Back to GMO we go... hi ho, high low....
With great excitement we announced 18 months ago that we would be proudly producing non-GMO pasture raised eggs.
This was a move we had worked towards since before our very first chicken arrived on the farm in 2018. In our early days this was impossible to source but as we began to network and grow more and more, things started to look more possible. We were in the process of formulating a feed last year, when we were approached by a larger pasture raised egg brand to produce eggs for their business. This meant tripling our production. By working together, we were able to make the move to nonGMO feed for our laying hens. We were on top of the world! We love working in community, and we were so excited to have finally reached the nonGMO point.
However, over the past 18 months, this has become extremely difficult to continue. We have tried various ways of sourcing the feed and it has been hours and hours and hours of work. Not to mention bad batches that have impacted the health of hens, the stress of getting feed on time, having to change suppliers multiple times. Hens don’t like change. We have changed feed nearly twice as many times in the last 18 months as we did in the last 5 years! Small producers don’t have the cashflow to buy truckloads of feed at a time, to source all the ingredients, to mill on farm - the value is just not realised in the final egg price when the product sits on the shelf next to eggs with externalised costs.
It has always been one of our values to produce the highest quality food. Our goal in starting our business was to produce food for our family and so we want the absolute best for our family, and yours. However we did not receive a fantastic response to our move to nonGMO feed for our laying hens. We did not pick up very many new customers, in fact for those we gained, we probably lost the same amount when the price went up.
We have a spectrum of customers. For some, nonGMO is a deal breaker, a non-negotiable from a health point of view. For others, the term nonGMO is completely new and doesn’t mean a heck of a lot. For the majority, it is a wonderful bonus, but not essential. For some, carbon footprint is more important, shopping local. For others it is the ethical treatment of the hens. We try to balance this as much as possible while staying true to our values.
To continue with a regular, consistent nonGMO ration, our prices would need to increase by at least 30%.
So our move back to a GM ration is two-fold:
Firstly it is extremely difficult to source nonGMO feed. There is not the same pressure on producers in SA as overseas. This means many ingredients have to be sourced from a handful of farmers spread across the country. Some ingredients have to be imported. The carbon footprint is extremely high. With our our focus being on environmental regeneration, this has not sat well.
Before the egg shortage came about, we began to question the need to produce a more affordable egg. Pasture raised eggs will always be more expensive because the costs are not externalised, but where costs can be reduced to provide access to high quality food, should we not be doing that? As a business, we balance decisions between economics, environmental impact, social impact and spiritual. We feel better about producing an egg that many more people can access.
As a small family farm, the hours of organising feed, the stress, the bad batches, the uncertainty, the changes is no longer worth it. We want to enjoy our time on our farm, enjoy precious time as a family. There is very little of that on a farm and we don’t want to spend any more unnecessary hours discussing, arranging, and hunting for nonGMO feed. We already absorb many of the costs so that our eggs are sold at a market relevant price, even though the costs are much higher. But we can free up time for our family, continue to regenerate our land, and raise our hens as ethically as possible. So that is what we intend to do.
The Plan
Our plan is to go back to the feed that we were using prior to the change to nonGMO. It was formulated and milled locally. The nutritionist even visited our farm, wandered our pastures, visited our hens and formulated a feed that is complementary to our context. It is an excellent feed and we have seen great results. We are excited about going back to something comfortable and familiar.
We will be transitioning our hens over the next two weeks.
While this may seem a step back, it may be temporary. Our goal is always to produce the best we can. And we will continue to strive. Feel free to send us your thoughts - it helps us make decisions :)