Sweet Happy Farms Cage Free Chickens are like no other!  These happy chickens are indeed the happiest chickens I have ever seen!  They live on the land in organic fields, with accessible shelter, happily eating bugs, vegetation and Non-GMO feed.  Irrigation networks of rain water catches provide an ongoing supply of fresh water and these happy chickens are protected by a solar powered electric fence designed to keep out marauding critters, such as foxes and coyotes.

   

You might be surprised to learn the USDA definition for use of “Free Range” or “Free Roaming” designations on chicken labels are not exactly what most consumers may have presumed.  According to USDA Food Safety Information “producers must demonstrate to the Agency [USDA] that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside(1)”.  The USDA is the regulating body in charge of oversight of meat and poultry in the USA.  Chicken production businesses get to determine the amount of time, if any, chickens are permitted access the great outdoors.  Sweet Happy Farms believes this rule is not adequate.  Their happy chickens live outdoors with access to shelter.  They live amongst tall plants and grasses, grazing and eating bugs, in a very large area.  Sweet Happy Farms maintains a flock of layers over winter, keeping them warm and happy.  Production is stopped in autumn, and then begins again in spring.

Sweet Happy Farms Owner, Shawn Sweet, feels he is part of a movement dedicated to humanely harvesting animals.  This method honors the animal from birth to harvest.  Mr. Sweet defines humanely harvesting, as the animal not living under stress during life or death, and that the person handling the animal loves animals.  USDA inspection regulations require poultry must be harvested in one of their inspection facilities, it took Sweet Happy Farms quite some time to find a processor who humanely looks at animals the same way. Shawn Sweet feels the very existence of Sweet Happy Farms is an act of awareness and he is looking for consumers who share this belief.  He believes awareness also includes consumers looking at the quality and the texture of the poultry on their dinner tables.  Mr. Sweet believes “love translates to flavor (2)”.

Chickens raised by Sweet Happy Farms eat a diet rooted in the natural ways chickens feed themselves.  This natural diet of bugs and vegetation is supplemented twice daily by Non-GMO feed.  Mr. Sweet is often surprised when businesses and individual consumers opt to purchase chickens which qualify for an “organic” label, but the chickens themselves generally have limited or zero time outside during their growth and are not honored at time of harvest.

Sweet Happy Farms believes in a buy local business model which emphasizes farm to table, or rather, farmer direct to consumer.  Mr. Sweet would like to see communities return to the basics of yesteryear, like going to the chicken man for chicken.  His model is working.  Sweet Happy Farms is expanding.  Although chickens are sold through a few select natural food stores, Mr. Sweet wants to see consumers receive real savings at the checkout line. For this reason, he prefers distributing directly to the consumer via Farmer’s Markets.Happy chickens and happy consumers are the core of Sweet Happy Farms.

Buy Sweet Happy Farms Humanely Harvested Chickens:   St. Albans and Jericho farmer’s markets beginning again in late spring of 2015.  Sweet Happy Farms welcomes direct orders, please message Sweet Happy Farms on Facebook for more information.

References:

1. USDA; Meat and Poultry Labeling Terms; April 2011; http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/e2853601-3edb-45d3-90dc-1bef17b7f277/Meat_and_Poultry_Labeling_Terms.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
2. Direct Interview with Shawn Sweet, Owner, Sweet Happy Farms; 9/30/2014

“Sweet Happy Farms Cage Free Chickens are like no other!” by Liz Conforti (c)2014 Cow on a Cliff, Vermont Food Chronicles

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