On the Hoven farm, located south of Highway 11, at any given time you will see chickens walking about, roaming freely – you may even be so lucky as to hear their majestic rooster crowing.
The cows are in a nearby pasture with their calves. The piglets are happy in their area eating away and being pigs.
It is a beautiful farm full of healthy animals where farmer Tim Hoven allows his animals to be themselves and roam freely.
He even feeds them certain foods because he wants them to grow and be as healthy as possible with his cows eating a strictly grass fed diet.
Believing that eating organically is the way to go, Hoven is particular on how he raises his animals and how he grows his barley and oats.
He uses no pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers. His crops are also not genetically modified.
His animals are raised without antibiotics or growth promoters.
Eating organically means eating the healthiest food available. This food will help build the human body’s strength up and make it more resist to illness.
Hoven said humans have evolved from eating very basic foods up until the last 60-100 years and now people are more prone to eating processed non organic food.
If you look at human health, people may now live longer but the quality of life has decreased with more degenerative diseases, more cancers and an increase in diabetes diagnoses.
Hoven said he chooses to grow and raise organic food because it is what he wants to eat and what he wants to feed his family.
He said when he looks at the food he grows and raises, he doesn’t view it as a commodity that will go to the market that he will never see again, he grows and raises food for people.
“I don’t like cutting corners and saying ‘oh that’s okay, it’s just a commodity’,” Hoven said. “The food my animals are going to eat will eventually filter up into people. I want to do everything I can to grow the healthiest and best quality of food possible for people so they can have the best quality of life.”
Hoven is passionate about what he does. He feels proud to be growing and raising quality food that will help people to be healthy.
He said it feels good to care about what he does and have a passion for his work.
“When we were selling meat in Calgary I would see people buying the best quality organic raw dog food for their pet while they are smoking a cigarette and drinking a can of pop. They are telling me they switched to organic for their dog,” Hoven said. “But it doesn’t click in their head that maybe they should make a change in their own life.”
Hoven also believes it is very important for people to know where their food is coming from.
“Food is the most important thing. It sustains your very life, it gives you health and we look for the cheapest stuff to feed ourselves and to feed our kids,” he said. “People don’t know they have to make a choice for better food.”
Hoven has a passion for helping educate people on how their food could be grown because he said he hates seeing people suffer.
He said it is so important that people know where their food is coming from, how all the animals are raised and vegetables are grown so they can make better choices for what they eat and what they are feeding their family.
Raising his animals in an organic way is more work but it is what Hoven loves to do.
Hoven said he wants people to know that the most important part of the planet is the top six inches of soil beneath their feet.
“All human life is dependent on six inches of top soil and we need farmers all around the world to focus on regenerating that soil to make it healthy,” Hoven said. “Healthy soil makes healthy food which makes healthy people.”
For more information on eating organically Tim Hoven invites people to visit his website at www.hovenfarms.com
reporter@eckvilleecho.com