Buying Local has become a buzz word in the past two or three years, but Yah’s Best Products out of Mecklenburg County North Carolina was doing it before anybody else thought of it. Eight years later they market as many as 75 different products, many of which completely originate from their family farm. Paige Crawford Key co-owns the company with her mother, Suzanne McCord Crawford:
“We always grew produce and someone said if you make this I would buy it. And that’s how it started. We started with one salsa and a dressing eight years ago.”
The origin of the McCord family farm goes back more than 100 years according to Key:
“this is on land that my great-grandparents started farming on in the late 1800s. We are still farming on land that my ancestors initially farmed.”
It’s truly a family business, Yah’s Best Products, run by Key and her mother plus her two nieces, Molly and Claire. Molly is more involved in marketing and sales, and Claire tends crops on the farm. For more on Yah’s Best Products visit our website, SFNToday.com
HSUS Investing in Companies to Use Shareholder Pressure to Further Agenda
The Humane Society of the United States has bought shares in four major financial services companies in a bid to use shareholder pressure to force two of the nation's largest pork producers to stop housing pregnant sows in gestation stalls.
The animal rights group said late last week that its investment - a relatively small $3,000 or so worth of stock in each company, but large enough to introduce proposals during shareholder meetings - was targeted at investors in Tyson Foods Inc and Seaboard Foods, a unit of Seaboard Corp.
The group has successfully used such shareholder advocacy in the past to pressure food and agriculture companies to change corporate buying habits and production practices.
Effects of Drought on Food Prices Explained
Much has been made of late about how the Midwestern drought will affect retail food prices. American Farm Bureau Federation Economist Todd Davis offers an explanation as to why the biggest pinch will be felt at the meat counter:
“It will take a while for the effect of this drought to be measured and for the market to absorb some of this effect. You will see greater impact in the products that consume corn and soy beans directly, meaning meat, dairy and eggs. A lot of products do have corn, but not in great quantities so that effect on consumer price is going to be less.”
Grant Allows Sick Children to Experience Nature
A small grant is helping hospitalized North Carolina children get in contact with nature in ways they're otherwise not allowed to do because of their compromised immune systems.
The North Carolina Botanical Garden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is using the $25,000 grant to create a hands-on nature exhibit.
The idea is to lift the spirits of children at UNC Hospitals by loading a pushcart with a sealed greenhouse-type structure with built-in gloves that allow hospitalized kids to reach inside to plant seeds and eventually watch their seeds sprout.
Because many of these children are suffering from ailments that make germs more dangerous than normal, they're not allowed contact with natural materials like soils, seeds or live plants.
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