The New York Times Features Transfarmation Twice in August
The Transfarmation Project® is fit to print! The New York Times ran two articles about our work in August. The first focused on one of our farmer families, and the second featured a conversation between reporter Cara Buckley and our director, Tyler Whitley. We are beyond honored to be included in such a prominent and renowned publication, not once, but twice!
This tells us that what we’re doing is not just working—it’s gaining a lot of attention! Our coverage in the New York Times has prompted over 50 inquiries about our work from farmers, businesses, and organizations looking to get involved.
A Q&A with Director Tyler Whitley
Buckley’s most recent piece, “Life After Factory Farming: ‘The Longer They’re Out, the Happier They Are,’” focuses more closely on The Transfarmation Project. In a question-and-answer format, Tyler Whitley discusses the problems posed by our consolidated industrial food system and how Transfarmation™ seeks to solve them.
“I came to view factory farming as a cancer on rural America. I hated how it robbed people of their humanity and reduced them down to a number, to a widget, to a cog.”
—Tyler Whitley to The New York Times
The article touches on factory farming’s costs to the farmer, the consumer, and the planet. It tells the story of Tyler’s journey into farmer advocacy and some of the stories he’s heard as a farmer advocate.
“I would hear stories of farmers having to leave church mid-service, leaving their daughter’s or son’s softball game mid-game. Not having a vacation in 20 years. Only leaving the farm to attend a funeral. They never traveled too far from the farm, knowing that 30 minutes without water, 30 minutes without air circulation or high temperatures can be a life-or-death situation for an animal like the chicken. They didn’t want all the animals to die. They’d lose their entire paycheck.”
—Tyler Whitley to The New York Times
These exciting placements come ahead of the grand opening of our very first demonstration hub, an accomplishment at least three years in the making! The hub aims to demonstrate how transitioning out of factory farming into specialty-crop production is not only possible but profitable and sustainable.
The New York Times Tells the Story of a Farm Transition
Earlier in August, Cara Buckley published an article detailing one of our farmer families’ transition from raising hogs to growing specialty mushrooms: “Meet a Family That’s Betting the Farm on a Wild Idea. Literally.” Buckley calls the transition “a noisy, radical transformation.”
“Tanner Faaborg was searching for ways to help his parents leave hog farming without losing their investment in the barns. He connected with the Transfarmation Project, an initiative run by the farm-animal welfare charity Mercy for Animals that helps people transition out of industrial animal agriculture and into growing specialty crops. Out of the replacement crops they suggested, Tanner Faaborg seized on mushrooms, intrigued by their potential to heal ailments and serve as a superfood.”
—Cara Buckley, The New York Times
Transfarmation awarded the Faaborg family a grant to pursue growing specialty mushrooms. Today, Tanner and Tyler Faaborg operate 1100 Farm, where they sell mushroom-based tinctures, coffee, and salt.
