Over the next four weeks I am going to be writing articles about food sovereignty. Ours and your right to consume the food you want. I will spell out how current and new laws will impact Eatwell Farm. The next few years are going to be challenging for small organic farms like ours and many that supply food in this part of the country. There are some simple things that make sense and many others that do not and will involve ridiculous amount of paperwork, inspections and expense. In April I will explain how Lorraine and I propose to solve these problems. There is a solution so don’t become too down with what I write. We intend to be here and serving you for many years to come. We are celebrating 20 years of farming in California this year.
Factory farmers do not like those of us who raise their animals outside in a more natural way, it makes them look bad. The new laws in the Food Modernization Act prohibit us keeping animals on land 9 months before we plant vegetables. We have chickens on pasture for 12 months then 2 years of vegetables and back again to pasture. The fertility provided by the girls grows the best produce you can buy. The new rule will mean we have to reduce or eliminate our flock of chickens. Our biggest friend is the sun, as the animals poop in the field the sun sterilizes it in a matter of minutes. Farmers who pump out of streams and water crops of spinach with manure run off can get into trouble. We do not do that, our water is clean from the well and irrigation canal.
There are many other rules in the new law that I am told will cause us a great deal of pain. It is 1,000 pages long and you have to decipher the pages too. Luckily for us there are people who are doing this for farmers like us. I will write more about this as it becomes available.