In conjunction with National Farmers’ Day on October 12, Perdue Farms released a series of six videos which give consumers a closer look at a group of Perdue contract farm families that all live in the Delmarva region, and their operations. The videos are available at https://www.perdue.com/perdue-way/.
“We want to connect our consumers to see where their food comes from, and Perdue chicken comes from farms,” Eric Christianson, senior vice president of marketing and innovation for Perdue Foods, said in a press release. “These videos let consumers meet the farm families, how they raise our chickens, understand what we’re doing differently and see inside the chicken houses.
The videos show footage from five contract farms, as well as commentary from those families that operate them.
Among them are:
- Sarah Kirk, who bought a 640-acre farms with a chicken house near her grandparents’ poultry farm once she graduated from school.
- Jesse Vanderwende, who started following in his parents’ footsteps as Perdue growers even sooner. He rented two chicken houses from a neighbor when he was a senior high school.
- Ryan Greer, who built broiler houses on his family’s farm and now raises organic chickens for the Perdue Harvestland label
- Matt Webber, whose shares the joys of farming with his family. He even recalled a time a delivery of baby chicks was made to his farm one day after his daughter was born
- Choundry Asif, a former New York limousine driver and first-generation farmer, who wanted a profession that allowed him to spend more time with his family and allowed him to do something that he loved.
The farmers discuss why they think using antibiotic alternatives such as oregano is good for the birds and has helped them become better farmers. They also talk about allowing the sunlight in and allowing birds to have outdoor access, and how they believe that has been good for the chickens. They talk about, if there is a problem, they could have to get out of bed at 3 a.m., but do so gladly because “those chickens come first.”
The farmers also talk about how Perdue chickens are raised on family farms who are trying to do the right thing, and that the phrase “factory farm” simply does not apply.
