MacDougall’s Naturally Raised Meat

Farm-raised pork, chicken, turkey, and duck, from our fields to your table

My name is Jake MacDougall, and I am the owner of MacDougall Meadows in Newport Corner, Nova Scotia, where we only grow quality local food. We serve customers in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), South Shore, and Hants County, Nova Scotia.

I want to tell you about myself and why I decided to become a farmer of naturally-raised Nova Scotian meat.

Providing safe, healthy, affordable food is my mission in life. I think everyone, rich or poor, has the right to eat natural food. That’s why I have a deep commitment to providing healthy, naturally-raised pork, chicken, duck, and turkey, as well as vegetables, to my customers in Nova Scotia.

What is the difference between natural and organic? Organic is a marketing term. Many products labeled organic still contain chemicals, or are produced using methods that you wouldn’t like if you knew about them. The term free-range is also misleading, as it doesn’t mean happy animals running around in a field.

That’s why I stick with raising natural food.

So what does this word ‘natural’ mean?

Natural, to me, means raising animals and crops with as little outside interference as possible.

For starters, all our animals are living in circumstances that are much closer to what they would be experiencing in nature. Our chickens can forage, our pigs can wallow, our ducks can swim, our turkeys can fly. They don’t get sick from overcrowding, so they don’t need to be medicated. They eat healthy, natural food, so their systems are not inflamed or in shock all the time.

Importantly, they live their entire lives in peace and comfort, being treated with the dignity we owe the animals who will give us their lives to nourish our own bodies. This is very important to me, because it means they are raised free from fear and cruel treatment.

You may find it unusual that I slaughter the animals I treat so compassionately, but in fact the relationship between farmer and animal is completely natural, part of the cycle of life on a farm. Your ancestors probably knew this, but you may have lost touch with it. I invite you to re-learn it now, because your relationship with your food is the most important relationship you’ll ever have. Many wise people, from ancient times to the present, will tell you that food is medicine.

And this brings me to another very important point. We should all know where our food comes from. When we shop in supermarkets, we are buying industrial meat that was raised in horrible conditions, subjected to cruel treatment, and had its life span cut unnaturally short after living in fear and misery. We don’t know this, because we never see it. We are completely out of touch with where our food comes from. But we feel the effects just the same, in the state of our health, of our minds, and of the environment.

Some people might find it odd to develop a relationship with the animals we eat. I believe it’s odd not to. If we don’t know where our food is sourced, we could be eating literally anything at all.

I invite you to come on out to MacDougall Meadows and see for yourself how we do things around here. Just email me or message me on Facebook to arrange a time. Get to know where your next meal is coming from, and see the change in your and your family’s health. I promise it will be worth it!

And remember, when you buy food from a farmer, you’re supporting food security for all Nova Scotians!