Our Pastured Poultry Farm was Once Certified Organic. Now We’re Not. Here’s Why…
"Broiler on pasture": Our farm's broiler chickens enjoying fresh food, water, and pasture on a daily basis.
It was a cold and snowy afternoon in February of 2015 when Chris and I began work on our business plan that would be born into Feisty Acres that fall. Pasture raised quail and other specialty poultry and game birds were on our minds as the main revenue source in addition to eggs and perhaps some value added products. Demand was strong in the local markets: with pasture raised broiler chickens already popular with the general public, people who were interested in more unusual offerings came out of the woodwork with their requests. French guinea hen; quail; and heritage breed turkeys were all up for discussion to be included in our future plans. There was one thing, however, that was not up for discussion: Chris and I were dead set on making sure Feisty Acres was a certified organic outfit.
The majority of our agricultural experience up until that point had been working for certified organic operations—mostly produce, though we both had our hands in livestock farms throughout our careers. On the whole, these family owned farms took being certified organic very seriously and sticking to the regulations as outlined by the National Organic Program (NOP) through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was of the utmost importance—even to their detriment at times. One of the most alluring aspects of being a certified organic farm, for us, was almost instantaneous acceptance into the market. As a small farm, starting from scratch, having the label of being “certified organic” was a simple way for us to get our foot in the door, sort of speak. There was already a built in market for everything certified organic and it was growing at an exponential rate: in 2005 organic food sales in the United States alone racked up $13.26 billion dollars; fast forward to 2015 and that number more than doubled to $39.75 billion dollars (for those wondering, the year 2022 saw $61.67 billions dollars worth of sales).
Being the first, certified organic farm to offer pasture raised quail in New York State (second in the country) was quite a feather in our cap. We received our certification from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) in October of 2015 one month before our very first harvest of pasture raised quail for the Thanksgiving holiday. From chick to plate our birds fell into the certified organic supply chain: they were raised under NOP poultry regulations from 48 hours old until their harvest date and they were processed and packaged by us in a certified organic facility that we leased from a neighboring poultry farm on Long Island. The inspector who oversaw the certification of our farm was thorough, friendly, and professional. That year’s very first harvest was only about 100 quail, but we quickly expanded our business as word got out about the excellence of the product we offered.
As Chris and I looked to grow our poultry business, it became very clear that scaling up a small, certified organic poultry farm was costly. Our feed, which was the largest expense for our business, was certified organic and cost upwards of 50% more than non-organic feed. Another issue for us was that no one locally offered certified organic feed in the larger quantities we needed—so we had to source from a farm in Pennsylvania. This was a huge source of frustration for us as we wanted to utilize the family owned feed mill located on Long Island just 30 minutes away from our farm, but we were not able to because they did not mill or bag certified organic feed for poultry. Under the poultry regulations of the NOP, certified organic poultry must consume only certified organic feed, food scraps, etc. To preserve our certified organic status, we had to freight in feed from another state rather than purchase high-quality, non-organic feed from the mill a couple towns over. We looked to perhaps supplement some of those feed rations with food scraps from local grocery stores and restaurants. The idea of food not fit for human consumption going towards producing delicious poultry and eggs rather than going to a landfill seemed like a no brainer! Unfortunately for us, however, because we couldn’t 100% guarantee that every morsel of food was certified organic, we were unable to implement that idea into our business.
In 2016, the agricultural landscape of what constituted an organic farm or ranch began to shift. Because the market for organic food was growing at such a rapid rate, many corporate farm businesses wanted to get in on the action. Under the rules and regulations of the National Organic Program, many of the interested corporate farms were not eligible, so they did what every powerful business does when they want to see change in legislation that benefits their cause—lobby. Their negotiating arm was so strong that it brought about significant change in what it meant to be an organic farm or ranch. The guiding principle of organic farming, established decades ago before the government became involved in its regulation, was to steward the land and improve the soil. Organic agriculture means nothing without the inclusion and regeneration of land and soil. Yet that year would see the integration of hydroponic agriculture into organic agriculture, which meant that neither land nor soil was a necessary part of the equation, causing many farmers to question the integrity of the National Organic Program and the United States Department of Agriculture. On the poultry front, that meant a certified organic chicken could quite possibly never leave its barn, set foot on soil, or ingest any pasture grasses or insects. “Access” to the outdoors was required for a chicken to be certified organic under the NOP, but that access could be interpreted in a number of different ways. It could mean a small door located on one side of a 200 foot barn that was open for a certain number of hours in the day. That small door could lead to a soil based pasture or lead to a concrete slab. This meant that the very large corporations now could access a loophole to organic certification and the consumer could no longer guarantee that the organic chicken they purchased ever saw a blade of grass in their lives. Egg laying hens fall under similar “outdoor access” regulations according to the NOP, yet again many of the organic eggs in the grocery store come from chickens that very rarely, if ever, have regular access to soil based pastures or recreational spaces outside of their barns.
The facility that we used to process and package our birds, in order for us to maintain our organic certification, also had to be certified organic—whether that be by NOFA-NY or some other third party organization green lighted by the NOP and USDA. Thankfully, a neighboring farm—who raised certified organic broiler chickens—possessed such a facility and allowed us to use it. Chris and I paid a flat fee to use the processing unit and in addition to that fee we paid $5 for every bird we harvested for the day. Chris and I did all of our own harvests and packaged our own birds, which sometimes meant the two of us worked 12-16 hour days on top of taking care of animals on our farm. We tried to hire another set of hands, but the owner of the facility had to approve of our third person and we couldn’t come to an agreement. After a couple of seasons, our processing fees were increased without prior discussion and Chris and I had to make the decision as to whether or not to continue using this facility. A certified organic poultry slaughter house is very hard to come by in our part of the country; the next nearest facility was over a five hour drive away from the farm. For us, that was just far too long to crate and transport our birds for the sake of maintaining our organic certification. In the end, Chris and I ended our relationship with the local processing facility and began to make plans to drop our certification all together.
"Food scrap delivery": Farmer Chris unloads a truck full of food and vegetable scraps, unsuitable for human consumption, to be enjoyed by our birds.
As we made moves to drop our organic certification, Chris and I asked the opinion of the most important people to our farm business: our customers. We were very clear about why we were deciding to end our certification and our reasons were accepted by almost every single one of our customers. The bottom line for those we were feeding was this: if the birds are raised well, have real access to pasture, the quality remains the same, and they are harvested in a way that dignifies their lives it was all gravy. Feisty Acres did not have to be certified organic in order to meet these requirements of our customers, so in the beginning of 2019 we made the public announcement that we would no longer be inspected or certified for organic poultry production. Being open to conduct business with our local feed mill meant the quality and freshness of our feed vastly improved. The local restaurants and grocery stores were happy to fill up the bed of our farm truck with food scraps that went into the bellies of our chickens rather than the depths of a landfill. And our birds had to travel just a few minutes down the road to be prepared for our weekly farmers market customers and CSA members. To this day, dropping our organic certification was one of the most important decisions we made for the stability of our business and welfare of our birds.