We chose to switch to organic grain despite it’s drastic price increase (it’s about twice the price of conventional feed) even though we aren’t certified organic after our first season of farming.

While all of our animals are pastured, chickens can only forage 20% of their nutrient needs from grass. The rest needs to come from seeds, bugs, food scraps, etc. We offer our pastured chickens table scraps, sprouted oats in the winter, and any grubs we find in the garden in addition to grain.

We were becoming increasingly concerned with gmo products in our food system. We had no trouble tracking down antibiotic fee grain but conventional grain is not guaranteed to be free of gmo inputs. Furthermore conventional grain growing practices in all likelihood include pesticides and/or herbicides which then enters into our food system as well as entering our waterways and sterilizing the soil the grains are being grown on. Ideally we would grow our own grain or work closely with another farmer where we knew their growing practice were in line with our environmental and community goals. Without this option we knew for our family and our farm it was important to use organic grain for our birds. We support our community by providing the highest quality food items and this is one other way we raise the bar on the quality of food we can provide to our friends, neighbors, community.