Well folks, as we grow more and more aware of health I can honestly say that I get about 2 emails per week looking for grass fed butter, with the growth of the paleo movement and sites such as the Civilized Caveman and Marks Daily Apple, Cave Girl Eats, Against All Grain and of course the soaring success of the Dr. Joseph Mercola site. On top of that The Weston A Price chapters and philosophy is gaining momentum, its no WONDER this wonderful healthy food is in greater and greater demand.

But WHERE does one find GRASS FED butter in Canada? Well friends I'm sorry to inform you, you CAN'T. (I would love to be wrong on this BTW, so if you know of anyone that is, please let me know I'll send an enormous amount of business their way). Well that's not totally true, you CAN find Grass Fed butter from places like Raw Milk Cow Shares and private membership situations like that, so if you are comfortable with raw milk and understand its benefits and are ok with the risks I highly recommend you support the small farmers that are doing this, one of those farmers talks openly about his struggle with the legal aspects of it here. 

So WHY can't you find publicly available Grass Fed Butter (even Milk for that matter). Ensuring its Organic would be a whole other story.

Quite simply (and maybe a little bit cynically put), you can't find it because feeding cows on grass doesn't produce volume, it produces VALUE, but not volume.

In Canada we have a supply managed dairy industry, which as explained in previous posts is good for farmers that are apart of it. It also inhibits new entrants due to the 25,000 per cow upfront cost (that doesn't include buying the cow or the land or the equipment). This ensures that there are enough dairy farmers to feed demand but not too many to water down the price. In theory its good. However this supply managed system inherently values volume, you don't get paid on the amount of micro nutrients in your milk or the fat soluble vitamin counts, you get paid on litres and gallons. So like any other business farmers are looking at ways to maximize their investment to capitalize. If they can take 2 cows and create the same amount of milk as 3... and save the cost of buying that extra cow, feeding that extra cow, now all of a sudden the return on investment goes way up.

The way farmers do this is by feeding high energy feed such as fermented corn silage to their cows as well as genetically selecting for maximum milk production. We know corn in an animals diet mitigates any of the "grass fed" health benefits, and that a cow needs to be on purely grass for the best results. I do know that even pure grass fed farmers find it difficult to keep healthy weight on cows in our treacherous winters (I will say that the "grass fed" approach comes mostly from warmer climates with longer growing seasons, so we have to consider our own "terrior" when thinking about these things). So farmers in winter who are grass fed will likely feed some small grains to the cows (small grains are a different ball game all together than corn- that's for a different post). This is because they are being milked twice a day and keep producing milk, on only hay the cow will lose weight due to the amount of energy she is exerting.

So long story short due to the fact that all publicly available milk must be pasteurized and therefore within the Milk Marketing Board and the DFO's (Dairy Farmer's of Ontario) system, the farmers simply couldn't make money feeding only grass to their cows, the production goes way down and they wouldn't be able to feed their family and pay the bank.

Here is an image of an award winning dairy cow for her production, if you aren't instantly reminded of the image that I've posted right next to it... well I don't know what to say, but its the first thing that popped into my head.

I'm not sure what the woman on the left did to get her veiny muscular physique. But I'm sure that the woman on the left was produced from year and years of genetic selection, well I have seen how genetic selection plays out in various animals. In my chicken flock it is just simply sad to see that because of genetic selection for big meat birds their "chicken-ness" has totally left them, they NEED to be vaccinated according to the hatchery because they don't have the immune systems to handle it without. So taking this into consideration I have to be wary of cows that are so genetically selected for production, as they stop looking like cows and start to look like franken-cows... which excuse me for thinking, but that HAS to have some effect on their biological make up and subsequently their milk, but I'm JUST a Farmer's Daughter, who am I to say that.

So there you have it, a little on the lack of Grass Fed Butter in Canada. Even diary operations that are ORGANICALLY certified are also within the supply management system and are paid on production. They must feed organic corn however and also have their cows out on pasture for a specified number of hours per day, they are STILL not purely grass fed. You can find grass fed butter in the States though from Kerry Gold and even here they say that they can not import their products to Canada at this time (after they list a whole bunch of places you can find it... weird).

The best way to find Organic grass fed butter in Canada... own a cow.

Happy cow hunting
The Organic Farmer's Daughter

This is a pretty hot topic with a lot of network marketing companies promoting their lean shakes and flavoured protein products, whether it be vegetable, soy or whey.

I am working on a page called "Ask the Farmer's Daughter". Here you'll be able to ask me any questions you want about well, anything you want. I'll tell you right now I don't know how to grow Thyme or Money on trees... yet! (haha see what I did there).

Anyways I thought I would take a question from one of my best customers as I know its a popular question.

What do you think about Protein Powders (she mentioned a company but we'll keep that anonymous), I've heard from my alternative health care practitioner that they are good so I've just been going along with it, but recently Ive been following someone on twitter who investigates products and she says there are additives and its not really good for you?

so here is my very not a professional health practitioner, just a farm girl who used to play varsity sports and heavily use protein powder response:

1) I encourage you to form your own opinion for whats right for you, you will find as many practitioners as there are, there are that many different opinions on this subject and they will all have very fancy scientific evidence to prove it (I've always wanted to get them in one room and have them square off.. wouldn't that be interesting)

2) I had to ask myself the question how does whey protein turn into powder, I know from growing up on the farm and milking my one lovely cow, and making cheese from that milk that whey is VERY much a liquid, I even contemplated drying it in my dehydrator once (which I don't recommend trying at home). I know that these places have very fancy high tech equipment to take a liquid and make it a solid, but I just have to wonder whether that process somehow changes the integrity of the protein, whether it was organic, free range, grass fed whey or organic soya, or other vegetable proteins.

3) I can see a little bit more logically soya or vegetable - you'd just grind up the rice and peas right? Why then don't we just eat rice and peas. My understanding is it is a concentrated protein in a small amount, which sounds good, but does our body really need that isolated macronutrient or should that macronutrient exist in a form and quantity recognizable by the body, you know with all that extra stuff like vitamins and nutrients and fibre?

4) I don't know how places can produce that MUCH protein powder, on such a massive scale. I guess I'm jaded but I just don't see many things that are in the long term good that are produced on such a large scale.

5) we know that protein digested creates an acidic ash in the body, and if we are aiming for balanced PH for optimal health, why would we overload our body with concentrated amounts of something that creates acidity?

That being said I know I lived off them in university, they definitely are tempting on a busy schedule and wanting to get all your nutrients in all within budget.

I am not totally against taking supplements, I do think that we pay more for our food to get it from good sources so we can get most of our nutrients from our food - we don't expect grocery store food to cut it anymore, but is protein shakes and supplements the answer? I realize life happens and sometimes our bodies get out of balance, mine does all the time. But Ive decided for ME it doesn't work to be packing down the protein as a way of life.

What are your thoughts? are you a protein powder lover or hater or even undecided?
Leave a comment below - I think its important to hear other peoples experiences to be able to form our own opinions.

Cheers
Melissa
The Farmer's Daughter

Last week I published an article on what your buying when your buying organic and why its important to do so. Due to the fact that there is very little scrutiny for false claims on local "Organic" food.

Today I will share with you a little bit of the reasons why we do not certify our eggs of our meat chickens. Now as you will see this can get a little tricky because we get into "who's telling the truth, and who isn't". Well my friends, I hate to sound like a broken record, but that is the primary reason you need to shake hands with your farmer and really get to know their code of ethics. Or as I say do the "kitchen cupboard or bathroom medicine cabinet test" that will give you a pretty good indication of where they are at when it comes to taking care of their own health and what they do with their health they are likely doing with their animals health.

Why don't we certify our chickens? Well due to some lovely laws put in place for supply management (and price stability for farmers who pay quota), small farms are only permitted to grow 300 meat birds per year.  The lowest entry point to grow within a supply managed system, (or to grow more than 300) is about 90,000 birds per year. Quota is measured in "units" and is 74.00/unit (1 unit = 13kg). So as you can see the numbers can get pretty high really quick.

Given we are permitted to raise only 300 birds per year, we would have to pay extra for the certification, we'd have to pay extra for processing at a facility that is inspected and certified for that purpose. We already feed them organic feed, we already do not give them any hormones in their feed, we mix our own feed, and we request that our broilers be not vaccinated (which you can only do if they are not the white rocks, the certain breed of bird that is known for its rapid weight gain - as they apparently cant survive without vaccination, and they are not permitted to sell them without vaccination - according to hatchery).  So we go with heritage breed birds. If we were to certify our birds organic we would be making even less than we are now on them. We don't feed corn, and we give them organic minerals and supplements. I am sure not to sell them as "Organically certified" birds, but they sure are raised on a certified Organic farm. We do sell Eggs into retail environments, but it is usually accompanied with a whole story about how they are raised and while its not the best, we hope that conscientious shoppers take the time to read how we raise our egg layers). Due to the watering down of the term by people who are using natural and organic and local interchangeably, we have opted not to certify them. However that requires that you and I need to have a conversation about whats important to you and how I raise the birds, to see if there is a match. I am careful not to sell the birds into an environment such as a retail environment that would make that conversation not possible because I wouldn't want to lose that connection to the consumer as I want to have them rest assured that we are doing everything we can to provide a healthy bird (above and beyond organic requirements - eg/ Vaccination is allowed in organic, we do not vaccinate). When you DO find organic chicken in the store, you can rest assured it was raised in a long barn, it was supposed to have access to outside, but I know of many circumstances where they do not. Often times even when they do have access to outside the birds have been so genetically selected for production their "chicken-ness" is gone, they don't bother walking around even when given the chance to. So I have to wonder if these "Organically Certified" large scale productions are really what the idea was behind organic labeling in the first place. On top of that if its relatively simple to get certified organic chicken, you have to wonder then what these naturally raised operations are doing, if its obviously less than the certification standard.

So there you have it, we aren't allowed to produce the quantity that would make our overhead costs worth it,(but on a responsible scale that would still allow us to produce a quality product) and so we opt not to certify, which may make us less credible at a farmers market, but in the long run its just not worth it. So is your farmer not certifying because his profit margins are so small or is he or she not certifying because the paperwork is too much, what is the reason? Are you ok with naturally raised, given there are so many varying degrees of natural?

Articles outlining the issues
Ag Annex
Local Food Plus

So here is the thing, Organic is becoming less and less trusted (from feedback from my customers). We have been Certified Organic since 1987 (let me tell you there weren't many of us back then). I'll start by outlining the basic concept of a CERTIFIED organic label and what its basic function was and still is. The image to the right has been causing confusion in the consumer world. Each grocery store, each farmer, each wholesaler, and any seller of food will have a different set of standards that they determine is natural - some places you can actually look into what they mean, such as some grocery chains, or the free from program at sobeys, but many often do not have their standards so widely available.

Certified Organic means that a 3rd party comes to inspect your farm every year, to ensure that what you say your doing is in deed what you are actually doing. Every step of the way along the chain of custody also needs to be inspected. Places such as egg grading stations, butchers, abattoirs, packaging facilities, cleaning facilities all need to be inspected to ensure that there are no banned substances used (such as specific harmful cleaners or packages). The concept of a CERTIFIED organic product is that you can trace it back to the very farm, the very date it was born or grown, and processed so that there is accountability. Each farmer must submit any complaints that they have received with certification, we must also maintain testing samples of our soil, our water, and track all sales. What you are buying when you buy certified organic is accountability and integrity.

Ok so now why is this label being undermined? Well for many years there has been no enforcing the labeling or false labeling claims. So CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) got involved to enforce it - this is a good thing. However in actual fact what is happening is that the only things being verified for certification numbers are those products that cross any provincial or federal borders. So now we have a conundrum, we want to buy local food, but anything that is produced in Ontario, processed in Ontario, and then sold in Ontario is not subject to the same scrutiny as those things that cross borders. Essentially you can get "Organic" food everywhere and people can call it that without any consequence if its all kept within the province. What that means is that people are experiencing farms (lets refer to them as pseudo Organic for conversation purposes) that are sub par, and food that is produced in whatever way that farmer sees fit, not verified by a third party and certainly not traceable. So if you are an Organic consumer then make sure that what your buying is CERTIFIED Organic, you can get the certification number and you will be able to find them online depending on the certifying body
Pro-Cert
Eco-Cert
Those are 2 of the main certifying bodies in Ontario. Here is a list of all of the certifying bodies in Ontario from OMAFRA Website (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture)

Here is a TEST - check out the image below, and before you read on, think about why you might or might not purchase something with this label.

So what did you come up with? Would you purchase it? or would you think twice?

1) this is enticing because if you are aware of how pervasive GMO's are you'd want to ensure things like corn, cotton, canola and Wheat are organic if nothing else.
2) however this gives zero indication of whether the claim for organic is verified, ESPECIALLY if it has not left the province anyone can produce fun little labels like this.
3) This means the whole product is not organic - that the wheat might be, which is great, but that also means that the package can not be labelled as organic, so if only parts of the product are organic is not required to be processed in an organic facility, so no certifying body will put their stamp of approval on something that is only partially organic. A company may provide the certification number for their organic wheat, but often it is from various sources, so the only way to truly know is if it is stamped ORGANIC by a 3rd party body, but of course the whole product must be organic then, not just parts of it.

CONFUSING right?

Well this is where I give you my pitch for getting to know your farmers, eating simply and building those crucial relationships, because if your farmer is eating organic and treating himself and his or her health by the means of which he professes he does his crops and animals, then that to me is almost a greater seal of approval. I'm not saying CERTIFIED organic is the only way to go, I'm saying that in the absence of a relationship and perhaps a knowledge of farming, certified organic is your best bet and an accountable one with integrity. Come check out -Vibrant Farms  Certified organic since 1987