Back to Our Roots

We *must* start supporting local food producers.

“Rob, you have to stay out of those grocery stores.”   Tom Martin (Uncle)

I harp a lot about growing our own food.  I don’t plan to stop doing that.  But, what if you are someone who can’t for whatever reason?  What if you are a person who is serious about eating healthier and supporting your local farmer or rancher and doesn’t know where to start? Where do you go?  What do you do? 

I’m hoping that a few of the resources I provide here will help people just like you.  There is *no* reason why each of us can’t (at least to some extent) get the heck out of these poisonous grocery stores and mass merchandisers.  There’s only a few things we should be buying in places like that, and food should be on the bottom of the list!  I typically don’t have to purchase any fresh (and I use that term lightly) produce from the grocery store from late June to the end of August because I grow my own.  When I can’t, I do my best to buy from trusted sources either locally or in another state.

I’ve been warning about the takeover of our food system for a good 40 years.  I saw this happening as a young person in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when I noticed “them” begin to shut down local dairies, mills, and meat processing (they did this by regulating these small operations out of business).  Most people don’t know, but our food didn’t used to be “centralized”.   Typically, any larger town had their own processing.  Most of the time, what a person was buying at the grocery store was, at a minimum, from the state where they live.  Now many of the things we buy to put in our bodies can come from almost any country in the world where it is picked early, sprayed with preservatives, wax, etc and sits on a ship or a truck for days, weeks, and sometimes months (depending on the type of produce) before it gets to our local store.   Fresh produce begins losing it’s nutritional value *immediately* upon being picked.  That being said, a lot of the so-called food we get at our local store is what is termed “dead” food.  The enzymes, good bacteria, minerals, and vitamins are almost non-existent. 

Here are some of the organizations I use to find producers who are more than happy to sell us what we need.  Sometimes it’s a bit more expensive than we are used to, but it is worth it!  I promise.   Some producers will even deliver or make an appointment for you to come and pick your items up.  Some producers have co-ops setup where a yearly fee will get you great prices and fresh produce year-round.  Again… it’s worth it.  I promise!  I just ordered ¼ beef from a rancher in my state and they are even going to deliver it to me.  Yes, I’m paying for the delivery, but that saves me gas money, time (it would be a few hours round trip to travel there and back), and wear and tear on my vehicle. 

https://www.farmmatch.com/

This site was started by a guy who had been battling numerous health issues and healed himself by getting off the corporate food system and started buying directly from non-GMO organic producers. 

https://www.azurestandard.com/

This is a company I’ve done business with for about 10 years now.   They grow many of the products on their farm in Oregon and the other products they offer are vetted for quality.  They don’t sell any GMO foods, and if the producers they cooperate with aren’t certified organic, it will say so in the description.   Note:  Just because a product doesn’t say certified organic, it doesn’t mean that it’s not.  Some small producers don’t want to go through the expense and the hassle with the government just to attain that status.  If you ever wonder… just call or write the producer.  Azure Standard has amazing customer service.  Their system used to be “one of a kind” because they deliver your order to a local drop point and you go pick it up.  It’s worth it!  Tip:  When ordering fresh produce, I highly recommend only buying things that are in season.  They do their best to get it to the customer as fresh as possible, but since nothing is sprayed with preservatives, etc, things out of season can be hit or miss.  They’ve never refused me a discount if a portion of something fresh wasn’t to my standards when it arrived. 

https://getrawmilk.com/

If you want to get on the raw dairy bandwagon, this will help you do so.  And please folks, STOP asking if drinking something you want for yourself is “legal”.   We must stop following evil laws that make no sense whatsoever.  Is there a risk to raw milk?  Maybe.  But that risk is almost non-existent.  You have a better chance of dying from a bee sting.  I grew up on raw milk, like many of you.   Raw milk is what people used for thousands of years before the scam of pasteurization and homogenization became the “norm”.  It is NOT normal to heat a food until it is dead and then sell it as safe and nutritious.  Many of the producers who sell raw milk also sell cheese and other dairy products made from said milk/cream and you will *never* want to go back to the fake milk from the store again. 

https://localhens.com/find-a-farm/ 

If you are buying mass produced eggs… well, shame on you.  The chickens are treated horribly.  Beaks are cut off to stop them pecking (a natural thing for a chicken to do), they are shot up with “antibiotics,” and they usually spend their entire life in a tiny cage where they are coaxed to lay as many eggs as possible for their short lives before they are either ground up for pet food or people food.  It’s despicable. Even so-called “organic” or “free range” mass produced eggs aren’t much better.  Most places in the country have a place where you can buy local eggs produced by people who not only love their birds, but feed them the diet they need so the eggs are much healthier.  Typically you can buy raw chicken and other products from some of these egg producers as well.

https://maps.beefinitiative.com/

This site is a great place to get an idea of where a few of the ranches are in your local area that will be willing to sell you beef.  The list on this site is not extensive and there may be some other ranches in your area.  You can just search “local beef” in your search engine and a few other sites will populate.

https://finder.localcatch.org/

We can’t leave out the fishermen and women.  These folks work very hard, oftentimes working incredibly long hours (like most small operations of any kind) and under an insane amount of regulation as well.  If you can’t catch fresh fish yourself, be sure to try and support someone locally for this as well. 

This is certainly not an extensive list.  There are lots of other ways to find local producers.  Word of mouth and bulletin board notices in parks, schools, and even in mom-and-pop grocery stores come to mind. 

We *must* start saying no to this whole FDA/USDA “approved” food racket in America.  A huge portion of our food is actually *illegal* to be exported to many countries in the world.  I bet many of you didn’t know that.  Americans eat some of the worst diets on the planet in terms of the amount of processing, seed oils, FAKE sugar, chemicals, and other garbage that goes in to them.   Please start eating better.  You will be *amazed* at how much better the food tastes and how much healthier you will get.  Myself, my mother, and my siblings… we have all overcome health challenges simply by eating food that didn’t come from a box, a can, or a mass merchandiser.  You can too!