Pasture Raised — How One Company Is Trying To Make The New Standard For Eggs
In 2006, Michael Cox, a chicken farmer in northwest Arkansas, faced a choice that many farmers do: Grow or die. His family had been raising chickens for three generations, first for agriculture behemoth Cargill and then for themselves. Even with 800,000 laying hens, Cox was not big enough to compete: “If you’re growing or dying,” he said, “we were planning our funeral.”
Cox, who was then 25, switched some of the family’s production to organic, which brought premium prices. Then, in 2009, he heard about a Texas startup called Vital Farms that wanted to produce pasture-raised eggs and sell them across the country. “Here were guys doing something completely different,” Cox remembers. “It was just crazy enough to work.” He signed on to raise 5,000 chickens.
Since then, Vital Farms has nearly doubled in size each year. What started as a farm outside Austin with just a few thousand birds now works with about 60 farms and produces 1.5 million eggs every week. The eggs, which cost from $4.99 to $8.99 a dozen, are sold across the country in Whole Foods Markets and other natural-foods grocers, as well as in some mainstream stores, including Safeway and Kroger.
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In 2006, Michael Cox, a chicken farmer in northwest Arkansas, faced a choice that many farmers do: Grow or die. His family had been raising chickens for three generations, first for agriculture behemoth Cargill and then for themselves. Even with 800,000 laying hens, Cox was not big enough to compete: “If you’re growing or dying,” he said, “we were planning our funeral.”
Cox, who was then 25, switched some of the family’s production to organic, which brought premium prices. Then, in 2009, he heard about a Texas startup called Vital Farms that wanted to produce pasture-raised eggs and sell them across the country. “Here were guys doing something completely different,” Cox remembers. “It was just crazy enough to work.” He signed on to raise 5,000 chickens.
Since then, Vital Farms has nearly doubled in size each year. What started as a farm outside Austin with just a few thousand birds now works with about 60 farms and produces 1.5 million eggs every week. The eggs, which cost from $4.99 to $8.99 a dozen, are sold across the country in Whole Foods Markets and other natural-foods grocers, as well as in some mainstream stores, including Safeway and Kroger.
More http://bit.ly/1ElwR2Z
'via Blog this'
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