If you keep up with mainstream news, you have heard dozens of stories about food contamination. E coli here and salmonella run rampant through the system, and it’s not a real concern until a major outbreak kills people and can be traced back to a certain producer. The federal government wants to install a gigantic tracking system, called NAIS (National Animal Identification System). They think that by following animals around, they will be able to recall tainted food more quickly.

I won’t get into the details here, but this system puts a higher burden on small producers than the multinational producers who are causing the problem of dirty food. Someone with a herd of 10 cattle would have to register and pay for each one individually, but a company with a herd of 20,000 registers the entire group as one unit.

My proposition is to make food production safer in the first place. An ounce of prevention, right? Joel Salatin has a number of solutions in his book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal, and Kelly and I participate in a healthier food system by opting out of the supermarkets as often as possible. Face it: you don’t know anything about the food you buy there. You can’t. The system doesn’t allow it.

Safe meat, eggs and milk? We buy the majority of our meat from Pawnee Pride Meats and Beulahland Farm. Both raise pastured hogs and chickens, and Pawnee Pride never feeds grain to their cattle. We buy raw milk from Bryant Gardens. They were recently awarded by the State of Nebraska for the health of their Holsteins. This winter, eggs came from Fertile Ground Co-op. Our own chicks will arrive in 2-3 days.

I can count Paul, Victor, Beth, Celeste, Russ and Lori as friends. I trust their farming practices, philosophies and dedication to clean food. They have a vested interest in the products because it provides their own food, their income and their reputation. No amount of government can replace that.

-Brian