At Soul Fire Farm we are committed to increasing the access people affected by food apartheid have to fresh, nutritious food as one way we combat oppression in the food system. Most of the meat accessible to low-income people and people of color is industrial meat – meat coming from animals raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) where they are mistreated and injected with antibiotics and hormones. Industrial meat production also often happens in proximity to low-income black and brown communities, where air and water contamination results in health problems like respiratory illness, asthma, and lung inflammation.
We renounce these practices and the ways they harm our communities and the land and instead raise chickens in a way that is more in alignment with what our ancestors practiced. We practice rotational grazing of chickens, a technique rooted in the pre-colonial practices of farmers in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. The mismanagement of manure from livestock living in CAFOs leads to greenhouse gas emissions and waterway contamination. Grazing chickens on pasture, however, adds fertility to the land, reducing the need for purchased inputs like fertilizers.
Because chickens are omnivores, raising them outdoors enables them to eat the diversified diet of grains and insects they need that they won’t receive living confined indoors. We purchase grain from a local farm instead of relying on feeds made from genetically-modified corn and soy grown unsustainably on monoculture farms. And we raise Freedom Ranger chickens, a breed predisposed to free ranging, instead of Cornish Cross, a breed raised commercially on factory farms, popular for their large breasts that come at the expense of them gaining so much weight during their lifetimes they often can’t support their body weights as the mature.
Because of the sustainable practices we employ, such as raising chickens outside on spacious pasture, investing in fencing to protect them, and feeding them a locally-sourced non-GMO diet our chicken costs more than meat produced inhumanely on factory farms from animals fed cheap, government-subsidized grains. We want to make our chicken more accessible, so we are asking for donations so that we can provide sustainable, pasture-raised chickens to people in our Albany/Troy community. For folks who aren’t part of our CSA, after filling out your name and email address you can scroll down to the option to “Buy a Chicken for Your Neighbor.” Thank you!