Jennifer Barrett: Farmer Goes Vegan

On this episode of One Step Beyond, we are joined by Jennifer Barrett, former industrial chicken & cattle farmer gone vegan, current caretaker of 230 cows. In this episode Aram and Jennifer explore the financial hardships and pressures endured by farmers, and the considerations these hard working, community-minded people face when contemplating a transition away from animal agriculture.
This conversation explores Jennifer’s shift from farming as a logical business decision to realizing it was unsustainable, from a financial and ethical perspective. Despite understanding the business rationale and the multi-generational connection to her family’s land, the negative health impact on her family and the consumer was profound. The business of raising animals for food was no longer sensible and clashed with her values.
Jennifer shares how she experienced a profound internal shift. Embracing veganism allowed her suppressed compassion, especially for animals, to resurface, leading to profound internal conflict. She did not want to be vegan. She describes how she now fully embraces her compassion, experiencing a childlike sense of wonder and freedom by letting her empathy guide her decisions without compromise.
ON THIS EPISODE WE TALK ABOUT
Taking over her family’s farm and becoming the caretaker of multi-generational land
The health crisis, financial hardships, and moral dilemma that led the Barrett family to transition out of animal agriculture
The pressures and considerations farmers face when transitioning away from animal agriculture
Becoming a vegan, facing community isolation, and eventually finding support and acceptance

[@VeganViki]

I very much enjoyed this conversation wholeheartedly. I'm familiar with Jennifer and Rodney through following Kathy Freston on social media. However listening to Jennifer in this interview I felt a kinship. I do hope she writes a book and a movie is made about the Barretts.
I live in Sonoma County California in a heavy animal agriculture and wine grape industry. There are approximately 24 chicken CAFOS and lots of beef and dairy ranchers and farmers. As a longtime vegan I find it very difficult to even drive out into the country areas where the CAFOS are as I know exactly what's going on there and it hurts my heart. I purposely went looking for current interviews with Jennifer and Rodney today as our County has a ballot to ban factory farms headed for the November election. I hope it passes as it's way overdue. A few months ago one of the chicken farmers that raises millions of chickens every year for Perdue. They had to kill 550,000 chickens in a ventilation shut down as they were sick with the avian flu. Ventilation shut Downs are so horrifically cruel. And if these operations continue it's only going to get worse especially since we now know that cows are being infected with the avian flu and so are humans. The purpose for my looking for recent interviews of Jennifer and Rodney is because there is so much to learn from their story, their history and their perseverance and I feel their story would greatly help our community transition from animal agriculture to plant agriculture. We live in a very beautiful area of the world where plants and fruit trees thrive. Unfortunately the old ways of farming animals is so ingrained here that the local city and county governments and newspapers are completely resistant to change all the while the avian flu continues to be an ever present threat to domesticated and wild animals and humans. I apologize for rambling on but I wonder if Jennifer and Rodney have ever considered touring to tell their story in person. Citizens really need to understand both sides, from the ethical vegans side to the animal farmers side. There was a court hearing this morning in Santa Rosa for a young brave woman being charged for felony breaking and entering into one of the chicken CAFOS and rescuing some very sick and dying chickens a few years ago. It was an open Rescue. It wasn't kept secret the rescue group notified the sheriff's department many times that if nothing was done that they would go in and rescue as many chickens as they could and video the operations. The sheriff's department did nothing and so the rescue group notified the sheriff that they were going in on a specific day. This story has made national news. Most of the story has been on the side of the chicken farmers while calling the rescues terrorist acts.
We as citizens need to come together, hear both sides of their stories without fear or judgment in order to work together to evolve as a community. Anyone that's done enough research knows that animal agriculture is not sustainable but how do we help farmers transition? They need government assistance but not the kind of typical old school bailouts. Sustainable assistance! I didn't go to the court hearing today as honestly I was afraid of my own anger and frustration towards the farmers and the court system as they don't listen to what the activists are saying. I didn't want to get into an argument with anyone as that's never the solution. Which brings me back to why I wanted to find recent interviews with Jennifer and or Rodney because I needed to hear their side of the story in more detail since I first learned about their story a few years ago.
Jennifer, if you read this thank you for sharing your vulnerability, for being so candid and for following your true nature of compassion for all living beings. For listening to your conscience and knowing intuitively that if you chose to follow your heart, you and Rodney would be okay. I came from a family of generations of hunters, even my Aunts who were both nurses hunted for wild pigs and deer in Northern California. I was the black sheep from early on for my love of animals. I used to cry when my grandfather, my father, aunts and uncles would come back from a day of hunting with a dead pig or deer. I was told I was too sensitive. I was told I needed to toughen up as the world is cruel and people need to eat meat to survive. I'm grateful I followed my heart and intuition and never toughened up. I'm grateful I found my voice. I'm grateful to be vegan. I'm 64, I've never taken any medications, I'm very healthy and haven't had so much as a sniffle since 2007. I never got covid while everyone around me did. That's the power of eating plants!
Thank you for reading.🙏

[@madelynbingham4128]

What an incredible, beautiful conversation!!

[@tylerw1976]

they'll never get money from me again!!!! they've lost my business, they can kiss it goodbye!!! unless they switch back to farming chickens, i'll never spend money on their gross mushrooms!!!! hate mushrooms!!!! 🤮