The second instalment in a series of Fair Food farmers and grocery makers talking about why they do what they do.
She started Madelaine’s Eggs on her parents’ Macedon Ranges farm as an 8 year old. Fourteen years later Madelaine runs 2000 chickens and sells her eggs online, at farmers’ markets and through more than a dozen retail outlets.
Being an organic farmer to me means I know I am committed to literally growing a sustainable future. It means regenerating the land not degrading it, feeding people food and not “food-like” products.
As an egg farmer the hardest part is making the effort to raise my chickens from one day old fresh out of the hatchery, to point of lay. Many “free range” farms purchase caged chickens almost fully grown but for me this is the only way because I have positive control over their diet and conditions. So I guess to to broadly summarise, perhaps maintaining a high organic standard while staying financially viable is the hardest thing.
The most rewarding aspect is when the jigsaw of hard work and commitment comes together to percolate down into what I know in my heart are the best possible eggs I can make.
Then have my place in organic farming slot into the larger community and support others committed to the same choice with their organic products; from dairy to grains to… candlesticks! Which makes living low impact and healthily available to anyone. Gives me hope that one day organic food will just be called “food” and what we now call “conventional food” can be more appropriately titled” industrial food products”.
