Frack Free Farm List

As a supplement to my Local Food Resources list, I am pleased to include a compendium of information on the involvement (or lack thereof) of local farms in unconventional gas development (i.e. fracking and ancillary activities).  This information was kindly provided by Stephanie Ulmer, who has taken pains to contact every local farm, and continues to update the list as new information comes in.  Below is the eighth edition of the lists, with explanatory information from Stephanie.

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The Frack Free Farm List is meant as a consumer guide and not as a recommendation in any way.  The intent of the list is to support the farmer who goes the extra mile (or is just lucky enough not to be surrounded by well pads) to keep their land frack free.  

FRACK-FREE FARMS (47)

Allegheny City Farm

Blackberry Meadows Farm

Bountiful Earth Farm

Cal-Organics (N)

Champion Chicks

Cherish Creamery

Churchview Farm

Clarion River Organics--"We are a cooperative of 15 farms. None of the farms has a fracking operation on it. No farmer has signed a lease agreement with a fracking operation. Some of the farmers who moved here more recently bought farms that had been leased because there is no land for sale that does not have the mineral rights leased. These farmers will not profit from any fracking that may occur and they will try to prevent it from being done on their land despite pre-existing agreements."

Earthbound Organics (N)

Five Elements Farm

Foxy Organics (N)

Friendship Farms

Goat Rodeo

Goodness Grows -BEDFORD (not Butler)

Gulla Farm

Grapery (N)

Hazelwood Urban Farm

HGOfarms (Homegrown Organic Farms) (N)

Josie Organics (N) 

Jubilee Hilltop

Kalona Supernatural (N)

Kistaco Farm--"Kistaco Farms leased their land over 100 years ago. Therefore the current owners have no control over their mineral rights.  There are several conventional wells on the farm  and Kistaco doesn't plan to have any Marcellus wells."

Koch Turkey

Kretschmann Farm

Lady Moon Organic Farms

Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop

Meadow Creek Dairy

Natural by Nature Dairy

Nature's Way

Oyler's Organic Farms

Paul's Orchard

Providence Acres Farm

Organically Grown Co./Ladybug/Andersen Organics (N)--"To the best of our knowledge the geology of this area is not conducive to fracking. A quick review of fracking maps supports this perspective."

Smith's Organic Farm

Snowville Creamery

Spring Street Farm and Apiary

Starry Sky Farm

Stemilt Artisan Organics (N)

Sunview Grapes (N)

Tait Farm Foods

The Family Cow

The Farm at Doe Run

Tuscarora Farms

Trickling Springs Creamery

Triple B Farms--"The mineral rights were leased in 1912 by previous landowners. This farm has not profited in any way from that sale. Triple B Farms does not and would not voluntarily host any fracking operations on their farm." 

Vital Farms (N)--"After checking with our farms, we are able to say that none of our farms currently participate in any sort of fracking, nor have we leased any of our land for further fracking, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no fracking going on underneath any of our lands." 

Who Cooks For You--"My father's property where we started the farm has 5 shallow wells on it, and no Marcellus.  Those wells were put in the 60's and 90's.  There are two wells on our new property that are also shallow wells from the 60's.  We have no wish to have any future wells on the property."  WCFY goes on to say that since the leases were signed and the wells were drilled before they took possession of the property, WCFY has "no say".  They "intend to keep [fracking] out" to the best of their ability.

  

FRACKING, DON'T ASK-DON'T TELL, AND NON-RESPONSIVE FARMS (38)

Always Summer Herbs--"We are not developed or fracked. BUT, if they offer the money I would [....] take it.  I do not want to be on your [Frack Free Farm]list".

Anthony's Vineyards (N) (NR)--"headquarters" is 3 miles from closest well

Bell & Evans--After checking with their contracted farmers, Bell & Evans replied that none of them had fracking on their property.  However, Bell & Evans did not reply to repeated inquiry as to whether any of their farms had leased their land for fracking--"headquarters" is 50 miles from the closest well.

Bluebird Meadows Farm--about 25 miles from closest well.

Brenckle's Greenhouse--Butler--about 1 mile from closest well.

Brenckle's Organic Farm and Greenhouse--Zelienople--about 0.50 mile from the closest well.

Brunton Dairy (NR)--1.25 miles from closest well.

Calkins Creamery (NR)--about 11 miles from closest well.

Country Acres (NR)--30 miles miles from closest well. 

Draper's Super Bee Apiaries--"There is a well not far from us and they did run just under the corner of the property [which they had leased]."

Freedom Farms (NR)--0.75 miles from closest well.

Giving Nature--Giving Nature firmly believes that if it's is good for the planet, it's good for you.  While none of their farm partners have any sort of fracking operation on their property, some may have leased their land for drilling.  This is not information that Giving Nature collects.

God's Country Creamery--"We do not have fracking going on in our area or on our farm. Our farm has been leased for gas exploration, but none is planned at this time."

Goodness Grows-BUTLER (NR)--0.5 miles from the closest well.  This farm also distributes the products of other small farmers. 

Jamison Farm (NR)--0.25 mile from a "proposed but never materialized well", 1 mile from a compressor station.

Lakewood Organics (N) (NR)

Liberty Farms--12 miles from the closest well.

MARBURGER DAIRY

Maple Valley Honey (NR)--10 miles from the closest well.

McELHINNY Farm--While they have a fracking well on their property it is "not on the farm where they grow their corn."  The well is "approximately a mile away" from the corn growing portion of their farm.

Meadowcreek Dairy (NR)--The fractracker map for Virginia is incomplete.  On the incomplete map Meadowcreek Dairy is about 50 mi. from the closest well.

Minerva Dairy--"This is not information that we have on file pertaining to our family farms."  About 5 miles from closest well.

Mock's Greenhouse (NR)--Its PA greenhouse is about 5 miles from the closest well.  Its WVA greenhouse is about 35 miles away from the closest well.

Nature's Yoke (NR)--100 miles from the closest well.  They source from a variety of farms.  I didn't research the location of these farms.

Niman Ranch (N) (NR)

Organic Valley (N):  "It is the position of our cooperative that hydraulic fracturing petroleum extraction techniques pose an unacceptable risk to the environment and should not be allowed to continue.  That said, each farm within our cooperative is an independent business and make the decisions for the land. I have worked here several years and have never heard of fracking on any Organic Valley farm. However, this not information that we specifically collect from our farms."

Rice Fruit Company-- "Rice Fruit Company is a facility which packs and markets fruit for 30-40 local farm families.  While Rice Fruit Company itself does not host any kind of fracking operation, we do not ask our growers for this type of information.  Therefore, we would not be able to speak on their behalf."

Salemville--"Unfortunately at this time there is no information we can provide you with regarding your inquiry."

Sand Hill Berries Farm--"I believe in fracking.  My son's in the business".  About 0.5 mile from closest well.

Serenity Hill Farm (NR)--a little less than 0.5 mile from the closest well.

Shaffer Venison Farm (NR)--36 miles from closest well.

Swiss Villa Eggs (NR)--the address of the "marketing representative" is 30 miles from the closest well.

Toigo Organic Farm (NR)--50 miles from the closest well.

TRAX FARM

Turner Dairy--They source from 5 small farms all of which they have had very long term relationships with.  You can see this on their website.  Turner Dairy wrote back to say one of those 5 farms hosts a well pad. 

WEATHERBURY FARM

Wexford Farms (NR)--about 5 miles from closest well.

Whole Foods (N)--They sent a long reply saying how committed they were to environmentally friendly practices but then ended with this comment:  "we do not include in our review any operational or management decisions of the company outside of the direct production of the product in question, including the way that growers and producers choose to use their land."

Methodology:

I write an email or, if need be call, asking if a farm hosts any sort of fracking operation or if they have leased their land for fracking.  If they don't get back to me in a couple of business days I try again.  If they don't get back to me within 2 weeks they go on the list of farms that are not frack free.  Of course, this list is ongoing so a farm has a chance to correct the record.

For the purposes of this list, any farm located in PA, Ohio, or WVA is called a local farm even though some may be quite far away.  I haven't contacted any farms in NY, MD or VT because of their state's ban on fracking.  All the farms on this list are local unless they have an N (for national) after there name.  

In addition, I ask CA farms if they use fracking waste to irrigate their farms.  I ask midwest farmers if they lease their lands for frack sand mining.  

I would love for this list to be crowd sourced so if you have farms to add just send them to me.  To keep it from becoming overly long however, I ask that the farms' products be available in the Pittsburgh region. I'll try to keep the list up to date and send it out periodically.  

About The Fracking, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and Non Responsive Farm List:

Farms whose names appear in all caps are farms that are known to host well pads or have leased their land for the purposes of fracking.

Some farms serve as distributors for the products of others, like Organic Valley or Whole Foods.  Some smaller farms do the same.  If they reply by saying they don't screen their farms for fracking, I include their statements after their names.

Some farms just don't reply.  I'm sure there is a multitude of reasons why they don't.  But if I can't tell whether there is fracking on or under their farm or the farms that they put their label on, they all go on this list.  An NR after a farm's name indicates that I got no response.

I have checked out the Non Responsive Farms on Fractracker (Thank you Kyle for showing me how to use this wonderful resource) and put the approximate distance of their farm's home address from the closest well.  I have, of course, no way of knowing if the well sits on their property, whether drilling extends under their property (drilling laterals can run for up to two miles) or whether they have leased their land for fracking in the future.  If they source from multiple farms I often have no way of knowing the locations of their partner farms.