Socolofsky Farms Weblog

It's been a while since I've provided an update on our continuing saga with the USDA labeling group in Washington, D.C. Time for an update.

We've been selling our retail pork cuts with labels approved by the USDA, but there is a problem: We submitted our label applications in two main groups. The first group included our fresh cuts, and the second group included our sausages and other processed products. The first group was approved for the most part. Sometime between the first group and the second group, a few months later, the USDA decided we could not use the word "healthiest" in reference to our pork without providing data to prove that it was the healthiest. So they approved the second group, provided we struck the word from the front label. Well, without this word the message on the front label was pretty lame. And we could not reasonably gather the data to prove that our pork was the healthiest. So, if we wanted to have labels that were consistent across our products, we had to come up with a new label for everything.

Long story short and several phone calls later (not to mention many hours of paperwork and label redesign) I have a set of label applications ready to go in the mail tomorrow.

This is the stack of paperwork for 15 applications covering 26 products. I went through more than a ream of paper.

Here's how the system works: The USDA does not keep a file record of applications for labels. They also want any application that includes label claims in triplicate. Label claims include anything like "raised without antibiotics," "Berkshire pork," etc. To substantiate the label claims you have to send in a protocol saying why you should be able to make that claim. We have to include pedigrees of our breeding stock, feed tags from supplements, explanations of why we believe our pigs are produced in the USA....... IN TRIPLICATE!

Once the USDA receives our applications, several of the USDA folks sit in a room together, pass them around, and decide whether or not to approve them. Then they send back one copy as approved, rejected, or approved with modifications and shred the rest. They keep no record of our applications. So... when I have to resend a rejected application, it has to include all the other documentation as well. This is an agency that supposedly manages the US Forest Service, which supposedly cares about trees. The ream I printed off tonight is about the third ream I've mailed to them in the past eight months.

Sigh. This is the system we live within, and it's also the system that explains why most folks would rather not be small, independent producers of meat products.

We receive emails or calls daily from new folks we didn't know before who are looking for good, honest, wholesome food grown locally and ethically. This is a trend that has been increasing for the past several month. We appreciate all the interest, and we thoroughly enjoy it when you enjoy our food in return. It works for all of us.

However, as you search for local food, there will be some challenges. I think I speak for other local producers when I say that I hope you will work with us as we all figure this thing out together. The biggest challenge you may face is in finding a reliable supply of local products. I am not sure anyone could have predicted the surge in demand for local food. We didn't a year ago when we should have been breeding all our sows and selecting new ones. We find ourselves at the moment unable to keep up with the demand. A good problem in a way, but not without concerns.

My biggest concern is that, while we and others ramp up production, folks will get tired of waiting and give up on local food. If you want to be in touch with your food supply, part of the picture is understanding the process of production. From conception to table, it takes roughly a year to produce a pork chop. Beef and bison take much longer. Lamb is somewhere in the middle. A sudden ramp-up in demand for milk takes many months to fulfill. In the process of ramping up, the farmer takes essentially all the risk. This is generally not a problem if we can be assured that the demand will still be there after we increase production. But if we all ramp up production and find in a year or so that this local food thing was only a fad and folks lost patience and went and shopped elsewhere, we all lose.

So please, let's look at getting to local food as a process. Let's work together, you voting with your food dollars to buy local. We as producers will be more than happy to respond and increase production ... it's what we have dreamed of for years. But please, please, don't lose patience during this process. We'll get there, and our food supply and our community will be better and more resilient in the end. Not to mention we'll all be enjoying better tasting, more nutritious, fresher food.

We started raising food for the local market six years ago, and the market was not all that interested. Finding customers was pretty tough. We started to notice an uptick in interest last year, but in the past three months this interest has finally exploded. We get calls and emails daily from new customers looking to buy local pork. We are ramping up production to meet the demand, and we are grateful for all the interest.

We're wondering why all the interest is happening now? Is it because of major media, like Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Inc.? Is it because of all the publicity recently in the news about antibiotics in animal feeds and problems associated with factory farms? Is it partly due to the E. Coli episodes that happen from time to time, seemingly at an increasing pace? Is it because of Americans placing their food dollar votes locally to help build community? Has it just taken a while for the local food mentality to reach Colorado from places that have been doing it a while, like Portland, Oregon?

I suspect the recent surge of interest is from all of these and more. Regardless, we have been stubbornly doing what we do for what seems like a long time and are excited about what the future has for local food in general and our operation specifically.