What About Organic?

TK Ranch and Organic Certification

TK Ranch native pastures and hay lands have been certified organic since 1998. Currently our certification is through the Quality Management Institute (QMI - certificate # 362005). For many years we tried to certify TK Ranch beef as organic. Unfortunately we faced significant drought (less than 3 inches of annual precipitation) and grasshopper infestations (seen at right) for many years. From 1995 until 2004 we barely had enough native grass to feed our animals during the summer months. One summer we had to ship all of our cows over 400 kms away and rent pasture to ensure they had enough summer forage - let alone winter feed. Purchasing winter fed was our only option during these times. Unfortunately, because farmers and ranchers in our area were also suffering from the same circumstances, there was no feed available locally. This meant we had to buy feed from sources a long way away. At $4/loaded mile it was costing us $720 in freight alone for one load of feed from 300 kms away - one load will only feed our cows for 4 days during the cold winter months. During the late 1990s and early 2000s almost all available certified organic feed was over 900 kms from our ranch - which would have tripled our freight costs. It easy to see why purchasing certified organic feed would have put us out of business. Instead we purchased unsprayed feeds from closer to home - a more sustainable choice and smaller carbon footprint for all involved.

In 2007 we have had a very good year - ample rains have supplied us with a good crop of winter feed. We certified our cow herd as organic this year and if the weather permits (lots of rain in 2008) we should be offering TK Ranch Certified Organic Beef in 2008/2009. Wish us luck!

Corporate Organic Agriculture

Over the years we have learned a great deal about what the term organic means. Unfortunately there is a lot of mis-information in the public domain about its definition. Most people believe that when they buy organic products they have been raised in a sustainable manner - on a small family farm that is the picture of happy rural living - while this may be the case in some instances, it is not generally.

To fully understand how your food is being raised you need to re-connect with the land - this means developing personal relationships with the people that grow and supply you and your family with the food you consume.

This is not always easy as our current food system has created a huge disconnect between urban and rural communities to the point that most people do not know where their food comes from. Unfortunately corporate organic production is becoming the norm, all you have to do is go to organizations like the Organic Consumers Association to start to learn about problems happening within the organic movement. While organic is certainly a step in the right direction, it doesn't guarantee that an animal has been raised ethically or humanely. All you have to do is search organic livestock standards on the internet to fully learn about the confinement of organic animals in feedlots and barns. The photo above at right is of the Aurora Dairy - one of the largest organic dairy factory farm in the US.

The New Organic Lure - Go Big or Go Home

In 2000 we thought that to supply growing demand for our products we should be offering them in large retail chains. For years we worked very hard to supply main-stream retailers in Alberta and learned one valuable and heartbreaking lesson - that they did not care about who we were or what we were doing - only that we could supply them with designer meat products with large profit margins.

Recently Safeway asked us if we would consider supplying their stores nationally. This is the new organic lure - go big or go home. While some people would think this was a great opportunity, we didn't. To supply any large chain would mean that we would have to compromise our program and what we believe in. We would have to ramp production to meet supply which would mean feedlot finishing - concentrating large numbers of animals in one confined area is not sustainable environmentally or ethically. Once finished the animals would have to be hauled to a large factory processing plant where an animal's psychological state is not taken into consideration - only how quickly it can be processed and shipped out the back door. Had we accepted we would have become an organic corporate factory farm based entirely on demand, supply and the bottom line. We declined and were de-listed - not a surprise, just a very sad indication of where the organic sector is moving.