Welcome back to calm, cool, and connected where we are very passionate about encouraging you to watch what you’re putting in your body because food is medicine. So we have none other than the co-founder of The Neighborhood Harvest, Thomas Vandiver here today to talk all about how eating healthily can benefit your mood and physical health.
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The tagline we use is wholesome goodness delivered. That really sums up what we do because many of the things that we do are considered healthy in a conventional sense, and that they’re organic pesticide free, they’re fresh. They were grown, picked today delivered to you tomorrow. Incredible nutrient density, right? That organic based nutrition breaks down over time. The longer you are away from harvest, the less nutrient dense it is. Those ones, those sort of items are self-explanatory. Then you talk about some of the things where people don’t understand pasture raised proteins, right? Our red meat that we sell our beef is grass fed and grass finished for people who are really passionate about healthy eating, they’ll totally understand the difference because grass fed really doesn’t mean anything just means that the cow was fed grass at some point. And grass finished means that they were raised on pasture their entire life. They only ate grass, which is what a cow is supposed to eat. And with that being said, red meat, beef that is grass fed and grass finished is actually part of a healthy diet. That’s an important, healthy fat, you’ve got higher levels of selenium, iron, those trace minerals that you need. And so it can be part of a healthy diet, but then you talk about our kitchen operation. We make amazing meals.
So let’s say that I go to the grocery store and I see just a package of chicken. Why would using a protein that was grass fed or organic, be important compared to just picking any old package of meat?
I love that you asked about the chicken because that’s one of the proteins we do that I think is so incredible. And we’re able to bring that product to our customers here in the Hampton roads in Richmond, there’s actually a waiting list to join the farmers focus . Co-op, there’s a waiting list of farmers who want to transition from their old conventional chicken farming ways growing for one of the big names they want to grow for. Farmer’s focus . The reason being is that they know that their method, the way that these chickens are raised is better for their family, right? For the farming family, doing the work, it’s better for the chickens during the life to they do have with us. It’s better for the end user. Organic feed is important. Chickens that are raised in a conventional manner are grown in these sheds. They’re not exposed to light. They’re pumped full of antibiotics because they’re raised in an environment that is unhealthy for the chicken. So when you raise an unhealthy chicken, you’re going to be putting that in your body. You’ve got an unhealthy product going inside of you. The farmer’s focus method by allowing the chicken stuff, access to pasture, getting sunlight, breathing, fresh air, eating, only an organic feed. You’re able to produce a chicken. That’s so healthy. It doesn’t need antibiotics. And that’s the great debate. People say, antibiotic free. They’re not doing anything special. Really what they’re doing is they’re doing things the right way. They’re raising chickens, the way that they were supposed to be raised, the way chickens raised themselves for thousands and thousands of years, without the help of humans, it’s not like chickens needed our antibiotics a hundred years ago. So that’s really what it is. It’s about getting back to basics, growing food, no matter what the food is, the way that it should be raised, the way that it should be grown and cultivated.
