Those of you that regularly follow our facebook page may have seen our post about two lambs we recently acquired.
If so, you probably also saw that our brief mentioning the lambs would be raised for meet upset someone.
We truly understand that person's feelings, and respect his/her concerns.
So why did we mention it?
Part of the mission of our farm is for our family to be as self-sustaining as is reasonable, and also to encourage our community to do the same or to eat locally. Therefore, we feel is important that we share with you that we are ethically raising our own meats. We currently raise chickens, hogs, and rabbits for this purpose, and we already sell chicken and rabbits for meat either live or dressed. Eventually, pork, goat, and sheep will possibly be added to the list as well. Frequent followers of our farm, including on our facebook page know that eating "cute" animals was a big leap for me. As I've learned, you must move past the "cute and cuddly" point and focus on the health benefits and if you're going to eat meat, know the animal was raised in a respectful way.
That seems to be where the offended party got stuck; not considering the lambs won't stay little forever. I stated I really wanted these two adorable lambs to be part of our farm, which was true. I will cherish every day that I get to watch them frolic and play. However, they won't always be adorable lweek old lambs. They will eventually grow into full size sheep. If left to their own devices, they would eventually become old, and possibly sick. No matter what route they take they will eventually die. No matter when the time comes, I will shed a tear, or more likely sob uncontrollably. However, raising the lambs for meat would give them the opportunity to never get old and sickly. It would allow them to have a happy, healthy life, with just one bad day. Not even a whole bad day, but really just a few moments of confusion for the lamb, and then it would be done. Done; with grace and dignity and respect, and most importantly, with purpose--to nourish my family.
We are not here to debate whether eating meat is right or wrong. The simple fact is that mankind has since the dawn of it's existence and will continue to for the foreseable future. Our goal is only to provide for our family (and yours when possible) the best decision when it comes to what is on the dinner table.
I'm not entirely sure that I have articulated my feelings on this matter. There are many more points I could make, but I'm sure the opposing view has plenty of points of their own, so I'll leave you with this:
Thank you for supporting our farm, even when our views and your views are not aligned.
It's our goal to serve you when we can, and to always support you living your best life.