LOCAL FARM NEEDS OUR HELP
While we are enjoying the summer-like temperatures these last few days, it was just a week ago that we had powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes moving through the area. While our farm structures came through without any major damage, our friends Jen and Jeff Miller at Prairie Wind Family Farm in Grayslake were hit hard. Five of their hoophouses and greenhouse were damaged during the storms, three almost totally destroyed.
The Miller's are pioneers in the Chicago region when it comes to growing certified organic produce most of the year in their protected growing structures. They not only serve over 350 Chicago-area families with fresh produce year-round, but also assist the non-profit Liberty Prairie Foundation in training the next generation of regenerative farmers, helping them learn how to grow and mentoring them as they get their own farming operations started at the farm incubator program. We have worked with the Millers on many projects over the years to help grow the local food system in the region.
As we found out two years ago when our farm was hit by a small tornado, hoophouses and other "temporary" structures are not covered by most farm insurance policies. With the cost of a new hoophouse running north of $20,000 in today's inflated dollars (not including labor), the Millers have a huge rebuilding effort in front of them, right at the beginning of the busy growing season.
Please consider contributing to their GoFundMe campaign to help them rebuild their hoophouses and recover from this early season disaster. They are really good, hardworking people, great farmers, and deserve our support in this challenging time.
mRNA VACCINES IN OUR LIVESTOCK?
We have received many calls and emails in the last couple of weeks asking if we administer mRNA vaccines to our livestock, or if we were going to be required to do so. The short answer is no. As many of our long-time readers know, we are vaccine skeptics for the most part, in particular when it comes to new vaccine technologies that have not been adequately tested. mRNA vaccines fit into that category, both when it comes to animals as well as people.
However after receiving all these inquiries, I did some research on the topic. Evidently several mRNA vaccines have been approved for swine (i.e. pigs and hogs), and many of the large commercial farms have been using them in their hogs since 2018. So most of the pork you buy at the grocery store comes from pigs injected with mRNA vaccines. Yet another reason to stay away from that crap no matter how cheap it is.
As for cattle, there are several mRNA vaccines in development and undergoing clinical trials, but my veterinarian said they are not yet commercially available. However all the major pharmaceutical companies are pushing them through the FDA and clinical trials aggressively, so no doubt they will end up in the nation's confinement beef and dairy herds soon.
There are no mandated vaccines for livestock raised by independent producers like us. I imagine most of the confinement operators are required to vaccinate their livestock to sell them to the big meatpackers. Of course all the veterinarians are taught to push them in vet schools, which are funded by the same Big Pharma outfits pushing drugs and vaccinations on people, needed or not. I would agree that if you are raising animals in a confinement operation, whether its cattle, hogs, or poultry, you probably need to have them fully vaccinated and medicated on antibiotics to keep them alive in those inhumane factory farming systems.
However, if the animals are raised outdoors, with fresh air, sunshine, and lush green pastures to graze on every day they don't need vaccines and antibiotics to stay healthy. They tend to have fully-functional immune systems. The only vaccine we routinely administer is an old-fashioned tetanus vaccine used when we are dehorning the dairy heifers or castrating bull calves, and we know they are at risk from the soil-borne tetanus bacteria. This tetanus vaccine is n0t an mRNA vaccine.
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To Your Health,
Cliff, Anna and the Farm Team