Holistic Management

Shierfolk farm: some chickens
grazing freely

These past two weeks, we have been focusing on understanding what holistic management is and how to achieve it not only on our farm, but in our lives as well. Here's a snapshot:

Permaculture Workshop: After a night camping, we had our second permaculture workshop. We learned how to integrate animals into farms and create food forests. Emilie, our teacher, showed us in real time how she has applied permaculture to her small farm and business, and how mixed the results have been. Definitely planning ahead and thinking holistically, her and her husband invest wisely to reach their five-year goals for themselves, their land, and bettering the local foods movement in general.

Chicken Farm: After seeing the horror clips on YouTube about what the meat-rearing industry in America is like, it was tremendously inspiring to see chickens being raised in adequate space, with a brooding place that mimicked how a mother hen would protect for her young. At ShierFolk farm, they rear their chickens with respect, dignity, and still make a profit from them. They had about 200 chickens brooding (raised form 1 day old to 5 weeks), 200 laying eggs, and another group that I wish I knew more about (but sometimes day dreaming is unavoidable). Once the chickens reached maturity at about 9 months, they would process them. As I quickly learned, processing chickens means killing them, scalding them in boiling water, de-feathering them (the boiling water helps with that), and breaking them into their various parts and packaging them.

The chickens are roosting by the "mother hen" 

Now, I've been eating chickens almost my whole life without much thought about whether it was right or wrong. It was just what people did. So when I saw the processing plant, I had a little trouble. We saw where they would insert the chickens upside down, at which point they slit the chicken's throats open so they would die as quickly as possible. My gut reaction was disgust. Killing is nasty. But I also realized it's a part of life. Emilie, an animal lover and amazing person, was killing hundreds of these chickens a day and understanding and appreciating the time and care she puts into making sure these chickens have good lives before they are slaughtered.

Josh and I having some fun in my spare time
on the Blue Ridge Parkway

So I ate her chicken. Her wonderfully delicious chicken. Maybe it's because I've never had a fresh chicken or maybe it's because I felt more connected to the process that gave me the meat I was enjoying, but it was definitely one of the best meals I've had. I do hope we get the chance to process chickens ourselves because I think that would make me feel better about the ethics of the process. Theoretically, I think its fine killing animals that have lived well and are healthy for me. But practically I have never done it. And if I cannot kill an animal and eat it myself, I probably have no business eating animals at all….so hopefully I can do it.

Quality of Life Statements: When we talked about holistic management, we did not just limit it to the farm setting, but we also discussed how we want to manage our own lives. What are my core values and how will that instruct my next action to my next decade? I found this exercise extremely powerful and a great way to tie in all the struggles I feel: in being away from my family and my boyfriend, in figuring out how to attain a healthy and ethical lifestyle and diet, and in figuring out what will give me meaning in my life. Even if I never garden again after this fellowship, the self-awareness I aim striving for here I know will carry with me forever.