Sweet Gum Farm AL

Sweet Gum Farm is a small family farm located in Central Alabama. We started our farming adventure in 2015 when we got into beekeeping due to the decline in the honeybee population worldwide as well as for the delicious honey. After that we had the opportunity to get 11 laying hens so we decided to try having layers and were surprised at the huge difference in the non-GMO pastured eggs our hens laid versus the organic eggs we had been purchasing in stores. Concern about the quality of the main source of meat in our diets had been on our minds for years–chicken meat bought in stores didn’t have much flavor, the meat tended to be blah and tasteless so needed a lot of sauces or flavorings added to give it taste– but we didn’t really know what to do about it.  We also had started realizing that the food system in this country is based on hiding behind anonymity and denial about the misery the animals live in; we have no idea what goes into producing the animals that feed us or who is preparing the food that is supposed to nourish our bodies.  In fact, when we picked up that package of meat in the grocery store, it was easy to forget that it ever was a live animal, much less consider the importance of how the animal was raised and its quality of life while it lived.  We had read many articles and seen documentaries showing that the animals had lived miserable lives in horrible conditions (such as the picture below from an article) as well as raising a lot of questions about their care and even the health of the birds, which isn’t something anyone wants to read about what they are eating.  If the commercial chicken we buy from the store has to be butchered before it has a heart attack or other serious health problems, is it a healthy source of nutrition?  What does that do to us as consumers who eat it?  And what about those of us who didn’t want to support a miserable life like that for our food animals? These were the types of questions running through our minds but, again, we didn’t know what we could do about it.  We were just two people dissatisfied with the established system. After getting our own laying hens and tasting the difference between the organic eggs we had been purchasing in the store (because at the time we hadn’t realized that organic was only about the feed the chickens were given, not about their quality of life) and the eggs from our hens, we started to consider that we could raise our own chickens for meat as well as eggs.  We set about researching it and learning all about the process. Broilers are meat chickens, layers are chickens who lay eggs. The large poultry operations who raise chickens in the indoor buildings by the hundreds of thousands use the Jumbo Cornish breed. Jumbo Cornish chickens have been bred to have a lot of breast meat–the meat many people want most–and little leg meat, as well as to grow as big as possible in as short as possible a time. This produces a bird that is sometimes referred to a “frankenchicken” for its disproportionate physique; in fact, it can become so top-heavy that its legs cannot support its weight. According to a scientific study published in 2003 on the Michigan State University web site, It is also generally accepted that the main cause of leg problems is that modern broilers have been selectively bred (often referred to as “genetic selection”) to grow extremely quickly.   Today’s broilers reach their slaughter weight in around 41 days, which is twice as fast as around 30 years ago.   These accelerated growth rates have been achieved primarily by selective breeding, but also through the use of rich diets[high-calorie feed]and, until recently, growth-promoting antibiotics.  What grows quickly is the muscle (meat), but the supporting structure of legs, heart and lungs fail to keep pace with the rapid body growth, and can buckle under the strain of supporting the overgrown body. That is the kind of animal-used-as-food problems that we wanted to get away