Independent farmers, homesteaders and food-sovereignty advocates are promoting direct sales, private buying clubs and neighborhood-scale production as ways to restore farm income, improve food transparency and reduce dependence on heavily regulated national distribution systems.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A growing movement of farmers, homesteaders and consumers is seeking to reshape how Americans buy food by replacing long, industrial supply chains with direct relationships between producers and the people they feed, as detailed in a report by The Epoch Times.
At the center of the effort is a simple proposition: consenting adults should be allowed to purchase homemade, farm-raised and locally prepared foods directly from one another without forcing small producers to build commercial facilities or navigate regulations designed for large-scale processors.
Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, has described that vision as a “Food Emancipation Proclamation.” His proposal would establish federal protections for direct, neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce, allowing small farms and household producers to sell products without assuming the costs imposed on conventional food manufacturers.
The idea has gained traction as farmers receive a shrinking share of what Americans spend on food. For every dollar paid by consumers today, farmers retain approximately 5.8 cents after production expenses. During the middle of the 20th century, their share was about 40 cents.
At the same time, Americans are spending more of their food budgets outside the home. In 2025, restaurants, fast-food chains, takeout services and other prepared-food businesses captured 56.3% of national food spending. Out-of-home purchases reached a record $1.41 trillion of the $2.51 trillion spent on food across the country.
Those figures illustrate a system in which farmers produce the raw ingredients but processors, distributors, retailers and food-service companies capture most of the value.
Salatin believes the next 15 years will determine whether small agriculture can survive that imbalance. The average American farmer is approximately 60 years old, and roughly half of the nation’s agricultural equity is expected to change ownership during that period.
“That’s the most unprecedented peaceful transfer in modern history,” Salatin said.
The approaching transition could provide new opportunities for younger farmers, but land alone is not enough to make small operations economically viable. Salatin argues that regulations preventing farmers from converting raw ingredients into higher-value prepared foods are among the greatest obstacles facing new producers.
A farmer using only a few acres could raise 1,200 pasture-raised chickens and sell them whole or in cut portions for an average of about $30 each. That would generate approximately $36,000 in gross revenue.
If the same farmer could turn those birds into homemade chicken pot pies without dyes, seed oils or industrial additives, the value could rise to about $200 per chicken, producing approximately $240,000 from the same flock and the same acreage.
The difficulty begins when a producer moves from selling raw chicken to preparing a complete meal. A home kitchen and existing equipment may no longer be legally sufficient, and compliance costs can become prohibitive.
Salatin characterized the transition as going from ordinary household equipment to “a half-million-dollar requirement to sell one chicken pot pie.”
Supporters of food freedom say such barriers prevent small farms from capturing the income generated through preparation, packaging and convenience while steering that revenue toward large corporations that can afford commercial infrastructure.
For Pennsylvania dairy farmer Edwin Shank, direct sales offered a path out of near financial collapse.
Shank’s family operated a four-generation farm that expanded from 40 cows to 300 after following university guidance focused on higher production. The farm eventually filled a tractor-trailer with milk every two days, but the increased volume did not generate financial security.
Processors determined the price, and milk checks arrived once a month. Shank’s banker warned that the farm could be lost within three or four months unless the family made a drastic change.
A family photograph from that period showed flowers, six children and an orderly farmyard. Behind the appearance of stability, Shank said, they “were losing the farm.”
“Inside the fence, hope is outside the fence,” he said, repeating the words of a conventional dairy farmer who described it as “a hard time to be a farmer these days.”
The Shanks decided to leave the conventional system. They converted the dairy to certified organic production and began selling raw milk directly from the farm under Pennsylvania’s permitting rules.
Without enough money for a modern facility, they purchased used refrigerated semi-trailers for a few thousand dollars each and joined them together to form an improvised cold-storage operation.
The business changed after a mother in Trenton, New Jersey, called asking whether Shank could deliver raw milk across state lines. He could not legally make a delivery to her alone, but he proposed a group arrangement.
“I told her, ‘I can’t deliver to you alone, but if you have enough friends, I can meet you at the state line,’” Shank said.
The woman organized five families. Shank loaded his minivan, drove three hours along Interstate 95 and met them at the New Hope exit.
“Right there, it went through me,” he said. “God, are you telling me something?”
That first meeting developed into 55 delivery locations. Shank’s company, The Family Cow, now ships raw dairy, pasture-raised poultry and pork, grass-fed beef and other regenerative farm products to thousands of households five days a week.
Approximately 90% of the business is conducted online, while the remaining 10% comes through an on-farm store and café. The café serves sourdough sandwiches filled with organic, grass-fed meats and real butter.
Rather than attempting to raise every product sold through the company, Shank built a cooperative supply network around what he calls “survival of the collaborators.”
Two dairy farms provide raw milk. Seven families produce pasture-raised eggs. Eleven families raise grass-fed cattle. Other producers specialize in pigs, turkeys and piglets.
The company also recruited three young families to raise pasture-raised chickens. The Family Cow supplied the customers, processing capacity and marketing knowledge, while the families contributed land and labor. Together, they raised 10,000 chickens during their first year.
The model has also provided openings for small food entrepreneurs. A mother and daughter once approached Shank about selling water kefir for $5 per jar. He initially doubted that customers would pay the price.
Within six months, they had sold 10,000 jars through The Family Cow network.
In Wisconsin, farmer and raw milk advocate Max Kane has built his work around the principle that consumers should be able to create private food systems with producers they trust.
Kane was diagnosed with degenerative Crohn’s disease when he was 11 and spent more than a decade undergoing surgeries and using medications and supplements without significant improvement.
He eventually abandoned processed food and adopted a diet based entirely on unprocessed products purchased directly from local farms. Kane said the change restored his health, enabled him to leave federal disability assistance and allowed him to become “a functional, contributing member of society” while in his mid-20s.
He now operates a 211-acre farm in southwestern Wisconsin and manages a raw milk buying club that has served families in the Chicago area for about 20 years.
In 2009, Kane said federal and state authorities attempted to imprison him for 18 months over raw milk deliveries to Chicago. The confrontation strengthened his commitment to legalizing raw milk and protecting private agreements between farmers and customers.
He later created Farm Match, an online marketplace he described as “Etsy for local food.” The platform connects buyers with vetted farms and food clubs.
Kane said homesteading is expanding in many forms, from rural farms to suburban gardens and vegetables grown on urban balconies. He attributes much of that interest to declining confidence in a food system dominated by ultra-processed products and vulnerable supply chains.
Industrial distribution often obscures where ingredients originated, how food was produced and where contamination occurred, Kane said. He also argued that the current system drains money from small towns and farming communities by directing consumer spending toward distant corporations.
“Simply put, the food people eat is the single biggest determinant of their ability to perform their life, no matter what they do for a living,” Kane said. “If citizens cannot legally build private food systems that nourish their bodies and minds, they risk becoming permanently dependent on an infrastructure that leaves them sick, disempowered, and economically sidelined.”
Sally Fallon Morell, founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, has promoted a similar shift toward direct purchasing and traditionally prepared foods.
“If we asked people to spend half their food dollars on direct purchases from farms, it would change everything, and we’d get back to the kind of farming that we want to promote,” Fallon Morell said.
Her proposal includes buying eggs, raw milk and meat directly from regenerative farms while also supporting local producers of sourdough bread, fermented vegetables and other traditional foods.
“The goal is a resilient local web of producers and eaters, not a homestead cut off from the broader world,” she said.
The Weston A. Price Foundation promotes traditional diets centered on whole foods and animal fats and campaigns for wider access to certified raw milk. Fallon Morell also wrote the cookbook “Nourishing Traditions,” which advocates foods such as bone broth, organ meats, lacto-fermented vegetables, raw dairy and traditional fats.
The organization maintains approximately 500 local chapters that help consumers find nearby farms and food suppliers.
“Let’s say you moved to Akron, Ohio, and you want to find the raw milk and the chicken and eggs. You just call your local chapter, and they know where it all is,” Fallon Morell said.
The movement is not limited to commercial farms. Ruth Ann Zimmerman and her husband, Elvin, operate a 21-acre homestead in northeastern Iowa where they produce much of the food consumed by their family.
Zimmerman, author of several books on self-sufficiency, including “The Heart of the Homestead,” grew up in a community where families traveled by buggy and raised food at home.
After leaving the Mennonite community, the Zimmermans adopted automobiles, television and processed foods. Their priorities changed when their 5-year-old daughter became ill and a doctor recommended removing her tonsils.
The family eliminated processed products and shifted to what Zimmerman calls real food. Their daughter’s condition improved, and the household continued building its life around homegrown food and self-reliance.
“Our homestead exists not for profit but for nutrition,” Zimmerman said. “Nothing leaves the farm until it has first fed the family.”
The family follows three guiding principles: eating according to the seasons and region, using time rather than money to obtain nutrition and replacing costly supplements with traditional foods.
“Our primary source of nutrition, the bulk of our meals, comes from the homestead, and so do our vitamins and minerals that would cost a lot if we bought them at the store,” Zimmerman said.
Homemade sauerkraut and fermented pickles take the place of probiotic supplements. Chicken feet and bone broth replace collagen powders. Whey strained from homemade yogurt and cheese is used instead of commercial protein powder.
The homestead also serves as a place for the Zimmerman children to learn discipline and responsibility. The family keeps two dairy cows in part so the sons must wake early and help with milking.
“If we only had one milk cow, I would be the one milking her,” Zimmerman said. “The other cow is simply for the purpose of turning our boys into men.”
Zimmerman cautioned that new homesteaders often exhaust themselves by attempting to produce too much too quickly. She encourages families to simplify their food habits and reduce their dependence on convenience products before expanding their gardens or livestock operations.
“When I’m tempted to skip weeding or buy store-bought pasta sauce, I shift into the ‘no plan B’ mind game and imagine there is no grocery store backup. Not taking care of the garden means feeding my family herbicide-treated potatoes and ultra-processed sauces,” she said.
“What if earning a paycheck isn’t always enough to feed a family? What if, for healthy families, we need the skills of growing our own food more than we need the skill of earning a paycheck?”
For people who still rely on supermarkets, Zimmerman recommends treating each purchase as an investment in health rather than a routine transaction.
She encourages shoppers to ask, “Where did this grow, who grew it, and how was it grown?”
That approach can lead consumers to seek out nearby farmers, buying clubs and small producers even when they cannot raise all their own food.
“It’s important to know how to raise your own food, and it’s equally important to develop relationships with local farmers and homesteaders so you can get healthy food that you don’t raise,” Zimmerman said.
The food freedom movement brings together several goals: allowing small producers to sell directly, keeping more food revenue within rural communities, expanding access to minimally processed products and giving consumers a clearer view of how their meals were raised or prepared.
Its advocates are not calling for every household to abandon grocery stores or become completely self-sufficient. They envision a decentralized network in which farms, families, local processors and consumers depend on one another rather than relying almost entirely on distant corporations and national supply chains.
With an aging farm population, enormous amounts of agricultural property expected to change hands and farmers receiving only a fraction of every consumer dollar, supporters argue that the next generation of agriculture will depend on whether small producers can legally earn a living from feeding their neighbors.
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