Launching the Community Supported Rabbitry

Launching the Community Supported Rabbitry

Any serious food sustainability conversation must eventually turn to the rabbit. Many world communities that feed themselves derive meat protein from home production of small animals that are efficient converters of plant energy. Goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits & pigs thrive with a diverse mix of vegetables and root crops on the land that sustains them. Plant trimmings feed the livestock. Manure enriches the garden. Every output becomes an input. People eat not so much meat because there is not so much of it around and they treasure all the parts. By maintaining the local ecosystem’s carrying capacity, nutrients are stored and cycled with on-site assets providing a surplus for harvest without requiring massive fuel and chemical input.

Rabbit photos by lessnoise-moregreen.com, used with permission.

Contrast this with 97% of American beef, pork & chicken – grown in industrialized confinement facilities and processed on a national distribution scale. This causes big problems for animal health and public health in the search for large portions of cheap protein. The animals are crowded together and fed a grain diet (often pharmaceutically enhanced) that helps them grow quickly to market weight. Corn and soybeans sprout from genetically modified seeds that can withstand massive application of herbicides that harm the soil. Enormous amounts of fertilizer are required to support this house of cards. The energy footprint and pollution impact border on the unimaginable.

The global consequences of corporate agriculture are so depressing that most people just look away and continue to make the cheap easy choice. So many people have become separated from productive land that industrial meat is seen as normal today.

We intend to change the model and restore the dignity of life to the meat experience of interested families here in South County. In fact, we have done so already. While meat rabbits are popular in Europe, they are famously underserved here in the US. Our effort to expand market demand for our rotationally grazed Silver Fox meat rabbits has been incredibly successful with great upside potential. We are continuously challenged by limitations of pasture resources at our home farm location. As a result, we have been exploring outsourced solutions to this problem. We farmed out pasture pens and litters of “grow-out” kits to 6 different “contract grazing” families and a charter school in 2013.

You can help. In the spirit of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm Shares where people pay up front for a guaranteed portion of the farm’s anticipated harvest, we are launching a CSR (Community Supported Rabbitry) project to raise funds that will enable us to build more mobile A-Frame “Pasture Pens” and expand our work with this rare heritage breed to several new rotational grazing locations.

For $150 you will receive 3 dressed rabbits (1 approximately every 3 months) ready for the pot this season and an organic cotton New England Grass Fed T-shirt that acknowledges your role in

HELPING THE MEAT RABBIT

RECLAIM A SEAT AT THE TABLE

We are excited to announce that our special pasture grown rabbits will be on the menu next month at Blue Hill, Dan Barber’s award-winning restaurant at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Westchester County, NY. Dan is a nationally recognized culinary thought leader in sustainable systems and two-time James Beard Award winner. His team has far-reaching influence and seeks to reclaim a plant-based community food system that improves the land, respects animals, reverses climate change and embraces public health challenges. We are humbled to wave our flag as the champion of the small mammal for this pillar of our industry who points the way to good food that does good.

We look forward to enhancing our ability to supply Blue Hill and similarly inspired farm-to-table chefs in our region. Contact us at (401) 230-4027 or email pat@newenglandgrassfed.com if you would like to participate in the CSR program. Thank you for your support.