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SVF Farm: Saving Heritage Breeds in Newport, RI
Earlier this month the Times printed a feature on the Swiss Village Foundation, a pioneering conservation project located on a historic farm in Newport, RI. The SVF is working to preserve the genetic material of farm animals nearing extinction – heritage breeds of goats, cattle, sheep, and chickens that are out of favor in a world of factory farms. In the contemporary food industry, the majority of livestock is bred for efficiency and consistency (the article reports that 93 percent of America’s dairy herd are Holstein cows), and as a result these important heritage varieties are at risk of disappearance. The Foundation has already frozen the embryos of 20 breeds of cattle, sheep, and goats, and it continues to work to ensure the survival of such commercially disadvantaged – if awfully cute – species as the Tennessee fainting goat.
Here at the Art in the Age Farm we are excited about the SVF. They seem to have a few more PhD’s on hand, but their farm bears a marked resemblance to our own: an agricultural experiment committed to preserving time-honored agricultural practices and ecological values.
