Watch the story:
on Fox 13, KOMO, KIRO, and King 5 news
READ the story:
on the Everett Herald
In the farmer’s own words:
Hearth & Haven Facebook Page
PLEASE HELP by writing to your representatives – here’s how!
We lost our entire flock and business when, per national policy, our birds were all culled on 12/29/2022 after contracting HPAI (‘bird flu’.)
While this horrible disease absolutely needs to be eradicated, current policies and compensation are totally inadequate.
We need our representatives to change this NOW, before even more small farms are driven out of business.
ALREADY WRITTEN IN? Please do so again! We have a follow-up letter below, or download HERE.
YOUR VOICE COUNTS.
Just click the links below, paste in the text, and add names.
USDA employees in charge of policy:
Katrina Rudyj, legislative affairs specialist: katrina.e.rudyj@usda.gov
Phone: 202-799-7029
Dr. Jon Zack, with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS): Jon.T.Zack@usda.gov
Phone: 301-851-3460
General contact: askusda@usda.gov
State and senate representatives:
Senator Patty Murray: https://www.murray.senate.gov/write-to-patty/
Senator Maria Cantwell: https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/contact/email
Governor Jay Inslee: https://www.governor.wa.gov/.../send-gov-inslee-e-message
State senator Brad Hawkins: https://bradhawkins.src.wastateleg.org/contact-me/
Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture: https://www.stabenow.senate.gov/
Additional members of the Senate Committee: https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/about/membership
Congresspeople for the farm’s district:
Kim Schrier: https://schrier.house.gov/address_authentication?form=/contact/email-me
Suzan DelBene: https://delbene.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/?zip5=98272
Find your representatives here: https://www.house.gov/representa.../find-your-representative
And here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/
Dear [representative's name],
I am writing to express my concern over the government's policies relating to outbreaks of avian influenza (HPAI), and how they impact small family farms.
I am a customer and supporter of Hearth & Haven Farm, a small western Washington duck egg farm run by just two hard-working people. This farm, until recently, provided healthy eggs from pasture-raised ducks to our community, including several restaurants and grocery stores. Additionally, they offered tours and education programs to people wanting to start their own businesses, and they served as a model of humane and environmentally sustainable farming.
Sadly, all of this was lost during the 2022 Christmas holiday, when the entire flock of more than 170 ducks and geese were euthanized after an outbreak of HPAI. The farm has been left barren and without income as a direct result of the government's "stamp out" approach to this disease.
While the policy of eradicating infected flocks seems logical, it has not produced the desired results. HPAI is spreading faster than ever and becoming more deadly each year, and mass culls are not helping to prevent its spread. We need a different approach.
Due to inclement weather and the holiday, it took a full week for the WSDA and USDA to successfully test the Hearth & Haven flock. While a number of birds lost their lives to the virus in that time, close to 90% of the flock either recovered or never showed any symptoms at all. The farm's five-year breeding program had developed a number of hybrid breeds that showed significant resistance to the virus.
But now, those unique genetics are gone. Wouldn't it have been wise to determine why these birds showed such promising signs of survival? Couldn't this have informed further research into treatments and vaccines? Apparently, funding does not currently exist for such common-sense practices. That needs to change. We need to fund programs that will fight the threat to our flocks, not just eliminate the flocks themselves.
The current policy not only destroyed Hearth & Haven's flock - many of the birds in their flock were not just livestock, but also cherished pets - but it has also destroyed their business. They must wait for 120 days (four months) before they can even begin to incubate new ducks, and given the timing, it will be more than a year before they can start producing eggs again. Put simply, the farm has lost more than a year's worth of income. They had a quality product that was hard to find and that customers depended on.
While the USDA does offer compensation for lost birds and eggs, it is only a tiny fraction of the farm's costs - for example, it would pay for only one third of a single delivery of feed. The program doesn't help with their ongoing operating costs, their supplies and bedding that will just be collecting dust, their empty barns and unused infrastructure that are slowly depreciating, or the five tons of leftover feed that will spoil before any new birds will be old enough to eat it.
CAFOs and factory farms, when struck by avian flu, can simply allow their flocks to be culled, accept the USDA's payments, sanitize their facilities (often fully-enclosed buildings), and quickly repopulate their flocks from contracted hatcheries. These operations also receive government subsidies and coverage from lucrative insurance policies, all of which are out of reach of small farms such as Hearth & Haven. No small business can afford to absorb these kinds of losses.
This small Washington family farm has been driven out of business by a government policy that disproportionately penalizes small farms. We need to change these policies NOW.
I believe I speak for all of the friends, family, and customers of Hearth & Haven and other small family farms, that more needs to be done. It is essential that we fund research into treatments and vaccines against HPAI, and provide additional financial support to small farms devastated by this disease. And we need a drastic re-assessment of the indemnity offered to farmers who lose their livelihoods to this policy of total flock elimination, before even more hardworking small farms are driven out of business.
I ask that you, as my representative, work to change these policies and craft legislation to offer more support for the small farms that are the backbone of our economy.
Thank you,
[Your Name]
FOLLOW UP LETTER
Dear [Representative],
I am concerned about the issue of USDA and WSDA policy regarding the threat of HPAI to our nation's poultry producers. I would like to share some information I received regarding the recent cull of all poultry at Hearth & Haven Farm, a small family farm in Monroe, WA that I support.
Thanks to a newspaper article from Alaska, of all places, we just learned that the USDA had amended its zero-tolerance policy to HPAI back in late November 2022. This allowed states to quarantine HPAI-infected poultry flocks, instead of culling all birds, at the state’s discretion.
The flock at Hearth & Haven Farm was not offered that option, despite the farmers’ request and despite the fact that 90% of their flock had survived the infection. While the farmers reported the sick birds immediately and were extremely proactive in their communication with WSDA officials, winter weather and the Christmas holiday delayed the testing of their flock for a full week. By that time, most of the birds had recovered and were returning to health.
The farmers offered to not only quarantine, but to open up the farm as an experimental venue where officials could test and monitor the birds to better understand this horrible disease. That offer was turned down for lack of funding, however, and the decision was taken to proceed with total elimination. Every duck was killed the morning following the positive test results.
At the time, the farmers believed that the state’s hands were tied by USDA policy. Now that I understand that was not the case, I am shocked and appalled that this was the approach taken. The WSDA and USDA officials were fully aware of the recovery of the flock and the fact that this was a business. They knew that this would bankrupt the tiny farm, but the choice was made to cull anyway.
To add insult to injury, the state was also fully aware that the premises included their flock of pet ducks. Even if the officials genuinely believed that the presence of all the potentially infected birds in their production flocks represented too big a risk to the health of local wildlife, it would have been entirely possible to save those pet birds. Instead, they spent the Christmas holiday handing each beloved pet, one by one, to a state official who gassed them in front of the farmers. I cannot imagine how I would have felt in their place.
The decision to completely de-populate Hearth & Haven Farm’s laying duck flock was not only unkind, but unnecessary. While HPAI is a terrible disease and a huge threat that must be dealt with, the policy of indiscriminate killing has not prevented its spread, has caused terrible suffering to farmers and egg consumers, and absolutely must be changed.
We need to:
1. Ensure each and every affected farm is considered for quarantine, not just elimination
2. Fund programs at state and federal levels to adopt a vaccination program that will protect poultry and insulate farms from the terrible cost of this disease
3. Improve compensation offered to affected farmers, especially small single-location farms who cannot absorb the complete lack of income quarantine and culling imposes
4. Ensure that the USDA, state-level departments of agriculture, and public health bodies are all informed of the latest scientific data and current policies regarding this disease
We simply must ensure that changes are made before more farmers, more consumers, and more birds suffer from misguided state and federal policy. Thank you again for your attention to this matter.
Thank you,
[Your Name]
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/399c42ad
Donate via the farm store: shorturl.at/ijASY