Journey of a Locavore–Adventures with the Red Wattle

Earlier this month, I visited Grass is Greener Meat and Produce, a family farm in Bremen, Indiana, owned by John and Toni Rowe. A couple of years before, the Rowe’s transitioned from conventional farming methods to using non-GMO seeds, and growing produce and raising animals using organic methods. The family raises an extremely rare breed of Red Wattle hog that they had discovered in Texas. On the visit, I held a squirming piglet, ruffled the feathers of a turkey (figuratively and literally), and witnessed the way an entire family works together to produce food for local families.

The tour opened my eyes to the operations and working conditions on a farm. The practical insight about farming that I had gained by watching documentaries such as Food, Inc. turned theoretical as soon as stepped into the smell of a hog pen. Wow. My eyes watered standing ten feet away. Seriously, this is what they do? Every day?

Before visiting the Rowes’ farm opened my eyes, buying meat at the grocer was a no-brainer. The Styrofoam trays were noninvasive and the simple information provided on the label (80% lean) was as close as one gets to realizing that meat comes from an animal that would have grown the fat. I am not naïve about the origin of meat displayed in neat packages. But my kids, who have seen (a photo of) a cow but have never seen a farm where that cow is raised—to be slaughtered, would probably not put two and two together. We have moved so far away from the farm and deeper into our own suburban bubble that the origin of our food has become a mystery.

Farmers made up the majority of Americans from the colonies to the 1862 Homestead Act that settled 270 million acres of farmland. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s abruptly ended the dreams for millions of farmers who abandoned the land. New Deal policies attempted to gather extremely poor and tenant farmers with the Farm Security Administration in 1937. Government relief for farmers was made up of loans given to families to support the costs of growing food.

In the 1970s, family farms were forced to get major facelift influenced by Earl Butz and “get big or get out.” Fertilizers and the use of large farming tools increased yield on farms that once fed 10 families, to feed 25 families. Eventually, farming subsidies brought food prices down so fast that smaller farms needed to grow much more to make up for the loss. Smaller family farms could not compete and lost all they had, while options for consumers—and biodiversity—were lost to large commodity crops of corn, wheat, and soybeans, grown by subsidized farmers on vast acreage.

While supermarkets and huge chain stores continue to stock their shelves with value added goods made from corn, and meat from animals fed with soybeans and more corn, cases of cancer, heart diabetes, and obesity are rising. It seems as though it’s not even the fault of the consumer. Aren’t we just buying what large corporate food producers make available. The reality is that we do have a choice—and empowerment comes from that choice.

Visiting the Rowes’ farm, with their Red Wattle hogs, it was evident by their example that producing food for market as the main source of income is empowering. For me, purchasing food for the well-being of my own family is equally empowering. Taking my kids out of the commodity crop food market and providing them food—actual food—keeps the mystery out of what we eat while taking back control of what we eat.

The only question I came away with unanswered is what must Red Wattle bacon taste like?