Food for Thought: FOOD FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK

Happy Independence Week fellow American Meat Mobsters!

We hope your weekend was full of time with the family and time outdoors eating great food and soaking up the sun.

Here’s a few things from this week that might catch your interest:

$90k of Raw Milk Dumped during a Raid by the Michigan Department of Agriculture

The ladies over at Strong Sistas (previously guests on the Meat Mafia Podcast) experienced tyranny in a sinister fashion. Last week, the Michigan Department of Agriculture raided Nourished Co-Op (owned by Strong Sistas), which proceeded to dump $90,000 worth of raw milk. The farm raid came on the back of fears around the Bird Flu (H5N1) in Michigan spreading through the food system. We’ve seen these types of regulatory overreaches in agriculture for decades, and it’s truly a remarkable display of the government intervening outside of the scope of its authority. It’s hard not to sound sensationalist on these topics, however, it’s truly disheartening knowing that the powers at be express their authority in ways that:

1. Takes from the livelihood of hard working, good people

2. Takes from the nourishment of well intentioned and well informed people

3. Propigates information about nutrition that only serves to undermine the health of the general population and (no pun intended) feed a growing health epidemic

These events are a healthy reminder to me to get more connected with our food system. The people growing and making our food in our local communities are the back bone of the health of our country and the resiliency of our future. Future generations benefit from the local American farmer and rancher prospering. These are the battles we’re fighting today in a global food economy that’s designed make food convenient, cheap, and less food-like (not fresh, not local, minimally processed).

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Meat Mafia Second Half of 2024 Challenges

Brett and I have both set out to push ourselves to another level physically recently. I am not sure what switched within us both, but we’re both working to really tap into a deeper level of commitment to excellence. As former athletes, we’ve both always felt a deep connection to pushing ourselves physically and mentally. In fact, our entire journey with the Meat Mafia and Noble Origins started after embarking on running an Ironman together back in the fall of 2021. Which (naturally) led us to running a 100k together in 2022, NOTHING in 2023, and then a marathon in 2024 (untrained). To be honest, one of the core parts of our entire business and friendship is pushing each other through physical and mental challenges, and as of late it’s felt like we’ve found reasons to not prioritize that aspect of our friendship. It’s funny too because I truly believe we’d both credit much of our successes to these physical pursuits. Well, I am here to tell you that the Mafia is back. Brett has committed to running a mile per day till the end of the year. I am in the middle of doing “the Chad” workout every day (no end date in mind), and I can speak for both of us saying it’s been invigorating tapping back into what makes us different. We’d love for you to join along and find a challenge to commit yourself to for the rest of the year. Let’s get it done!

If you’re looking for some motivation this week, check out our most recent podcast here.

Best,

Harry