Oakes urges consumers to buy local, support smaller businesses and eat healthier.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBack to basics Florida farmer Alfie Oakes said the best way to survive the surge is to go back to basics, which is better for consumers anyway. \u201cI know that sometimes, it gets bad before it gets good again,\u201d said Oakes, founder and CEO of Oakes Farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the demand is there for healthier food, then people will not eat the garbage.\u201d As someone on the starting line of the food supply chain, Oakes has been working toward making his operations as sustainable as possible \u2013 installing solar power and using natural solutions for the farm animals and crops, from pest control to fertilizing fields, so he isn\u2019t producing what he calls \u201cRoundup ready\u201d food. But there\u2019s only so much he can do when the costs of seed and gas for his fleet rise. \u201cFuel is the biggest cost,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m paying double now what I did last year, and on the farm, we use a lot of fuel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oakes urges consumers to support local businesses and smaller businesses rather than food corporations. \u201cThere\u2019s no super easy fix for this,\u201d he said. \u201cThe main thing I tell people is always think past the surface. Where is your money going? Who is your money feeding? Think small. Think local.\u201d \u2018Dead foods\u2019 When Oakes saw the corporations churning out products with unpronounceable and artificial ingredients, he vowed to not stock his store shelves with them. \u201cThat\u2019s why we wanted to get away from national brands,\u201d he said. \u201cWe started watching the drive of these products using lesser quality ingredients with limited amounts of nutrition.\u201d Oakes calls them \u201cdead foods.\u201d Shoppers may ask for a certain mass-produced sauce on the custom-made burger bought in the store\u2019s cafe, he said, but they won\u2019t be able to take a bottle home with them. Go to link for the full article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back to basics Florida farmer Alfie Oakes said the best way to survive the surge is to go back to basics, which is better for consumers anyway. \u201cI know that sometimes, it gets bad before it gets good again,\u201d said Oakes, founder and CEO of Oakes Farms. \u201cIf the demand is there for healthier food,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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