods can completely restore soil health, and at a rate that we previously never thought possible. These methods can also help reverse climate change by pulling excess carbon out of the atmosphere and putting it back in the soil where it can be used. You may end up asking yourself - why isn't everyone doing this? The main reason is that they just don't know. Help us spread the knowledge by sharing this video!
We hope A Regenerative Secret inspires more and more farmers to embrace regenerative agriculture, and encourages chefs and consumers alike to seek out responsibly raised products from farms that have implemented these practices. The future of our food system and planet depend on it.
If we continue using industrial and even sustainable organic farming methods, we are threatening both the long-term availability of the land to farm as well as our overall health. Regenerative agriculture practices can quite literally regenerate the land by rebuilding the soil, leaving it far better than our generations found it.
Learn more about Dr. Allen Williams, Ph.D
Learn more about Joyce Farms Regenerative Agriculture practices