Why have we chosen NOT to be certified organic.
The organic movement, in our opinion, was a great beginning to get safe, healthy food to the public. Then, the USDA got ahold of it, and ruined it. There are so many loopholes in their "industrial organic" labeling and certification that we feel are very unsafe and misleading. A chicken labeled 'organic' by the USDA means only that it has to have no antibiotics and is fed organic grain. It can still be raised with 20,000 other chickens, in a shed with a door that could open to the outside (for 'organic' compliance), but remains closed. These 'organic' chickens have no daily access to fresh pasture or sunshine. In fact, they are so afraid that the chickens will catch something, that often times you are required to wear a biosuit to visit them in their captivity. They still have to go through the slaughter house process which is horribly disgusting at best. We feel that a chicken should be fed as much pasture, sunshine, bugs and grit as they want. This eliminates the need to medicate them because, quite frankly, they do not get sick, once the problems of confinement are eliminated. There is no fecal haze to breath - their air is fresh and clean from time spent in the great outdoors.
We prefer to have our produce grown fresh by local farmers. We want to see how their produce and animals are raised. We want the benefit of the nutrients that you get only when produce is fresh picked, and we believe that you do, too!. Being held accountable for our practices in front of our direct consumers is the best quality control we can get. If you don't like how it's done - you won't buy it!
Here in KY we are facing many problems of getting our fresh range chickens & turkeys to you. We'd love to butcher them correctly and cleanly for you - but this is one of the few states that do not allow on-farm processing of up to 1,000 birds. If we raise the chickens we may be able to get them processed for under $2 each (turkeys are higher)- which would drive the costs up considerably, but then you would still have the freshest, cleanest, healthiest birds available to you. We would much rather you order them live and we process them for you free of charge as our commitment to serving you, our customer. We had planned to build our open processing station so that you could help or watch (if you'd like), or just come package and pick up your chickens as our dear mentor, Joel Salatin does. But unfortunately, this state will not allow us to do so.
It has become an uphill (or mountain) battle to provide fresh, healthy food for you - and all the more with the coming NAIS (national animal identification system) looming over all of us - a program by the USDA that could easily make it unaffordable or unprofittable to have any kind of animal - so keep praying for us and with us that we will be able to provide you with the healthy, fresh food you deserve.
For your Health,
MWeber
Weber Farms
Copyright © 2006 Patrick Weber/Weber Farms - All Rights Reserved
