As the green movement continues to raise awareness about the importance of natural foods, many are transitioning from eating meat produced in large, corporate factories to meat raised on farms that are certified organic. But many still beg the question, “Why is it so important to buy organically raised food?”
“I used to think ‘organic’ just meant more expensive, so I disregarded it,” said Anthony Caprioli, a City College student majoring in psychology. “But when a friend of my family was diagnosed with cancer he learned that his case, like many others is almost directly related his to diet. Half a year after switching to organic his numbers had dropped by 80 percent!”
At Soul Food Farms, an organic, free-range chicken farm in Vacaville, they have a very simple answer: “You are what you eat…and what you eat eats.”
Emma Koefoed is an environmental studies major at City College. Soul Food Farms was created about 10 years ago by her mother, Alexis Koefoed. They take health and sustainability very seriously, but Emma says the farm really “fell together” because of a moment of inspiration.
“I grew up in Vallejo, but when I was nine years old my mom was driving through Vacaville and saw a 56-acre plot of land for sale. She came home, sold our house, and bought it.”
From the beginning the Koefoeds proved that building a sustainable, certified organic farm from scratch takes more than a little dedication. They spent the first six months on the property living in tents and three years in construction trailers before the first part of the house was built and hospitable.
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“Now we have two thousand laying hens on 10 acres and 6,000 meat birds on 56 acres of land,” said Alexis Koefoed.
The laying hens live a dream life of roaming on acres of certified organic land, foraging for bugs, chasing each other, or simply napping in the sun. The Koefoeds make sure the hens have fresh water and are fed every day, and that their laying boxes and hen house are cleaned and filled with fresh straw.
The birds arrive from the hatchery every week in groups of 600 at a time. They spend four weeks in the nursery, four or five days in “chicken tractors” that are used to transition the chicks to the field, and then are put into large, fenced corrals. The location of the corrals is changed every three days to ensure cleanliness and a fresh food supply.
The farm has yet to pay for itself, but a vision that began as a small business selling eggs has grown into a family-run operation serving more than just local clients. Soul Food Farms sells to San Francisco area restaurants such as Chez Panisse and Coi, meat companies such as Prather Ranch Meat Co. who according to Alexis Koefoed sell the meat at farmers markets in the bay area, and as of recently, to the Sacramento and Davis Natural Food Co-ops. Even the New York Times ran a story on the farm and Fox will air a segment soon on the Koefoeds.
Emma Koefoed said that future plans involve building a network of “satellite farms” that will work as partners with Soul Food Farms under the same standards and practices. Their first partner company is Rock Hill Ranch in Suisun Valley, and hopefully will be the first of many.
“The hard part about going organic is that you can’t just switch one food group, like fruits and vegetables, and expect to be completely healthy,” said Samantha Cartwright, Biology major. “You need to make sure that the meat you are eating has been raised on an organic diet as well.”