I love the convenience of the grocery store. One stop shopping, everything in one place. I try to buy organic when I can, shopping at Whole Foods or Earth Fare, but I do my share of Wal-Mart shopping as well.
Well, my family and I went on a “Farm Tour” this weekend. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. Here in the Upstate, there are about 30 farms within easy driving distance that all participated in a tour to make people more aware of them and their products. There is a Buffalo Farm right here in Simpsonville! Real, live Yosemite Buffalo! And they are a breeding farm only…no killing. So I loved that.
Anyway, one farm in particular really made an impression on me and got me thinking. Happy Cow Creamery, less than 10 miles from my house, works very hard to provide local, healthy milk to the community. The owner has grown the farm from the ground up. They have their own “closed” herd of cows so no disease or bacteria are introduced from elsewhere. They minimally heat the milk so any possible bacteria are destroyed, but the enzymes that are valuable to our health are not. Tom Trantham, the owner of Happy Cow, lives a good, but modest, life. He cares about people and wants to help provide his community with healthy milk. The kind of milk that has been shown to prevent cancer. The kind of milk people can drink even when they have been labeled “lactose intolerant.” And it’s affordable. He has even been to Washington on our behalf to fight improper labeling of dairy products that make the public think they are making healthy choices.
I’ve bought Happy Cow milk in the past, but just when it was convenient. But Tom Trantham is my neighbor. He started this farm because he cares about me. He doesn’t know me personally, but I am in his community and he started this farm because he cares about his community.
The second most important commandment in the Bible is this:
