HBC Forum

 				Home

 				Educate

This page will serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas on how we can work together to reverse the effects of the commercialism of food production.
If you have questions or comments regarding Heritage Breeds to share, please submit them to so we can post your input.

Reader Contributions:

I am looking for individuals to talk to about the development of and changes within the organic, natural, sustainable and/or grass-fed meat production models. Anecdotes are welcome, as are complaints and cheers of good will about the industry, about individuals, about the world around you. Really anything. Only limits are geographical: I have been limited to New England. Meat means anything you want it to mean.
I am writing a research paper for Brandeis University. I appreciate any help you feel up to giving me.

----------

I am looking for any startup information on raising Red Wattle hogs. I am interested in how people got started in the business and how to start purchasing breeding stock. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you.

----------

I am inquiring regarding people and their interest in a new Heritage Farm start up possibility. I am in discussions with some abandoned farm owners in New York. This site looks perfect in every way to make it a public showcase. Any interest anybody?

----------

I need a list breeders of coturnix quails in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, so that I can purchase from them this spring.

----------

I urge all heritage livestock and poultry farmers and hobbiests to educate yourselves about the USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS). While voluntary at this time, it is due to become mandatory by 2009, and there is a bill in the works that would give the USDA federal authority to enforce it throughout the US.
NAIS would require all owners of even one chicken, cow, sheep, goat, llama, equine, pig, ratite, waterfowl, gamebirds -- every kind of agricultural animal -- to register their premises in a national government database, and to inject an RFID (radio frequency Identification) microchip into each animal.
In the event of an outbreak of a livestock or poultry disease, the government would then have the right to enter the premises of registered owners within a determined radius of the infected animal, and seize and destroy those premises' animals, regardless of whether they are infected.

Animal owners will be required to pay for the microchips. Furthermore, they must report to the government every time any of their animals co-mingles with animals from another premises (such as at shows, fairs, auctions, and must report sales, deaths and both the departure from and return to home premises within 24 hours.
Consider how NAIS in its current form will affect the preservation of heritage breeds and the small farms that keep them. Make your state representatives aware of the potential threat to our freedoms. To see NAIS for yourselves, go to the USDA's site (USDA.gov).

----------

I'm looking for a good guide (maybe even e-book) on how to begin raising heritage turkeys. Can someone point me in the right direction?

----------

I'm looking for some heritage breed chickens. I'm located in CT and would prefer to buy locally. Please contact me if you know of someone who raises heritage breeds of chickens.Thanks!

----------

I am interested in acquiring a breeding pair of bourbon red turkeys. The hatcheries want an order of 10 or more and I want to keep things at a very small scale. Thanks. We are located in Rhode Island

----------

Just a question, I wonder why you are spending your efforts on the bourbon red turkey when in NYS, at least, I see them everywhere. Are there not some turkeys that are more rare?

----------

I am looking for Bantam Sumatra, any help to find these birds is appreciated. I am looking for a pair or trio and am willing to pay for shipping. thanks.

----------

Hello - we're researching heritage chickens - we're looking for a chicken that can handle Maine winters & still lay a nice large brown egg. How about Javas or Delewares? Does any one have info to share and/or chicks for sale? Thanks!

Agriculture Today: Why We Need to Protect Rare Breeds
Pressure is growing in the commercial beef industry to produce beef from hybrids of only two or three varieties of cattle. Additionally, the breeding that produces the large beef animals in demand often creates undesirable characteristics. For example, Black Angus, once compact animals, now weigh 2,500 pounds or more and, as a result, have difficulty with oversized calves and unsound feet and legs.

Though there are many excellent varities of dairy cattle, Holsteins produce nearly all of our milk, cream, and butter. They have been selected and medicated to produce so much milk that they can only survive as heathy dairy animals for two years on average. The glut of milk produced by large dairies, low milk prices and few market options have forced thousands of small dairy farmers out of business.

Over 90% commercially produced turkeys are of a Large White variety that is not recognized by the American Poultry Association and is bred by only three large international companies. These commercial turkeys have been bred to be so heavy and short legged that they can no longer reproduce naturally. The Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities in its 1998 Turkey Census Report noted that: "there are only 3,817 non-broad-breasted turkeys of which 924 (24%) are wilds." These birds are found in small flocks kept by dedicated breeders throughout the United States and Canada.

And the same types of problems exist with commercial swine production. Of the 15 distinct swine breeds listed in the 1930 U.S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook, many have now disappeared because the commercial pork industry so strongly favors a standardized product.