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Many people ask us why buying a membership in a food cooperative is important. This may be another way of saying, “what is in it for me?”
If you are a meat eater and were lucky enough to receive ground beef in your February Co-op Box, here’s an example of the benefits: Bruce Balik’s healthy, totally grass-fed steers guarantee a product that is full of good nutrients from enriched soil and free of the chemicals commercial producers add to cattle feed to fatten them prior to processing. Bruce’s prime pastureland produces meat containing more heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids and less of the harmful omega 6 fatty acids. Grass-fed beef contains more antioxidants and conjugated linoleic acid for increasing immunity, regulating blood sugar, and providing anti-inflammation properties.
The membership question could also be asked this way: “what’s in it for the community?” Bruce’s 134 acres of beautiful pasture land near Cochranville, PA is actually a wonderful “carbon sink.” Because Bruce expertly rotates where the cows graze each day, the grasses are healthy and abundant. This process nourishes the soil, absorbs the manure and, because the land is never turned over or “tilled,” the soil nutrients stay intact and carbon from the atmosphere is absorbed, not released. If all the pastures in the US used the same process, the resulting carbon sequestration would have an enormous positive impact on climate change. Many of our Pennsylvania farmers are practicing this carbon sequestration, and these are the farmers KCG will support.
Meet Bruce Balik with Edie Burkey
(The beef cattle were enjoying a grassy pasture out of camera range.)
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