For years, we have wanted to make the change to non-GMO feed for our poultry, pigs, and rabbits, but we struggled to find a feed mill that could handle our volume. Recently, we were able to find a supplier to consistently deliver non-GMO feed to White Oak Pastures, and we are proud to announce that our poultry, eggs, pork, and rabbits are now non-GMO and verified by the Non-GMO Project.

At White Oak Pastures, we have expertise in three areas: animal welfare, regenerative land management, and rural communities. As farmers, we aren’t experts in nutrition. When osteopathic physician and natural health advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola came to visit, we shared our knowledge of farming with him, and he shared his knowledge of nutrition with us. Here are a few of Dr. Mercola’s thoughts on the health benefits of grassfed and pasture-based food and farming.

For six years, Dan Coady conducted research for a multinational technology corporation in California, until one day he decided to move to rural southwest Georgia to become a farmer. Today he leads the country’s largest pastured poultry operation, and we are lucky to have him.

All of us really revere the iconic North American predator species. We’ve got grizzly bears, timber wolves, cougars, and eagles. We name our sports teams and our Boy Scout troops after them, we see them on tee shirts, and they are all endangered or threatened.

It takes more than time to restore Georgia’s soil to the way it was before industrial farming practices added chemical fertilizers and pesticides and removed the biodiversity and nutrients. It takes us buying the land in the first place. Well, check that box, to the tune of 250 acres.

At White Oak Pastures, we take pride in using every part of the animals we process, and broths are a way to utilize the strong, nutrient-dense bones. Check out Chef Reid’s easy how-to video and instructions for making beef bone broth at home. Enjoy this broth by itself as a rich, nourishing supplement or add it to soups and sauces for added flavor and nutrition.

We just kicked off the Spring season of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Our Organic Farm Managers, Ryan Carnley and Mary Bruce, and our garden team are busy planting, harvesting, washing, packing, and delivering organic produce to our wonderful CSA members.

Chickens were born to scratch and peck, which is exactly what they do at White Oak Pastures. Our chickens are completely unrestricted, and they could walk to Atlanta if they wanted to. This lifestyle is ideal for them, but it makes our job a heck of a lot harder. We think it is worth it, and our customers do, too.

The business that we run is the most simple business in the world. We own land, and we own animals. We spend our days doing the right things for both. The animals breed, have young, they grow, we slaughter them, we sell the meat and poultry for money that we use to pay our expenses, and it all starts again. It is very simple, but it is also remarkably complex. There are a lot of moving parts.

We had a blast this Saturday at our second annual 5K Ruff Run! Contestants were challenged by 14 obstacles throughout our pastures, while the two days of rain prior to the event added a whole other level of difficulty. You can do a mud run anywhere, but where else can you do an obstacle-filled race on a farm with 10 species of livestock looking on?

This week, White Oak Pastures’ Chef Reid was a finalist in the 10th Annual Flavor of Georgia contest hosted by the University of Georgia. Our pastured Chorizo Sausage was showcased in the Meat & Seafood category, and made it to the top three of 12 contestants. Products were judged on flavor, texture, ingredient profile, and how well the products represent Georgia.

As environmental stewards, planting trees is one of our many responsibilities. Years of watching nature has taught us that the most diversity occurs in the edge or boundary of two of ecological habitats, where we see more wildlife and microbial growth. During the last decade at White Oak Pastures, we have planted about 1,000 trees along our fence lines each year to create this edge.