Most of the time when we think of Fair Trade products, we think of supporting small farmers outside the US who struggle to earn livable wages and to receive adequate payment for their goods. But a coalition of farmers in the Midwest wants to encourage the same kind of committed support we give to imported Fair Trade products for goods farmed domestically. Wholesome Harvest raises organic meat on a network of forty farms throughout the Midwest and sells it in supermarkets (and online) through processors who’ve been approved by their members. The goal is to provide absolute traceability, transparency and access to backstory for their customers — a particularly important set of values in the meat industry, where bacterial contamination is more common than in produce, and often can’t be traced to the source due to complex networks of national and international distribution. The health threat this poses has been presented recently as a real threat to national security; but even when outbreaks effect only a small population, it’s critical to be able to identify and eliminate the problem quickly. In addition to farming, Wholesome Harvest has a strong ongoing activist effort, engaging concerned citizens like themselves to try to… (more)
(Posted by Sarah Rich in Food and Farming at 7:16 PM)