Where Does Your Food Come From?

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Turkey takes center stage during the Thanksgiving holiday. iStockphoto.com/

Do you know where your food comes from? Have you considered the care that goes into your Thanksgiving plate? Not by the hands that cooked it, but by the farmers growing your food.

One of the nation’s leading food and farm advocates, Michele Payn-Knoper, says that farmers in America today are actually a minority group that represents about 1.5 percent of the U.S. population. The majority of Americans haven’t been on a farm in more than five years, and most people are living and eating each and every day without knowing where their food really comes from.

“Get to know a farmer,” she says. “You’ll be amazed and gratified to know the real people who are at the very source of the food we all eat.”

Michele offers a look at where some of the favorite items on the menus for the upcoming holiday meals actually come from:

Turkeys – Grand Rapids, Michigan

A plump, juicy turkey is the traditional centerpiece of most tables. Harley Sietsema is a family farmer in Michigan who wants to be sure that turkey is safe, delicious and affordable. In the course of farming for more than five decades, he has seen practices evolve to keep turkeys more comfortable and healthier.

Sietsema built a business that is self-sustaining and local. Sietsema Farms grow the majority of grains his turkeys need to be healthy, added an elevator to process the grain into feed, helped start a co-op with other farmers to process the meat humanely and, most recently, built a biomass system that converts turkey litter into energy that powers the grain elevator.

Harley’s two sons, daughter and grandchildren all farm with him in the family business.

Dairy – Fresno, California

Love the richness that milk adds to your mashed potatoes, real butter on your dinner roll or whipped cream on your pie? These tasty dairy products come from milk, produced on dairy farms across the United States under tight regulations. For example, all Grade A milk is tested to be antibiotic-free multiple times before it ever hits the dairy case. Californian Barbara Martin is one of the dairy farmers caring for cows 365 days per year.

Martin farms with her husband of 26 years in the San Joaquin Valley. She is a mom who cares deeply about her family, their farm, their dairy cattle and helping feed people. Due to historically low milk prices of the last two years and a desire to connect with customers, Martin recently began making cheese under the “Dairy Goddess Cheese” label.

One of the most common questions is about how the cows are treated. Consider this; dairy farmers work with their animals every day – you can’t do that unless you have deep appreciation for cows. And, as far as mistreatment, it’s logical that cows have to be content or they don’t give milk. Any mother who has breast fed can attest to that – milk doesn’t come out if stress is involved. The same is true with cows.