The Environmental Benefit of Sage Mountain Farm Recycling Cardboard

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Feeding San Diego works in partnership with Sage Mountain Farm to assure zero waste! Feeding San Diego provides thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the farm, that we use to feed our pasture-raised Cerveza steer and Heritage pigs. This boosts a larger range of nutrients into their diet while implementing sustainable and regenerative farming practices.

Cerveza Steers eating fresh vegetables from Feeding San Diego and crop losses from our small family farm

Sage Mountain Farm’s Cerveza steers and Heritage Pigs eat lots of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be “throwaways” from partners like Feeding San Diego and crop losses from our small family farm! Using his tractor, Phil delivers breakfast to his hungry cattle and they come running! 

Cerveza Steers eating fresh vegetables from Feeding San Diego and crop losses from our small family farm

“Today we’ve got green beans, Swiss chard, arugula, carrots, they love carrots, it’s really good for them,” said farmer Phil Noble “It’s great, it’s good for the cattle, they are healthy.” Our pigs also enjoy large amounts of local avocados (culls that have a dent or bruise) and beer mash (spent grains) from our local breweries.

“These must be the healthiest cows in California,”

Jeff Zevely CBS 8
Cerveza Angus Steers running towards breakfast at Sage Mountain Farm
Cerveza Steers running towards breakfast!

Cerveza Steers are pasture-raised, eat grass their whole life, but starting at a year old are given a supplemental diet of beer grains from local breweries (ie: cerveza beef). The mash doesn’t have to be hauled to the dump, comes straight here, is high in protein and gives this premium beef that beautiful marbling we all enjoy!

It helps our business a lot. It cuts our feed cost probably in half,” said Phil “The food is going somewhere instead of a landfill.

Farmer Phil Noble, Sage Mountain Farm
Grazing Grass-fed Grass-finished Steers at Sage Mountain Farm in Anza, CA
Grass-fed, Grass-finished Steers

Sage Mountain Farm’s Angus cattle produce two kinds of local beef: Cerveza beef and Grass-fed, Grass-finished beef. Both are pasture-raised but are fed differently so they graze on different pastures, on separate pieces of land in Anza, CA. More on our Grass-fed beef later!

Grazing Heritage Pigs on the pasture at our small family farm, Sage Mountain Farm in Anza, CA
Pastured Heritage Pigs

We raise Heritage Pigs because it is incredibly juicy and has a fantastic flavor. It has gained a reputation as being the Kobe Beef of pork, which is to say that it marbles well and is very tender. The flavor of our pork is unlike what you find in stores.

Nothing goes to waste on a sustainable regenerative farm; including the cardboard!

Heritage Pigs eating fresh vegetables from Feeding San Diego and crop losses from our small family farm

Feeding San Diego fruits and vegetables come in cardboard boxes, which then go to making fertilizer the farm can use to grow more vegetables! Instead of going to a landfill, the cardboard boxes go into the hog house! We produce 90% of our own fertilizer with all our animals except the sheep and grass-fed steers.

Heritage Pigs at our small family farm in Anza, Ca trampling cardboard boxes into fertilizer

Decomposing cardboard adds organic matter to the soil and boosts nutrient levels in the farm’s compost! Cardboard is an excellent source of carbon-rich brown matter that improves the structure of compost that provides healthy micro organisms the oxygen it needs to do their job.

“The cardboard boxes go into the pig pen because the carbon, waste and manure get trampled and turned into fertilizer.”

Jeff Zevely CBS 8

Pigs don’t need to be persuaded to make nutrient-dense compost. It’s in their nature! Our Heritage pigs remove the food from these boxes left in their pen. Then they step on and shred the cardboard, assisting microbes in the biological breakdown process that will transform what would otherwise be waste into bio-available fertilizer in 90 days. On a small sustainable farm, we never have to bring in fertilizer! We make our own!

Heritage Pigs at our small family farm in Anza, Ca trampling cardboard boxes into fertilizer

Think of the pig pen as a giant compost facility/fertilizer factory and the pig as your large-scale materials handler & C02 emissions savor. Instead of manure heaps producing flies and ammonia smalls, our pigs turn cardboard boxes into crumbly black compost, not to mention bacon and sausages!

The best fertilizer on the planet, all organic, all natural!

Farmer Phil Noble, Sage Mountain Farm

Instead cardboard waste being transported to a landfill, wasting fuel and other valuable resources we’re able to utilize the natural resources abundant right here on the farm, producing zero waste!

Mother nature gets to convert carbon as it absorbs surplus nitrogen and undergoes a process of decomposition that produces a gorgeous, crumbly black compost, perfect for growing farm favorite fruits and vegetables for you and our animals to eat.

Oh, how we love the amazing cycle of life demonstrated so beautifully on a small farm!

Grazing Grass-fed Grass-finished cattle at Sage Mountain Farm in Anza, CA
Grazing Grass-fed, Grass-finished Steers

Sage Mountain Farm is a small family owned ranch where we raise Angus Steers (Charolais, Black Angus, Red Angus and Black & Red Angus cross), Heritage pigs, Dorper lamb, and a variety of chicken breeds for colorful eggs in spring and summer.

Grazing Grass-fed Grass-finished cattle at Sage Mountain Farm in Anza, CA

Grass-fed, Grass-finished Steers eat grass their whole life! We believe that animals raised in fresh air and sunshine with room to roam produce the highest quality, best tasting meats. Our cattle are allowed to roam freely, graze on organic grasses and other forages, and drink pure, natural spring water that comes up from the ground.

Read CBS 8 San Diego’s full coverage news story as they follow the food from Feeding San Diego’s distribution center in Sorrento Valley to your local small farm, Sage Mountain Farm in Anza, CA.

Read the CBS 8 San Diego’s News Story about Feeding San Diego and Sage Mountain Farm’s Zero Waste Partnership by clicking the link here: https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/zevely-zone/feeding-san-diegos-zero-waste-program-sends-discarded-food-to-farms/509-12383e5b-1401-4d6d-81d8-f2609aa86b59

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