02/19/08 Eat Wild Pt 1

Eat Wild Part 1. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. There is a growing movement among both ag producers and consumers towards more natural and holistic food production. Jo Robinson, a freelance journalist and author is the driving force behind eatwild.com. ROBINSON: It's a virtual marketplace for ranchers from all over the country who raise animals on pasture and pay attention to the health of the animals and the environment and also that go the extra mile to offer wholesome, natural food to their customers. If you are looking for great tasting beef, eggs, chicken, pork; eatwild.com is a good place to start. ROBINSON: Currently we have about a thousand farms listed and the demand is really picking up. There's just tremendous interest both from the consumers and from people who want to transition to a different, more healthy way of farming to get on the bandwagon with grass fed products. Right now there is a lot of press coverage of the mistreatment of animals at the California processing plant. Robinson says this is just one part of the concept. ROBINSON: On these grass based farms the farmers know their animals. They often have names for each one of them, they care about them and own them from birth until market or if they're dairy cows they own them their whole productive life and would never abuse their animals. It's unthinkable. The web site has lots of information on not only the nutritional benefit of grass fed products but a lot of information on growing and raising products. If you have an interest in purchasing these great tasting products, the site allows you to search by state. Robinson says there are other benefits to raising products this way. ROBINSON: Now research is showing that raising animals on small farms on pasture is much better for the environment. There's much, much less fuel consumed. For example when you raise cattle on grass, they do their own harvesting. The farmer doesn't have to plow or replant that corn or soy every year. It's a perpetual grass that's fertilized by the animals own manure. It's just this holistic natural system that's been with us for as long as we know. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.