COVID-19 is changing how we get food. From factory farms to small farms.

Like chicken? You won't find it at the ALDI Store in Exton, PA

COATESVILLE VICTORY GARDEN
Former Coatesville City Council Member Joe Hamrick 
Current Coatesville City Council Member Khadijah Alamin

I was a planning commission member at Lower Frederick Township in Montgomery County PA.  A-10 tank busters were very, very loud and Marine Helicopters shook the dishes in my kitchen cabinets. The hill I lived on was a turning point back to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove.

I played racquet ball in the officers racquet ball court at NASJRB Willow Grove. That's another story.

Limerick Generating Station
from Cessna 172

People flying small aircraft with non-working radios near the Limerick Power Plant were escorted to Limerick Airport by F-18s.

We learned about bio-terrorism threat assessments at slaughterhouses in Montgomery County & Bucks County PA after 911.

Now in 2020 the threat from slaughterhouses has come about on a nationwide scale, not from bio-terrorism but from COVID-19.  

***

When I was active with Schuylkill Riverkeeper we visited the Rosenberger Farm along the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek. Mr. Rosenberger was heir to Rosenberger’s Dairy. He made a riparian buffer with fencing to keep cows out of the stream.

Riparian buffer with cattle fencing at Rosenberger Farm

. 

Bob Rosenberger at Rosenberger Farm

Bob Adams of WVWA 

Delaware Riverkeeper's Faith Zerbie examines macro 

invertebrates in Manatawny Creek in Pottstown, PA

Only a few months after the orphaned dam on the Manatawny Creek in Pottstown was removed the macro invertebrate (aquatic insect) population began to rebound. 

Saturday, may 15, 2010
Dam Removal on the Manatawny Creek in Pottstown

***

"I have always been impressed with the CSAs (community-supported agriculture) in downtown Philadelphia and I was interested in trying the same thing here in Coatesville," said Keith Gargus, one of the founding members of the organization.

MORE AT:

Monday, July 13, 2009

Coatesville Victory Gardens in the News

Keith Gargus working on the "Coatesville Victory Garden."

In Coatesville former tireless Obama 2008 worker Keith Gargus offered his expertise in farming at the Coatesville Victory Garden. When Keith left Coatesville he bought an organic farm in North Carolina. 

When he left Coatesville Keith Gargus gave me the hat he wore as a ringer in baseball games between FBI & ATF when he left Coatesville to farm in North Carolina. 

Keith gave me his ATF hat. I can't wear it in public.

There's a story with the hat. On his way back from an ATF vs. FBI baseball game to his home in Valley Forge Park, Keith stopped at the Perkiomenville Flea Market. As he walked through the market he noticed everyone was clearing a path for him. He forgot to take off his ATF hat. Lots of guns for sale at the flea market.

Decades later I had a similar experience at a Coatesville city council meeting:

The Saha "Save our Farm" group led by JBS Chapter Leader Pat Sellers had about 10 people to weed out for or against people coming to Coatesville city council meetings. 

The first time I came to a Coatesville city council meeting I said Coatesville needs to come together as a community. Dick Saha looked at Rickey and a circle formed around me shouting "Communist." 

A few years later Governor Rendell was coming to a packed Coatesville city council meeting. As I walked in the people parted like I was Moses at the Red Sea. They began to know me. 


Keith worked with the FBI & ATF in a room encircled in copper deep under Manhattan.

The games were in Long Island. 

Keith is enjoying cigars, retired in Nicaragua. 

***

"Chloe Johnson and her husband, Craig Scariot, did not grow up on farms. He studied finance and she has an IT job. But in 2015, they bought a 100-year-old ranch in Longmont, Colorado, stocked it with chickens, pigs and sheep, and built a business selling organic, grass-fed meat directly to consumers.

Running SkyPilot Farm hasn’t been easy or made them rich. But the pair are having unexpected success during the current crisis, which has them cautiously optimistic about the future of local, sustainable agriculture...

The commercial meat industry, highly centralized and largely controlled by four companies — Cargill, JBS, Smithfield and Tyson — has been rocked by the coronavirus. As the virus spread to some of the country’s largest meat processing facilities, it killed workers and forced plants to shut down for deep cleaning. Nearly 5,000 meatpacking employees have contracted COVID-19 at 115 meat and poultry processing facilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With animals lining up for slaughter and nowhere to take them, the price of beef and pork has plummeted and livestock producers have resorted to euthanizing surplus stock...

Beside a pen filled with baaing sheep and rowdy 3-week-old lambs, Johnson and Scariot, wearing mud-caked boots and sweat-stained trucker hats, described an altogether different reality. “It’s only gotten busier,” Scariot said, scratching the ears of a Blue Heeler cattle dog at his feet. Since the outbreak, sales at SkyPilot have increased about 400% and the customer base has tripled. 

While the industrial market is facing ruin, small-scale producers are seeing a heyday. In the U.S., more than 167,000 farms sell $8.7 billion worth of meat and produce directly to consumers, restaurants and retailers each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With some farmers markets closed due to the pandemic, many have shifted their businesses online, and farms across the country report that customers are following in droves.

“Inventory management is the hardest part,” Johnson said. “We were growing slowly and steadily over the years. Now we’re not able to keep up with demand.”...

“Demand is extraordinary, even after I’ve increased production by 25%,” said Joe Cloud, who owns T&E Meats in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Cloud processes meat for ranchers who sell directly to restaurants and consumers through community-supported agriculture programs and farmers markets. Before the outbreak, nearly half his customers supplied restaurants where chefs do complicated things with shanks, racks and filets. When those closed, the market shifted overnight to consumers who, by and large, are looking for simple, protean ground beef."

MORE AT:

The Coronavirus Could Change The Way We Eat Meat

The COVID-19 pandemic has hobbled the meat industry. Can small farms raise a more sustainable future?

By Stephen Robert Miller

05/06/2020 05:45 am ET 

***

There are many different ways to purchase farm goods including directly from a farmer or through a grocery store that offers many local items. Make sure to verify how each business is accepting payment, if they require advance orders and what their operating hours are in a given season. Here is a list of places to shop by category. Enjoy the flavors of Chester County!

Farmers Markets | Farm Outlets | Retail Outlets | CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) |
Meat & Eggs | Dairy | Honey | Christmas Trees | Cut Flowers | Fiber | Mushrooms | Wineries & Cideries