Our Mission is to create a new food model to distribute clean local food while teaching and empowering family farmers to become successful entrepreneurs starting with rebuilding the soil.
Join us in creating something special for all generations from the ground up!
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)
Please visit realfarmfoodshub.org for more information about this non profit organization
Real Farm Foods Hub members use these proven methods to restore and regenerate the soil naturally to produce the healthful fruits, vegetables
and meats delivered to you through the local Hub.
The Soil Story
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Soil is a growing medium that supplies vegetables and herbs with the nutrients they need to produce nutritious food. In that process, most plants deplete those nutrients (notably nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, calcium and many trace elements) from the soil. How the farmer gets those chemicals into
the soil generally follows one of two paths- chemical or natural.
By the twentieth century, America had opened up vast stretches of farmland. The advent of mechanization kicked agricultural production into high gear. However, the land was not inexhaustible. Nutrients built up over millions of years were depleted and farm
soils became sterile. Productivity was maintained by the
constant input of synthetic fertilizers. This path led to
further problems of air pollution, runoff into waterways,
heavy water use, disease susceptibility, weed proliferation,
and nutritional insufficiency.
The alternative to the problematic mass
farming method is for local farmers to actively
restore and constantly regenerate their soils
with the natural elements that turn dirt into
healthy, productive soil. Increasing organic matter
by adding compost and minerals to the soil allow
beneficial bacteria and symbiotic fungi to make
nutrients available to plants. Cover crops that fix
nitrogen and carbon into the soil are rotated
with crops to further build soil health.
Livestock grazed by rotation build soil naturally as their
organic matter is worked into the soil. This produces
healthier, fuller grass pasture, and that has been shown to take
more carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil
than trees on the same acreage. More carbon in the soil means
healthier grass resulting in healthier livestock and
more nutrient dense meat.
Clean Food
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At Real Farm Foods Hub, our members follow a rigid protocol while growing or producing the food that reaches your table. While many of us are not organically certified, we adhere to the “clean” food mantra - we use no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, nor do we use GMO seeds or products.
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Our food is
naturally grown!
We are proud to say that most of our family
farmers are artists and this would be very evident
upon visiting them. It takes an artist's eye to know
what to grow, where to grow and when to plant.
All of these considerations involve Mother Nature
and how we work with her since every year and every
season is different from the one before. Many of our
farmers have had to rebuild their worn out and lifeless dirt,
this is a time consuming project. Most growers admit to
growing soil more than plants - if the soil is
maintained and healthy, so will be it’s bounty.
​
When we take from the soil, we always return the
favor. Micronutrients, trace elements, microbes,
earthworms, they are all part of the system by
which our farmers spend countless hours to
nurture and maintain. The variety of
weeds and pests can vary from year to
year. To manage this with nature as our
guide is an art. This is not the easiest or
most expedient way to grow the produce,
​
​
It is simply the
best way to farm.
The majority of us go to the grocery store and buy
what we want. There is a caveat there, in that we
buy everything we want, but not necessarily
what we need. Today’s food model is incredibly
dependent on “other than local” sources of food. It is
estimated that in Springfield Missouri over the course of a year, 98% of the food sold at grocery stores is brought from outside of the region. This translates into roughly $2.25
billion that leaves our region, and not helping the local
economies. Can you imagine the local southwest
Missouri region having an additional $2.25 billion
that remains in our local economies?
This should send up the proverbial red flag.
We might ask, “how did this happen” and
"What can we do
to change this?"
At Real Farm Foods Hub, we are not as concerned
about how this happened, but more importantly
how do we change the situation.
We believe we have an answer! Imagine the amount
of money that would remain in our local economies if just 20% of the food sold in the region, came from the region. This represents $484 million dollars that remain in local economies in Southwest Missouri.
This is huge! If the Real Farm Food Hub methods were
employed not only in the state of Missouri, but
across the country, we would have an economic
revolution. Rural economies would once again
begin to thrive. America would begin to thrive.
Dare I say, “America would be great again”?
As it stands now, on average,
Rural economies are
losing one small
business per month
We believe it is common knowledge that
America is experiencing a health crisis.
Obesity is growing at epidemic proportions.
Allergies and Autism rates are increasing
every year. Depending on which data you
choose to use, the United States ranks the 6th or
7th on the list of countries with the highest
cancer rates in the world. This is a list by which
we do not want to be number one. One out of
three American men and one out of five
American women are destined to cancer in their
futures. By some standards our sick care system
ranks 26th in the world.
Where will this lead us?
Over the years, modern farming methods,
and techniques, have decreased the
nutrient quality and quantity found in the
majority of food we consume.
​
Monocropping, and the almost unbridled use
of chemicals, have greatly deteriorated the quality
of the soil our food is grown in. Chemicals have
all but killed the necessary micronutrients, flora
and fauna, that composes a healthy soil. To
compensate for this loss, big agriculture has
resorted to the use of chemical fertilizers. Basically, a
large portion of our soil is simply an inert growing
medium in which chemicals are needed to produce a
crop. We know that healthy soil equals healthy food,
which in turn helps to create healthy people. You have
heard you are what you eat, and it is so true. You
will read it and hear it elsewhere on this website
that our system starts from the ground up.
Nutrient dense food can only come from
nutrient dense soil, there is no other way
around it. Healthy soil, healthy food,
healthy people, and healthy economies.
It all starts from the ground up!
Please, browse our website, ask us questions! But more importantly we ask that you join us in our endeavor to change the way healthy food makes it to your table. Despite our formidable infrastructure, our goals here at Real Farm Foods are to bring our message and our solutions to everyone. We do this through education of our customers and our family farmers. We are committed to the development of a support system that gives our farmers the tools they need to be successful and prosperous. With their success comes the healthy restorative regeneration and sustainability that builds community and economic stability.
We can only do this by expanding our existing infrastructure and system. We can only do this with your help. This is a project that will involve everyone able and willing. We do not believe healthy, nutrient dense food is only for those who can afford it. We do believe by expanding our infrastructure and greatly increasing the efficiency by which good clean food reaches your table, that we can rejuvenate not only our populations, but also our rural economies.
Join us for a healthy system change!