http://civileats.com/2015/09/1
The author used a misleading photo for the story cover and left out the
fact that the support system for small farms is so disassembled that you
have to scale up in order to compete. Get big enough and you become attractive
to the next level of distribution.
Access to market is the easy part, the support for feed, vet, land and
viable income for the grower is the part that forces most to scale up to try
and make it at all. Most people, including the author, think that sunshine and grass
is all one needs to grow local food. That almost works for beef but all else
takes a level of grain to produce quality and that alternative version (of non-GMO grain) is
very hard to find and is expensive to truck in.
Purdue is buying a brand, whether they help with logistics of all that which
needs to happen to grow a higher quality care level for animals is yet to be
seen. Their track record says otherwise but maybe.
Tim Wightma