Wilton's Millstone Farm is the First in CT to be Awarded Top Grassfed and Animal Welfare Certification

Millstone Farm in Wilton, CT, uses sustainable agriculture methods to produce Certified Grassfed by AWA sheep

Since 2006 Millstone Farm has been building its farming operations, but also, just as importantly, it’s been fostering a sustainable regional food system and cultivating community. In the early days, with unformed markets for local produce like heirloom tomatoes, Betsy Fink, farm owner, and Annie Farrell assembled the networks of local chefs and regional farmers to create the relationships and systems needed. Now, 10 years later farmers and chefs have vibrant and ongoing relationships. At the same time, Millstone Farm acted as a hub for workshops to teach Backyard Chickens, Composting, and Seed Saving for many years, even partnering with CT NOFA and others on Pasture Management and New Farmer Training. Numerous workshop providers have sprouted up in the area, able to take the reign and multiply community education in these important areas. Millstone Farm has always been a venue of exploration and testing ideas; growing small batches of ancient grains, planting milkweed to enhance biodiversity for Monarch habitat, all while providing quality produce and livestock for regional chefs and the local community.

Over the past few years Betsy has been researching best practices and various certifications for the Farm’s livestock. Wanting to educate consumers and other farmers that care for the animals, from breeding, to feeding to slaughter is important for the quality of the meat and also for the long term sustainability and health for all of society, she and her team narrowed their options and applied for “Animal Welfare Approved” certification. As Mrs. Fink noted, “As a farm that has put community and sustainability first, we thought it was important to be a model and present an educational moment for our community. With large corporations shifting their supply chains and purchasing to include higher standards for purchasing, like Unilever now including animal welfare in its Sustainable Agriculture Code, more farmers will evolve and have a market for their products.”

Millstone Farm is the first farming business in Connecticut to be Certified Grassfed by AWA. This is the only certification and logo in the U.S. and Canada that guarantees food products come from animals fed a 100% grass and forage diet, raised outdoors on pasture or range for their entire lives, and managed according to the highest welfare and environmental standards on an independent family farm. While other grassfed labels exist, none has fully met consumer expectations when it comes to a grassfed and forage diet, environmental management, and farm animal welfare--until now.

Betsy, farm manager, Johnny Cameron and team raise Certified AWA laying hens, pigs, and sheep on the 75-acre property.  The sheep rotationally graze 40 acres of pasture, grazing on one section of pasture before moving to fresh fields. This type of management allows grass to recover before the sheep return to graze again and minimizes the build-up of internal parasites, avoiding reliance on chemical treatments. The herd of Large Black, Tamworth and Berkshire pigs forage and roam in 35 acres of woodland, while the flock of 200 laying hens also range outdoors on pasture. Millstone Farm pursued AWA certification for their pigs and chickens--and Certified Grassfed by AWA for their sheep--as a formal recognition of the farm’s dedication to using sustainable, environmentally sound and humane agricultural techniques.


Johnny Cameron of Millstone Farm says
,

The farm has always operated in accordance with the principles of high-welfare and sustainable management, but to be acknowledged by AWA is rewarding for us and will give our customers every confidence in the quality and sustainability our product.”

According to recent research, demand for grassfed beef, for example, has increased by 25-30 percent every year over the last decade. But while demand for grassfed meat is sky-rocketing, not all grassfed certifications are meeting consumer expectations--and some continue to permit highly questionable practices. Under the USDA Grassfed label, for example, farmers can confine cattle on dirt feedlots for long periods outside the growing season, or use growth hormones and subtherapeutic antibiotics, and yet still market the beef as grassfed--just as long as they feed the animals cut grass or forage.

AWA's new Certified Grassfed label is the only grassfed program in North America to guarantee:

  •          Ruminant animals raised outdoors on pasture for their entire lives, with an entirely grass and forage diet
  •          Animals raised according to the highest animal welfare and environmental standards in the U.S. and Canada
  • High-welfare handling, transport, and slaughter of animals--including an annual review of slaughter facilities

 

AWA Director of Communications Emily Lancaster Moose says,

"No other grassfed label can match the breadth, integrity, and transparency offered by AWA's practical and achievable Certified Grassfed standards and certification procedures. We’re proud to support farmers and ranchers like Millstone Farm and to help them promote their high-quality grassfed meat and sustainable farming practices to the public.”

For more information about Millstone Farm--or to purchase Millstone Farm Certified AWA eggs, pork, or Certified Grassfed by AWA lamb-- email info@millstonefarm.org

For more information about the Certified Grassfed by AWA label, read AWA’s Certified Grassfed FAQs or visit AnimalWelfareApproved.org/standards /awa-grassfed.

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Submitted by Wilton, CT

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