A Plan to Save Birds Takes Flight
If you saw the documentary EATING ANIMALS over the summer, you may remember farmer Frank Reese of the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Lindsborg, Kansas. He raises heritage turkeys (as well as chickens, ducks, and geese) that are some of “the last of their kind on earth.” That is, they’re the kind that were abundant 50 or 60 years ago, before factory farming: standard-bred birds that grow at a healthy, slow rate, with normal skeletal and metabolic systems and genetics that still render them capable of flying and reproducing naturally.
Given that 99 percent of poultry sold in the United States comes from factory farms, it’s not only healthy—and thus more nutritious—birds that are on the verge of extinction; it’s also farmers who know how to raise them. “There needs to be a place for farmers to come and relearn this again, as we did years ago,” Reese says in the film. “This type of farming, this type of breeding, is not taught anywhere anymore. Because all the land-grant universities are controlled by the factory farms, ’cause that’s where the money is.”
As a result of the film, the nonprofit architecture firm MASS Design Group (the MASS stands for Model of Architecture Serving Society) has offered to create a blueprint to bring to life a vision Reese has dreamed about for years: using his 160-acre farm as aneducational hub for farmers, chefs, and students to provide training in animal welfare, heritage breeding, and biodiverse agriculture. The newly designed plans for what will be the Good Shepherd Institute involve a visitor’s center, a dorm and classrooms, a library archiving the history of American poultry, a teaching kitchen, a restaurant, and event space, in addition to the ongoing surrounding activities of the farm. Reese is partnering with colleges on academic programs and is raising funds to execute the building construction.
Reese’s turkeys (and other farms’ humanely raised heritage meats) are sold online at heritagefoods.com. And if you missed EATING ANIMALS in theaters, it’s now available for streaming on Amazon and iTunes (as well as DirectTV, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube), with a DVD to come in January 2019.
