As the nutritional quality of food declines and monoculture agriculture grows, many Americans have few options for healthy, locally grown food. Main Street Project aims to change that.
Main Street Projectis an agricultural project based in Minnesota. They use small-scale, free-range poultry farming as a model for how sustainable farming could meet communities' needs for locally-raised, healthy, affordable animal protein.
Main Street Project's vision is to promote the growth of small chicken farms - "small" being about 250 chickens - in every region of the U.S. These farms would operate either year-round or seasonally, depending on the climate. They'd be free-range: chickens would rely on scratch for the majority of their feed, with supplementary feed where needed. Avoiding the use of antibiotics and hormones in chicken feed is a high priority to the Main Street Project.
"These chickens would live outside," says Greg Patent. "Keeping a chicken inside is not a natural thing."
Learn more about the history of the Main Street Project and the pitfalls of our current agricultural system on this week's episode of "The Food Guys."
(Broadcast: "The Food Guys," 5/27/18. Listen weekly on the radio at 11:50 a.m. Sundays, or via podcast.)