 Sourcing Value #2: We source from family farmers whom we know and trust.
Our number two sourcing value is no second string. Our farmers are the source of all things Stonyfield. We started as one farm 28 years ago and today we support hundreds of family farms through our ingredient sourcing. We believe this is very important because running a family farm is no easy job and making sure the farm stays viable for generations to come is even harder.
Everyone benefits from family farmers. According to American Farmland Trust, we lose more than an acre of farmland every minute to development. In neighboring Vermont alone we’ve gone from having over 11,000 dairy farms in the 1940s to just 992 today. When farmland is paved over it can never be brought back into agricultural production. When we lose family farmers, we don’t just lose access to high quality, sustainably grown food, we essentially outsource our food security, environmental well-being, and rural economies to real estate developers or agribusiness. Local business owners, like family farmers, are held accountable by their customers and neighbors(rather than their shareholders)and have been proven, time and again, to add value to any community. By committing to source our ingredients from family farmers, we can ensure they stay in business, keep land in agriculture, and strengthen rural economies.
Organic family farmers go the extra mile and so do we. We believe it’s important to source our ingredients from organic family farms who work hard everyday to care for their land, grow stellar food, and sustain the family business. It’s our job, and our pleasure, to get to know these farmers. When we visit a farm, we want to learn from the farmers and develop a relationship—one that we believe is mutually beneficial. This way we can carry the care each farmer has taken to grow and raise the best possible, top-quality ingredients through to every cup. That’s why this sourcing value isn’t just “we source from family farmers” but rather is “we source from family farmers whom we know and trust.”
Even when we’re far from home, it’s still family. We source 95% of our ingredients domestically, only going overseas when we absolutely have to (you can read more about this in our post about Sourcing Value #3). When we must go far from home, we still travel to the source to make sure we know how our products are being grown. Recently, we’ve gone to Costa Rica to get to know the farmers who supply our bananas, and neighboring Quebec to meet the farmers who grow our wild organic blueberries. You can meet some of our farmers here.
Organic is good for family farmers. Supporting a family from the farm is no easy task these days. Dairy is a particularly difficult industry in the super competitive modern market. As organic farmers, the family farmers of CROPP Cooperative earn a premium for the extra lengths they take to raise high-quality dairy cows. In fact, they have earned as much as 25% more per year than their non-organic counterparts. In a time when every penny counts, an extra quarter can make the difference between a farm that is here to stay and one that isn’t.
Liz and Saida definitely summed up our passion for family farmers best in our introduction to this series: “I love meeting the farmers and their families and getting them excited about sharing our mission of promoting organic agriculture and providing people with healthy, nutritious food grown with lots of love,” explains Saida. Liz agrees: “Visiting farms and attending farmer meetings is definitely one of the highlights for me because it makes it so clear how committed Stonyfield and Organic Valley are to what we do.” When everything is framed in terms of valued relationships, the complexity of supply chain lingo gets a little easier. Like Saida says: “Very few food companies can call most of their farmers by name and we are very proud of that!”
Over the past several months, we at Stonyfield have met, worked with, and been following so many amazing blogger moms. Many of these women wanted to know more about the food they feed their families and we wanted a way to empower them with information and help continue the dialogue on healthy eating. We are all trying to communicate the same message: We’re invested in feeding our families in a healthy way, and in order to do so, we need to know what’s in the food we’re eating.
As a result, the Yo-Getters ambassador group was born! We wanted to get to know this passionate group of moms better so what better way than to highlight a new Yo-Getter each month!
Our first Yo-Getter under the spotlight is Micaela Preston, founder of the Mindful Momma blog and author of the book Practically Green: Your Guide to EcoFriendly Decision-Making. She has been writing about green and healthy living since 2006 and was voted one of Babble’s Top 50 Food Bloggers in 2010. She strives to be a good role model to her two boys by cooking and eating healthy food, while still allowing for the splurges of childhood.
Chandra Carson: Tell me a little about yourself and your family.
Micaela Preston: My husband and I have been eco-minded for a long time but it wasn’t until we had kids that we really clued in to the impact of our choices on our health and the preservation of the planet. We live in Minneapolis, MN with two very active boys, ages 11 and 7 years. We do our best to make the greenest and healthiest choices possible, while still dealing with the realities of time, money and everything else that’s going on in our busy lives.
Probably the most important thing we do as a family is to eat dinner together almost every night. We also try to keep active year round, whether it’s team sports, sledding or just playing at the park. Healthy food, healthy activity and healthy conversations are the backbone of our family!
CC: Describe your blog and what inspires your posts.
MP: I started my blog over 5 years ago as a way to make sense of all the confusing and sometimes conflicting information out there about green and healthy living. My goal was to share what I learned in easy to understand, bite-sized chunks and to inspire people to live green, rather than intimidate them! Eventually, my love of writing lead to a book deal. My book Practically Green: Your Guide to EcoFriendly Decision-Making came out in the fall of 2009.
Not only do I enjoy writing, but I love the community of like-minded people I have met along the way. It’s truly the community that inspires me to keep blogging!
CC: What do you like to do when you’re not blogging?
MP: When I’m not blogging you’ll find me either cooking up a healthy meal, trying to grow tomatoes or working on my latest eco-craft project.
CC: Can you share any tips or secrets from the kitchen?
MP: I’m not the best at meal planning but by keeping the kitchen stocked with healthy, whole foods, I can whip up a healthy meal at any time. One of my secrets is to make one-pot meals with meat, veggies and grains (or pasta) all mixed together. Not only is it easier from a clean-up standpoint, it’s the best way I know to get my kids to eat their veggies!
CC: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
MP: The thought of eating only one food makes me sad because I love to eat so many things! If I had to pick just one food, it would probably be almonds because they provide good fats, lots of vitamins and minerals and would keep me feeling full.
CC: Can you share any tips for getting your kids to eat healthy?
MP: We keep a bowl of fruit sitting on our kitchen counter at all times. Even when the kitchen is “closed”, the fruit bowl is always available. Another crucial tip is to keep serving vegetables to your kids…over and over again. We’ve converted our kids to many vegetables over the years just by continuing to put them on their plates. (we’re still working on the Brussels sprouts though!)
CC: Why is organic food important to you?
MP: Buying organic food is important for our own health and the health of the planet. Not only do organic foods come without nasty pesticide residues, they have also been shown to have higher nutritional profiles than conventional foods. Organic farming techniques are much better for the earth as well. That said, we cannot afford to buy organic all the time so we focus on the produce we eat the most of – apples, potatoes and lettuce and preferably milk and meat too!
CC: Name 5 items you never leave home without.
MP: My smart phone – so I can tweet about green and healthy living on-the-go!
My stainless steel Swell water bottle
My Bunny Butt apothecary lip balm
My sunglasses
My smile!
CC: What is your favorite Stonyfield product/flavor?
MP: Low-Fat Vanilla is a staple in our house, but Key Lime is my favorite flavor!
CC: Where can we follow you?
MP: You can find me on the Mindful Momma blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!
I’m going to guess that many of you don’t love grocery shopping. Most people don’t particularly enjoy it and I blame two ever-present grocery store features: 1- shopping carts, and 2- automatic doors.
While I accept there are times when a shopping cart is necessary — should one be hosting a large dinner party, picking up dog food, or have a small child or three in tow -– I’ve personally found that my shopping is better done in smaller, more frequent doses. The handheld basket approach accomplishes two specific desirables. Firstly, I’m more thoughtful about what I pick up because, well, I have to freaking carry it. This helps keep me away from impulse buys and food wasted in the fridge. The second pretty great thing accomplished with small and frequent trips to the store is I get to avoid the cart. No wobbly left front wheel. No mid-isle traffic jams. No toppled displays or Urgent Care trips when the obligatory and super-fun cart ride down aisle six goes awry.
Automatic doors generally bum me out because I actually like holding the door for people and I like it when they hold the door for me. There’s something refreshing about acknowledging, smiling at, and saying thank you to a stranger. No matter how crazy your day has been and frantic you may feel, when someone takes a moment to hold the door for you and smile, the Crazy inside falls away a little. Take that pleasantry away by adding automatic doors, and the grocery store seems increasingly like a mad, crowded scramble for food.
And that is why I don’t love carts and automatic doors. I do, however, LOVE planning a meal and (yes) shopping for food. Love. It.
Today I spent an inappropriate amount of 9 to 5 time thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner, Googling what I wanted to make for dinner, and listing ingredients for what I wanted to make for dinner. After all that noodling I went with something super simple, classic, seasonally appropriate, and gluten free — just in case one or two celiac friends decided to come by. I also chose this dish because there are only a handful of ingredients, and the fewer ingredients I’m working with, the easier it is to Know My Food.
So tonight, here’s how I Know My Food.
Kale & White Bean Soup with Polenta Biscuits
Kale – Organic and still available…hooray!
White Beans – Organic and dried. From our winter farm share.
Shallots – Organic and inexpensive at Whole Foods. Nice.
Chicken Stock – Homemade and frozen from roast chickens past.
Andouille – Applegate Farms makes rock star organic sausages. The fire roasted pepper would be yummy here too.
Beef Stock – Organic. It’s not a necessary ingredient, but a splash is super-nice with the kale.
Polenta Biscuits – Organic and oh-so-easy to make: build a firm polenta, drop like batter into muffin tins, and bake. They’ll fall apart perfectly and without mush-factor in your soup.
After going through my ingredient list, I realized that to build this pot of deliciousness all I needed to pick up at the grocery store was the sausage, kale, beef broth, and a smattering of other household items that all fit neatly into my handheld basket. And while automatic doors are unavoidable these days, even at my tiny little Whole Foods, the shopping cart has been skirted yet again! All in all, I’d say it was a success.
To share why you want to Know Your Food from Farm to Fridge and List to Ladle, join us at www.iwillknowmyfood.com
Update 2/4/12: Recently, there have been a number of a rumors circling around and stemming from links and re-posts of an article from January 2011 (i.e. a year old article). The article – and the rumors – are untrue and the claims are still as inaccurate and divisive this February as they were last January when it came out. It’s also the wrong thing to be focusing on at a time when so much good is happening. We are happy to share what we’ve really been up to in our long-term fight against GMOs and Monsanto.
Maybe you’ve also heard our other recent news: our CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg will be changing his role here at Stonyfield so he can spend more time advocating for change in our current food system, especially the labeling of GMOs in our foods. We believe that we have the right to know what’s in our food and how it is produced. We’ve been busy here at Stonyfield fighting the good fight – continuing the work we’ve been doing for years – and would love to have you join us.
Here is some of what we’ve been up to recently:
1. Standing Alongside Just Label It
More than 500,000 people have joined us in submitting comments to the FDA in favor of labeling genetically engineered foods. That’s remarkable! We’re standing alongside Just Label It and asking all of our friends, fans, and yogurt lovers to join us.
We have no time to lose. The FDA is preparing to approve genetically engineered salmon, which would be the first genetically engineered animal on the market in the United States and a huge departure from the status quo. Plus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is considering a proposal to deregulate corn engineered to be resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D, a major component in Vietnam-era Agent Orange. (In fact, some people are calling it Agent Orange Corn, for short.)
Watch the new video from filmmaker Robert Kenner, who produced and directed the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary Food, Inc. If you too believe we all have a right to know what’s in our food, then write to the FDA right now. (link)
2. Writing the First Consumer Guide to Genetic Engineering
“Before the GE experiment goes any further, we believe it’s critical that each of us be allowed to choose whether we wish to be human guinea pigs: Foods produced with GE ingredients must be labeled.” – from Label It Now
Gary, our Co-Founder and Chairman, and Britt Lundgren, our Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture, joined with Dr. Charles Benbrook, the Organic Center’s Chief Scientist to write an e-book called: Label It Now – What You Need to Know About Genetically Engineered Foods. The book cuts through the complicated scientific debate about genetically modified food to put forth a simple premise: We all have a right to know what’s in our food.
At just $2.99, Label It Now is available at iBookstore here and for download on iTunes here. All proceeds from the book go to support of the Just Label It campaign.
3. Making Our Voices Heard
We’re not shy about helping to educate on organic and the risks of genetically engineered foods and neither is Gary! He’s been out and about making some great – informative – noise and fostering important conversations recently.
Listen to Gary on NPR’s Diane Rehm show. Or read about the highlights of his talk on nutritionist Melinda Hemmelgarn’s blog.
Gary also teamed up with Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and co-producer of Food Inc., to write an op-ed about your right to know what’s in your food that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read it here.
4. Helping You Get to Know Your Food
Just this month we launched an exciting campaign on iWillKnowMyFood.com to help us all make our food a little less of a stranger. We’ve started a space to help you get to know more about the food you eat. We’re sharing blog posts from experts, videos about Stonyfield’s farmers, origins, and ingredients sourcing, and some of the best food news articles and resources around. This month, for example, nutritionist Ashley Koff sheds insight into “What Your Refrigerator Predicts About You”.
We invite you to join in the conversation. Stop by and commit to get to know your food this year. Start by taking a look into your fridge and telling us what you want to know. Then check back to keep learning more!
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