June 4th, 2021
Click the badge above to watch a minute-long slideshow spanning FEED Sonoma's last ten years!
This June marks FEED Sonoma’s 10 year anniversary! What began in Tim Page’s small garage, grew into a small but mighty warehouse in the Barlow and now occupies 14,000 square feet in our Petaluma warehouse. From a single beloved old box truck, to a sleek 5 vehicle fleet, FEED Sonoma is now 16 employees strong, over 70 farms rich, and sprouting with new growth with each passing day. With 2020’s transition into a farmer and employee owned cooperative, we grew in ways we had always dreamed of, planting seeds of truth in our daily work. Our ever-increasing number of farmer-owners can now have a vested interest in their own product’s distribution, to quite literally transform our Northern California foodshed from consumer-centric to farmer-centric. FEED Cooperative exists because of our farmers, for our farmers and for all generations to come. This ultimately serves our community of eaters and buyers best, ensuring that our local farms can sustain their businesses with reliable and diverse sales outlets and consistent support. Meaning that our farmers will be here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day...BUILDING THE FOUNDATION...FEEDing community in times of crisis, in times of tranquility, filling our tables with ingredients that truly nourish us. FEED Sonoma isn’t just a distributor, but a community of farmers, continually increasing the resilience of Northern California’s food system.
To ring in our 10 year anniversary, we'll have a few fun surprises to share throughout the month of June. This week's was blueberries! 10 lucky FEED Bin subscribers received a celebratory extra in their Friday/Saturday Bins! First of the season blueberries from our newest producer, Nancy of White Fox in Freestone. Consider it edible confetti! Her ¾ acre blueberry farm is home to 400 plants, 4 types of blueberries, 3 happy bee hives, bee nourishing lavender, and Frida the family dog. To top it off, June also marks White Fox’s 10 year anniversary of being certified organic.
Stay tuned for more blueberries and more anniversary celebrations! Happy, happy June y'all!
.:: Beefy News ::.
This week the large scale beef industry was shaken to the core by a series of calamitous events. The first one involved Belcampo, a California based leader in the regenerative and sustainable ranching industry. According to Eater LA, "Belcampo employees interviewed by allege[d] that as the company grew in size, reach, and stature, the farm struggled to keep up with demand for online orders, fully stocked retail butcher cases, and high-volume restaurant operations. A partnership to sell meat at Erewhon grocery stores, a deal that began in February 2019, further strained the company’s supply chains, the sources allege, all of which has been made even more difficult during the pandemic. Instead of scaling back, further shrinking its retail operations, or recalibrating when its ranch and supply chain could no longer keep pace, the company switched gears." This switching-of-gears involved sourcing meats that didn't fulfill the practices they readily flaunt. This story is still unfolding, but the whistle blowing employee alleges that they mislabeled corn-fed, factory raised beef as their own regeneratively farmed products. We are sad to see a leader in the sustainable ranching industry give in to appeasing the demands of a consumer-centric culture. This is the ever-present challenge of participating in a food industry that prioritizes demand over supply. You can read more of the Eater LA article here.
Next up, JBS, one of the country's largest meat producers, was the target of an “organized cybersecurity attack” that affected systems in North America and Australia. The cyberattack resulted in the closure of all nine of the company's US beef plants. It's not yet known whether the multi-day closure will affect JBS' supply chain. They are said to have resumed US operations on Thursday. Sources: New York Times, CNN, BBC
And now the good news! FEED Sonoma's own True Grass Farms is back online with their grass-fed and finished ground beef. Small ranches, like theirs don't necessarily have product available year round, especially as they grow to meet increasing demand. Ranching sustainably is a perpetual process that begins long before animals are ready for processing. This means crucial steps like breeding, accessing lands, and grazing plans had to be set in motion a year or more before that tasty ground beef ended up in your burger bun.
From Our Producers :: Field Notes
Anders and Marisa Olson welcomed baby Walter, born just 10 days ago during the full flower moon. Congratulations to their sweet little family, we can't wait to see baby Walter grow up on the farm. Let's work together to make sure his generation has a food system to call home.