Food resiliency is everything. Together, we are building a better food future.

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November 18, 2022

Food security and food resiliency are similar, but the differences are marked. One focuses on the now, and one focuses on the future.

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food that meets all dietary needs.

As a crude example, if I were to stockpile enough cheese to feed my family for a year, then I would have food security for a year.

Food resiliency builds on that. It is having food security plus the ability to prepare for, withstand, and recover from a crisis or disruption.

So, my pile of cheese would last a year. But, what happens after my family eats all of that cheese or if there was a disaster that destroyed all of the cheese? With food resiliency, I would need to have a plan to constantly replenish that cheese stockpile no matter what the world throws at me.

At Miller’s Bio Farm, we are constantly working on better food resiliency. It’s a food revolution that we think will create a better food future.

It’s important to note that nothing we’re doing is that “new”. In fact, it’s (mostly) radically traditional. We are taking the best farming practices and food preparation techniques from the past and bringing it into the modern day.

Here are 6 big things we are doing:

1- Resiliency of the soil with regenerative farming.

This might be the most important one on the list. Modern research shows that, if conventional farming continues and topsoil continues to degrade, we may have just 60 harvests left.

In order to keep regrowing crops, farmers need to fertilize their fields. Whether they use petroleum-based or more natural fertilizers, making and getting fertilizer to a farm uses a LOT of energy. It’s simply not a sustainable farming practice. And, even if a farm needs fertilizer to grow the next round of crops every year, how much topsoil are they losing in the process? You need topsoil to put fertilizer on.

Enter regenerative farming. With animal-based regenerative farming, we naturally replenish and build the topsoil every year with minimal external inputs, with the goal of making the land better and more productive than the year before.

2- Resiliency because we work with a family of local small farms and processors.

99% of our products are grown or produced by our farm and other local Amish farms and processors that hold the same standards. I mean, that’s pretty incredible. Lancaster County is becoming a natural food mecca.

So, if one of our farmer’s properties is destroyed by a flood or one of our processors needs to close or who knows what else, we have a network that we can rely on to fill in the gaps.

We don’t want to vertically integrate and produce everything ourselves. We believe that resiliency requires a community, different businesses working together and supporting each other.

3- Resiliency of food quantity with nutrient dense foods.

I’ve heard people say that, when they eat nutrient-dense farm-direct foods, they feel full more quickly and eat less. Why is this?

Let’s say you eat a bag of conventional potato chips with basically no nutritional value. You will still feel hungry, because your body is telling you that it doesn’t have what it needs. It’s not getting the right combination of the basic building blocks of life from those potato chips. You can eat all the extra potato chips you want, but you’ll still feel hungry. This is called “hidden hunger”.

You can say the same thing when you compare our nutrient-dense milk, eggs, meats, produce, etc to their conventional counterparts. The calories from properly produced foods have more value.

Miller’s Bio Farm aims to produce the most nutrient-dense foods possible. No empty calories here. When you eat our foods, your body is satisfied more quickly, and you end up consuming less. That means that there’s more food to go around.

4- Resiliency of our hardworking staff and a close knit Amish community.

When there’s a crisis, the food supply is almost always affected. Let’s take the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many grocery store shelves were empty and shopping was difficult. People transitioned to online shopping, and our farm was… well… overwhelmed.

How did we produce and pack double what we were used to overnight? Farmer Aaron pulled in his community. He had former staff and others in his Amish community come to lend a hand. It was beautiful (and stressful), but the farm endured and made it through.

Right now, it's the Amish wedding season. We have staff taking off basically every Tuesday and Thursday. Do we cancel deliveries and pickups? No way. We rearrange our schedules and work hard.

5- Resiliency because we are off the grid.

Did you know that our farm is off the grid? That’s right. There’s no power lines connected to our facility. Our internet runs on hot spots. We would have no idea if there’s a power outage.

But, everything is not hunky dory. Our facility (the milking machines, cooler, freezer, etc) run off of diesel generators. We are reliant on oil. This is something that I would love the farm to work on. Wouldn’t it be neat if one day we could announce that our facility was 100% solar or wind powered!?

6- Resiliency because of our loyal customers.

You make all of the above possible. Without you purchasing our food, whether it’s regularly or every once in a while, we wouldn’t be able to continue on. You vote with your fork every time you purchase food. Thank you for your support and for being part of this food revolution with us!

Do you worry about food security or food resiliency? Are you making any efforts at home? Do these ideas impact what you choose to eat or where you buy it from?

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - just start typing for the guest option to appear) or contact us.

PS: Our way is not the only way. Just like with any problem, there are many different ways of working towards better food resiliency. Thank you to everyone who is thinking about this and taking steps towards a better food future, wherever you are on your food journey.

Opinion

Farming Practices

Here's the untold story of raw milk. Raw or pasteurized? It should be your choice.

Raw milk has been a highly contested issue in modern history. Is it a healthy nutrient-dense “cure-all” for nourishing your body, or is it a dangerous vector for spreading life-threatening disease? The two camps are split. It is a complicated issue with mixed battles of bad science vs. personal testimony, morals vs. politics, education vs. advertising, and big agri-business vs. small farms. Let's dive in...

Warning: Fat Holds Toxins. Carnivore and keto folks should watch out.

Aaron, myself, and a couple other team members went to Tennessee to participate in Meatstock 2025 last weekend. It's a carnivore/keto party in the Smoky Mountains. Boy, we learned a lot and met a lot of wonderful people, both people who healed through food as well as doctors and experts that help people heal. One person we had the pleasure of meeting was the amazing Dr. Kiltz. He's a carnivore. He's also a doctor who specializes in fertility. And can you guess how he helps many of his patients? Yup, through food. He's a big supporter of the carnivore and keto diets. He suggests getting 70-80% of your calories from fat, 15-30% from protein, and 0-10% from carbs. Dr. Kiltz spoke at a dinner we attended. And something he said shocked us -- "Don't worry about grass fed, regenerative, and all that natural stuff. It's the fact that you're eating fat that matters." 😳 Woah woah woah. Hold up a sec. We, of course, had a conversation with Dr. Kiltz about this. I mean, why are people having health issues in the first place? Sure, some of it could be genetics. Some of it's definitely environmental. But, a lot of it is likely the food we're eating. It's processed food laden with seed oils and carbs and sugar and yucky additives... but also the farming practices that result in toxic stuff hidden in plain old ingredients. Dr. Kiltz agreed and elaborated on his statement. What he's saying is that, if you're eating a standard American diet, the biggest and fastest impact you can make comes from altering your diet on a macro level - fat, protein, and carbs. But the granular stuff you can't see or count matters too, especially once you're making progress. OK, I get it. But then I thought some more... Toxins accumulate in the fat. So, if you eat animal-based foods (especially the fattier ones) and are looking to limit (or eliminate) that awful toxic stuff, farming practices matter. Like a lot! So, unsurprisingly, I went into research mode. Here's what I learned. Which toxins accumulate in fat and why? Not all toxins accumulate in fat. Some are stored in bone, muscle, organs, etc. But, there are certain toxins that a body stores specifically in fat. They include: Dioxins and furans (PCDDs/PCDFs) - These are persistent pollutants, resistant to breakdown, that are generally creating by burning things like plastic and chemicals and garbage. They can also be created as byproducts of industrial processes.PCBs - That's short for polychlorinated biphenyls, which are synthetic chemicals that were used to make various consumer products, from paint to glues to lubricants to coolants to batteries. They were banned in 1979, but because of their inability to breakdown, they remain as toxins in our environment.Pesticides & Herbicides - This includes previously banned pesticides (like DDT) that are still present in our environment. This also includes pesticides used today, like organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides. Certain Toxic Heavy Metals - Mercury, lead, cadmium, and aluminum are known for accumulating in fat. The reason the above toxins collect specifically fat (AKA adipose tissue) is because they are lipophilic. Liophilic is when a substance is "fat loving" and can bond with or dissolve in fat. Other toxins are hydrophilic, meaning they are "water loving" and can bond with and dissolve in water. These include bentazone, glyphosate, imidacloprid, flouride, and arsenic. They do not accumulate in fat. What can an overload of toxins do to your body? I like to think about toxic overload like a cup. Our bodies can process a little of it. But, when the cup is overfilled with stuff like pesticides, toxic heavy metals, mold, carcinogens, etc, that's when problems happen. Our bodies are pretty good at handling stress. That's why toxic overload can be confusing. It may take a long time - months, years, or decades - for the problem to arise. Then, once the problem happens, it's hard to pinpoint the cause. And then, healing time is often lengthy (and sometimes the damage can't completely be undone). When it comes to toxins, the response really depends on the body. The list of issues that can arise is exhaustive. They include fatigue, headaches, digestive problems and leaky gut, brain fog, anxiety and depression, increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hormone imbalance, mast cell overreaction, histamine responses, bloating and inflammation, trouble sleeping, skin conditions, liver damage, obesity, and more. Where can toxins in animal-based foods come from? When it comes to farming, there are few places that toxins can be introduced to animals. This can be from toxins resistant to breaking down from decades ago or toxins being used or produced today. This can be on the actual farms or in the facilities that prepare food for sale: Air: Toxins can vaporize and float in the air. Animals can breathe it in or it can settle on top of soil or water. Water: This is especially true with city water, which often has chemicals added to it or may run through old pipes. But, as we all know, water pollution varies from area to area.Soil: This can come from the local area or a non-farming activity that happened on the land previously. This can also be from past farming practices or current ones. Slaughter and butchering: Did you know an antimicrobial is required by the USDA when processing meat? Processors can choose harsh chemicals like bleach or opt for more natural ones like citric or lactic acids or vinegar.Recipes: Think beef jerky or lunchmeat. They have ingredients. First off, anything that's less than 1% doesn't need to be listed on the package. And then, of course, there's the hidden stuff depending on the quality of the ingredient.Packaging: Even what our food comes in can leach chemicals into our food. I mean, think about microplastics in bottled water! When toxins enter your food, you can't see them. You can't taste them. You can't smell them. This is why knowing more about how your food is produced is important. How can farming practices decrease the levels of toxins? Well, there are bunch of ways toxins can get into food from farming. Here are some ways that farms can decrease toxins in the final food: Choose A Clean Location: If a farm is located right next to or downstream from a factory or city, toxin levels will likely increase. Farms should ideally be far from cities or factories. Have Clean Water: If contamination is persistent in your area, you'll likely know it. And, you can always test the water, too.Improve Soil Health With Regenerative Farming: When soil is dead and unhealthy, toxins break down at their normal speed. But, with regenerative farming that creates robust microbiology, toxins can break down faster.Fertilize Naturally: There are plenty of chemical fertilizers out there. But, compost and manure from natural chemical-free sources are just as good… if not better.Limit, Eliminate, Be Considerate With Pesticide And Herbicide Use: A grand majority of farms still use pesticides and herbicides regularly. Yeesh. Even the organic ones can contain yucky stuff. With things like fruit, it's kinda necessary to some extent. But, especially with pasture raised animals, they're simply not needed (even though some farms still choose it).Choose Naturally Formulated Feed: This is the idea of the ingredients in the ingredients. You can have the most pristine land, air, and water, raising beef. But, if you feed them GMO corn sprayed with glyphosate and grown in contaminated soil... well... those toxins are introduced. Farms can make sure they're feed ingredients are pure and the sources the ingredients come from are chemical-free.Eliminate Vaccines: Yup, vaccines contain toxins. And especially when injected, they can harbor themselves in fat. Aluminum is a common ingredient in vaccines. And, did you know that animal vaccines can contain Thimerosal (AKA mercury)? That's been banned in human vaccines. When animals are raised outdoors and to be naturally happy and healthy, vaccines aren't necessary.Be Mindful With Anyone Who Processes Your Food: This can be a challenge, especially if you're in an area with more conventional farms. Farms can ask the hard questions and ask for changes like what antimicrobials are used (apple cider vinegar is allowed by the USDA), what the ingredients are, and where the ingredients are sourced from. At Miller's Bio Farm, we try to reduce your toxic intake as much as possible. Here's a few notable things we do (among the many): All of our small farms are 60+ miles from any major city.Our pastures are never sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. We love the biodiversity!Our pastures are fertilized with manure and more manure!Our farms that raise our animals regenerate their soil year after year. The idea is to improve the quality of the soil, and that includes the microbes that can help break down toxins.Clean well water is used for the animals to drink and for processing our meat and all of our products. Our beef, pork, and lamb are washed with organic apple cider vinegar. Our chicken is air chilled. Our turkey is washed with water and only water.None of our animals are fed corn or soy. And, our feed is chemical-free.Our farmers do not vaccinate their animals. Our chicken and turkey and lamb is 100% vaccine free. The only way a vaccine could be given to a cow or pig is if the animal was bought in and previously vaccinated. We make sure that no animal has received an mRNA vaccine. None of our products have yucky stuff like nitrates/nitrites, additives, fillers, etc. It's simple natural food. We always vet our processors before working with them to make sure they're up to our natural standards. We'd love to supply you with clean foods and hope you join the movement! Do you eat a lot of fat? Whether you do or not, what toxins make you most worried? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us 😊 ----- References: Carnivore Diet Macros and How to Achieve ThemAdipose Tissue as a Site of Toxin Accumulation Pesticide residues in animal-derived food: Current state and perspectives Impact of pesticide exposure on adipose tissue development and function10 Powerful Nutrients Found Only in Meat

Does varying yolk color affect the flavor of honest eggs?

As you know, we don't add any color to our feed. This is why our pastured corn & soy free eggs are called "honest yolk eggs". "Color" includes unnatural stuff like dyes as well as natural stuff like marigold and paprika. Nearly all egg farmers nowadays do this... even the natural ones. Why? People demand consistent color yolks, thinking it means a certain quality. Little do most know, yolk color is superficial now. At Miller's, we know this for a fact. Curiosity made us to send our eggs for testing, and there was zero nutritional difference in our orange vs yellow yolk eggs. What mattered most was the farming practices and quality of the feed, and our eggs came out on top for most tests. We really love having varying yolk color. It's an indicator of what the birds are eating. It tells our farmers how their pasture is doing. If the plants are too mature, not diverse enough, it's too wet or dry, or if chickens aren't eating the pasture, we'll see that with the yolk color! Now, we've had an array of responses since we removed the color from our feed. One baffling one is --- the light colored yolks don't taste as good as the dark colored yolks. Is this true? I mean, removing the color is only a superficial change. It shouldn't affect the flavor. Well, we needed to find out. So... we did a blind tasting on the farm a few weeks ago. Here's what that looked like: The results? The whole team agreed -- all eggs tasted the same! The biggest factor affecting egg flavor was the yolk to white ratio. The more yolk, the more flavor. It's spring, and our hens are out on pasture 100% of the time. An egg develops for about 6 weeks inside a chicken, so it takes some time. But... you should start to see darker yolks now. Have you noticed a change in yolk color? Have you noticed a flavor change? Would you prefer consistent colored yolks or honest yolks? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us 😊 PS: The egg shortage is 100% over, and we have plenty of eggs now!! That means egg bundles are back!