"My older brother has worked with pigs his entire adult life, managing about 70,000 of them across five counties, Faaborg says. But we got to a point where he went from laughing at me to saying: well, I guess maybe I'll quit my job and help you out. Now he's the most dedicated, says Katherine Jernigan, director of the Transfarmation Project at Mercy for Animals, a non-profit that helped the Faaborgs make the switch and set up their new business, 1100 Farm."
"Set up in 2019, the Transfarmation Project works with farms across the US that want to ditch industrial animal agriculture, which is typically done as contract work on behalf of big meat companies, and move toward a sustainable, fully independent business model. They provide guidance on how to repurpose existing infrastructure for different crops, but also business advice on how to find the market, set up a website, establish a brand and sell directly to consumers."
An Iowa farm converted an operation that housed over 8,000 pigs annually into cultivation of lion's mane and oyster mushrooms. The farmer's brother initially mocked the change but later joined the new enterprise. The Transfarmation Project at Mercy for Animals provides technical guidance, business advice and grants to help farms repurpose infrastructure, develop brands, build websites and sell directly to consumers. The Faaborgs now produce functional mushroom products such as tinctures and salts sold online. The transition aims to reduce environmental impacts of concentrated animal-feeding operations and to protect farmers' wellbeing amid mental-health strains tied to industrial livestock production.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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