Changing the Colors of the Rainbow
BY FRED THOMPSON PHOTOS BY EAT INC.

You can hear the passion, the determination, and the commitment in every word. It swells as she talks, ricocheting from her gut, her heart and her soul. They blame Genell. Well maybe not entirely, but mostly. “Genell pushed us,” says Sandra Garner, the matriarch of Rainbow Meadow Farms about her daughter.What Genell Pridgen has done is a profile in audacity. Take a farm that most would call a “traditional” farm which has supported seven generations to a model of a sustainable operation that respects the land and its environment, the breeds they raise and is socially just. “I think it’s working and was the right thing to do,” says Mrs. Garner. In rural Greene County, just out from Kinston, there sits the calm, chaos and commotion of Rainbow Meadow Farms. The sixth generation to farm the land is Jeff and Sandra Garner, along with their daughters Genell Pridgen and LynnWeston, their husbands and kids—eight generations of hard working folk determined to bring the best of responsible farming to our tables. Oh yeah, and make a living for all three generations in the meantime.

What they have done here is outstanding and difficult. Rainbow Meadow Farms has been in the same family since 1746. Think about that for a minute. How many ongoing concerns do you know that have operated that long? Not many. The farm was a traditional Eastern North Carolina farm- tobacco, row crops, some beef cattle, a few Rhode Island Red chickens for the family, and hogs, “raised on the ground”.When hog production began to change in the eighties and the price of hogs hit the floor, Garner and many farmers like him turned to raising chickens on a contract basis. He built 2 houses in 1985 and a third in 1989 (chicken houses today cost over $250,000). “Back then nobody knew anything that wouldn’t be best for the chickens,” says Genell. Chicken production is a bit dicey and you are at the whim of your contractor. The payoff can be slim, or as Genell so perfectly puts it, “you become a sharecropper on your own land.”

There is intelligence about this family that makes you want to pay close attention. They have seen and been through many passages as farmers. Mr. Garner is a quick dry wit, and shows some pain in his face from time to time, not so much about his plight, but other farmers around him. He has found some peace and respect in the way he farms now, but is troubled by the policies and subsidies regarding farmers. “It’s like they want to hold you back. For our type of farming (sustainable) to grow, policy has to change.” Genell chimes in and explains that if you are a “contract farmer” [editor’s note: contract farming is entering an agreement to produce, say chickens or hogs for a single company] it’s easy to get working capital. “Farming the way we do, and bankers just don’t want to even talk to you. If you are selling toWhole Foods, that helps.”

Motherhood really got her going. Genell adopted two children from the Ukraine, one in 1999 and the other in 2000. On both trips, she shopped and ate from the local markets. Even the meats were freshly slaughtered. Genell was amazed at how much better everything tasted because of its freshness and the simple growing methods of the local farmers.When she returned to Greene County, she started raising chickens in the pasture without any drugs and using a natural diet because she wanted good healthy food for her kids. Her dad was skepticalabout the technique until he tasted one. “Man, I had forgotten what great chicken tastes like,” voiced her father. Maybe the new Rainbow Meadows Farm was born that day.

The chicken houses are empty now, at least paid for, but still taxed. Chickens now run free. The first direct market product the farm produced was Dorper Lamb, and they quickly gained a reputation for taste and quality. Pork, beef, turkeys, and even some rabbit are all a part of the farm today. “We look for genetic diversity in what we raise. It protects our food supply,” comments Genell. All of their pork is the Berkshire breed, known around the world for superior taste, but as important is the fact that it has always been a pasture-raised breed that marbles well on a diet of grasses,herbs, a pig’s preferred food which is acorns, and at Rainbow Meadow, some barley and hops from a local brewery.

So what does it take to be a sustainable farmer? Genell says, “It’s a lot of hard work. Each of us has a role to play. Mamma does the books and makes the trip to Raleigh 3 days a week to sell at the State Farmers Market. I work with the genetics and sell in New Bern. Many farmers don’t know how to do all the things you have to do, like marketing, to run a farm like ours. Some want the security of a contract. For all the talk about sustainable farming we can’t demonize a contract farmer. They are just making a living.”

So what has to change? They all pipe in. The subsidies have to change to represent all farmers more fairly. Credit needs to be available to those in the pasture farm business. The government needs to think, and buy locally grown food for its schools, hospitals, and military bases like Fort Bragg. Policy changes need to be made to level the playing field and make sustainable agriculture available to all incomes. There is a need to educate folks about food and food safety. Educate other farmers on what a positive impact you can have on the community, the land and health.

We asked a tough question—could sustainable farming feed this country? There was silence, something you don’t often get with this crowd. Finally Mr. Garner raised his head high and said “We used to, and we can again.”

After the movie, Food Inc., started showing in the area, the Garners saw a 30% increase in business the first weekend the movie showed, with steady growth since. “It was like Christmas and Thanksgiving at the market,” stated Mrs. Garner. From what we can tell as edible Piedmont observers, business is continuing to thrive with a young, regular customer base, buying a broad range of products.

Genell laughs when you tell her that her family thinks she was the driving force behind the way Rainbow Meadow Farms operates today. “They are probably mad at me for all the work I’ve created.” eP

Editor’s note: we wish Jeff Garner a speedy and complete recovery from recent heart surgery.

Fred Thompson is the author of 9 cookbooks, most recently Grillin’ with Gas and Bourbon, to be released in January. He is the Weekend Gourmet columnist for The News & Observer and has been published in Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is a frequent cooking school instructor and is the publisher of edible Piedmont.