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Built on Trust
Many businesses rely on the economy of speculation. Many on the value of oil. Others prowl upon the passions of man’s deepest urges and desires. But here in the local farming business, we run on the currency of trust.
Based on my conversations with our family of customers, this is ultimately why most of you come to us. You trust us. You know us and we know you. As our global economy of imports continues to increase in complexity and the chasm between producers and consumers widens, there is a deep desire for closeness. Beyond the purity of our products, the intimacy that comes from buying from a small producer like us is something few modern economic interactions have. Shaking the hand of the person who raised your pig since it was conceived, and was with it everyday until its death is about as close as you can get.
I am fortunate enough to be able to be the person in possession of that hand; the hand that pulled the piglet from the womb, that fed the piglet for 7 months and rubbed its belly, is also the hand that held it as it took its last breath. It is a level of intimacy that I often still grapple with. Despite the great burden of this reality, there comes a greater simplicity.
The Nimble Farm
Deep in all of our collective desire for that level of simplicity, honesty and transparency is a snake biting at the heels of our meat business: the need for rapid growth balanced with continued demand, all while maintaining our values as well as a viable business model. One of the both fearful and wonderful aspects of our current business is our lack of ability to produce enough to fulfill our current demand at our current scale. This is especially apparent as we begin to climb the large mountain that is adding dairy to our on farm production. Not only are we building the plane while we’re flying it, we are trying to build a sailboat simultaneously. And the tough part is, we need some of the resources from the plane to build the boat.
So, we’ve done just that. In order to focus on producing dairy on our farm in the coming months, we have sold a significant portion of our beef herd. You may ask, how will Northaven continue to sell beef? We will continue to operate our beef enterprise as a feeder business; buying animals from other local farms that we hand pick and visit ourselves–all of whom must practice farming the same way we do–and we then distributing them to you.
This may seem odd for a direct to consumer farm, but in all honesty is more common than you may think. Naturally one would expect Northaven beef to be from Northaven, and the goal is still that one day it will be. Our need to shift the source of our customer’s beef is an important step in allowing us to focus on our pork and dairy production for the near future so that we may continue to grow our operations into the larger vision we have for Northaven. In making this shift, we want to make sure you aren’t left to find another source for your beef, or have to resort to the grocery store, Butcher Box, or other global aggregators. In acknowledging this change, we’d rather not say “we no longer provide beef”. We have worked hard to be able to provide some of the best beef available in New York and abide by the core principals we have built our trust upon with you.
We will never sell you anything that we don’t feel comfortable feeding our own families. All of our food must be as nutrient-dense as possible, raised locally, free from all contaminants and given an extremely good quality of life– this will remain the case. We are a farm built on principles, not profit. However, our necessity for sourcing beef from local farmer friends has made us examine more closely our policy regarding vaccinations for our beef animals, especially given how rare it is for a farm to exclude them entirely as we have thus far.
(None of the following facts or opinions within this newsletter are meant or intended to be applied to the topic of vaccine use in human beings. We want to be clear that we are focused on addressing this topic only in cattle specifically)
 
Knowledge is Power
The public awareness of vaccine use in livestock began at large during the COVID pandemic, when the internet became flooded with (reasonable) fears regarding mRNA immunizations in the meat industry. These mRNA vaccines are currently not approved for use in any bovine, conventional or organic, in the country; if they were, we would never sell an animal that has been injected with one. Yet this opened up the larger question for consumers: “What are they injecting into meat and why?”
I believe this was a very good thing–it is a consumer's right to know what goes into their food. The hubbub around livestock pharmaceuticals is justified. Before we get into the details on what these pharmaceuticals are, let’s explore why a producer might choose to give immunizations in any capacity.
Unlike human beings, there is no beef herd medical insurance, so producers don’t have any reason to use any interventions that aren’t viable or cost effective. Many of the vaccines that are currently being administered in cattle are exclusively for viral respiratory diseases. Feedlot beef are raised in conditions where respiratory viruses are a threat, and the immunization against these viruses is viewed as essential for their survival. No producer operating in an open air, pasture-based system would have any real reason to use most of the vaccines on the market for cattle and, more often than not, they don’t.
The common vaccines used on pasture-based farms are primarily for bacterial illnesses. The major types of vaccinations our fellow farmers use are for clostridial diseases such as blackleg, red water and tetanus. I would argue that the vast majority of diseases that cattle are immunized against are completely preventable with proper management and good animal nutrition. However, even some of the best, most responsible organic beef and milk producers in the country rely on these simple interventions to ensure they don’t lose a nursing mother to blackleg or watch a calf die from something easily preventable. The problem on cattle farms particularly is that, once introduced, these types of bacteria stay for a very long time. They can and do kill completely healthy animals on a regular basis.
A Balanced Approach
Our colleagues who have herds in the four to six hundred cow range have very different experiences than us with unvaccinated herds (given that we often float around 30 animals or less). One good friend who operates a local farm north of us pulled his tetanus immunization from his calves in 2021 due to the consumer demand for completely unvaccinated beef. He lost 27 calves to tetanus that year, watching their bodies rapidly decline with seizures and spasms without any way to help them until they were overtaken by the toxoids unto death.
Does that happen to everyone when they stop vaccinating? No. Why did it happen to him? We don’t know. Likely because the bacteria lives in his soil, which does happen. He takes great care of his animals just like us. The struggle between animal welfare and pharmaceutical intervention is indeed a challenge, which is why we only support the most basic and balanced of approaches between the two.
I share this story to give you the context on why some producers choose to hold to a very small amount of basic protocols to keep their livelihood intact. If a producer on the scale of hundreds of animals had the same loss, it would be completely devastating. A part of organic livestock farming that is not often publicized or discussed is that our choice not to use modern interventions results in allowing several animals to die each year from otherwise preventable illnesses. This can only go so far until a farmer's wallet and heart needs to intervene.
We're in This Together
We stand by you all in wanting food that is pure and clean, free from metals and poisons. That is how we got into this business in the first place. I would go so far to say that in “perfect” conditions, with extremely healthy animals and pristine soil, any medical intervention at all is unnecessary and even harmful. But alas, even while our farm is striving for perfection, we fall short everyday. Instead we are left to do our very best.
Our pork is produced on our farm from birth, and is therefore never given any pharmaceuticals or immunizations. As for our beef, the friends who we are currently sourcing beef animals from do use a very basic set of immunizations for the reasons we just explored above. Yet this level of exposure is minute compared to the average.
For context, the average conventionally raised beef animal in the U.S. receives up to 10 immunizations a year over the course of their short life, totaling nearly 20+ injections by slaughter (Merck Animal Health Example Cattle Vaccine Protocol). Contrasting that to us–the most possible vaccinations given to an animal we’d sell would be 3 (yet most would only receive one), all of which are given before the calves are six months old. The three being: Enforce 3 (nasal) for a common flu in newborn calves, Triangle 10 for digestive infection that results in Scours + Tetanus, and Bovi Shield Gold for other infectious diseases. The cattle we sell as beef would always have gone at least one and a half years since immunizing before slaughter.
A Drop in the Bucket
Now you’re probably wondering: “Do the contents of those vaccines end up in my beef?” The short answer is, no. Not according to everything that the research conducted on this issue has shown us, especially since these are given to beef animals at least 1.5 years before slaughter. These products are composed of two things–the live-modified or killed viruses/bacteria and the adjuvants used to induce an immune response.
We are not worried about the bacteria or viruses themselves, but it's the adjuvants that cause concern. The adjuvants in the immunizations used by our fellow producers are either aluminum, thimerosal (mercury) or gentamicin, all of which exist in the 50-100 microgram range per dose. However, research shows that these compounds get flushed out via the kidneys within 45 days of administration (NAHEMS, 2014).
Yet for the sake of a thought experiment, let's just say it all went straight to the meat. If thimerosal all went directly into the muscle tissue of the cattle and stayed there for two years (and to be clear, this is not what happens), the 70 micrograms of adjuvant would be dispersed amongst the 700 pound carcass. Thus, there would be 0.1 micrograms per pound of meat. Compare this to the 287 micrograms of mercury found in the average pound of rice sold in the store today (Jackson & Punshon, 2018).
Though other crops do not absorb metals as easily as rice, all produce is found to have a small amount of cadmium and mercury in it. Yes, even what you grow in your garden–especially if you’re near a road where trucks and tractors drive, or if you’re on propane heating. Any amount of it that leaks will end up in the water table and ultimately in your food. A research study published by Nature found that there are 10 micrograms of mercury in every pound of the average organic garden produce (100x what would be in this theoretical beef) (Wells, 2020).
Trying Our Best
It is our opinion that a steer given a small dose of medication two years before slaughter, given plenty of time to be flushed out via kidneys, does not violate our family’s beliefs or the values of our business and should not preclude our ability to feed our community.
Compare all this to the majority of American meat which receives medicated corn silage on a daily basis. Consider that even the majority of grassfed beef sold in our nation (which is sourced almost exclusively from Australia, New Zealand and Brazil) has been exposed to extremely high levels of 2-4 D herbicides and synthetic fertilizers on their pastures (yet can still be labeled “grassfed”, “hormone-free”, and “antibiotic free”).
We will always produce and sell only the highest quality and cleanest food we possibly can. We work tirelessly to bring you that. However, we will be honest that we cannot sell you Eden. Perhaps some other farmers and influencers will give you the impression that they can, but we would invite you to dig a bit deeper into their claims.
Much of the health industry thrives off of giving you the delusion of perfection. We’re personally more interested in honesty and transparency as we adapt and grow, rather than selling you an idea that isn’t fully true. Much of the ethos of the local food movement has been built upon farmer Joel Salatin, who has always disregarded any certification or inspection and instead focuses on customer relationships. He says he would “rather just tell them what he does” as the best way to market his food.
So here we are, doing our best not to fall into the temptation of diluting the truth to you and, as Joel puts it, just telling you what we are doing, with trust being our utmost priority.
THANK YOU
We will be the first to admit to you that sourcing animals who were vaccinated against certain pathogens in their first year of life is a compromise to the completely unvaccinated meat we’ve sold previously–and it is a choice made out of necessity for our ability to grow effectively as a business and continue to provide you and your family with additional types of food built upon the values we hold. This was not an easy topic to write on, nor tackle as a business, but the more we have researched this issue, the more we are accepting of the selective use of these tools for the economic viability of farms.
This newsletter is not to change your mind on immunizations, nor was this us “picking a side” on this polarizing issue but, out of our ethics, it was an effort to inform you of our decision. We felt it our duty to address this head on and provide complete transparency. As always, we're available if anyone has any questions, thoughts, or concerns. We appreciate each and every customer and reader, and hope to see and speak to you all very soon!
- The Northaven Pastures Team
Resources and Citations
2023 Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. RET-MAHMinute-CattleVaccineProtocal-5093 | US-BOV-221200003
Bryant C. Jurgens, David L. Parkhurst, and Kenneth Belitz. Assessing the Lead Solubility Potential of Untreated Groundwater of the United States. Environmental Science & Technology 2019 53 (6), 3095-3103 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b04475
Elzinga, Glenn. Glenn’s Response to the mRNA Vaccine. 2023. https://www.alderspring.com/ organic-beef-matters/glenns-response-to-the-mrna-vaccine/
Merck Animal Health Example Cattle Vaccine Protocol. (2023). https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/offload-downloads/cattle-vaccine-protocol-merck-ah-minute-training-too
National Animal Health Emergency Management System (NAHEMS).Vaccinations for Contagious Disease Overview. 2014. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/vac_overview_handout.pdf
Thompson, Tricia. Arsenic and Mercury in Rice: New Research from Dartmouth College. Gluten Free Watchdog. 2018.
Tracy Punshon, Brian P. Jackson, Essential micronutrient and toxic trace element concentrations in gluten containing and gluten-free foods, Food Chemistry, Volume 252, 2018.
Wells EM, Kopylev L, Nachman R, Radke EG, Segal D. Seafood, wine, rice, vegetables, and other food items associated with mercury biomarkers among seafood and non-seafood consumers: NHANES 2011-2012. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2020 May;30(3):504-514. doi: 10.1038/s41370-020-0206-6. Epub 2020 Feb 3. PMID: 32015433; PMCID: PMC7183423.
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