I know this is not our usual medium for posting Ranch updates (that would be our regular newsletter - which you can click here to join) but these are unusual times and we seek to communicate with you important facts about the Ranch in any way possible.
At the bottom of this you will find an email I sent recently to all our tribe - at that time, I would estimate that we were feeding about 450 families in L.A, Orange County and San Diego.
That was at the beginning of this food crisis.
Now, things are different... very different.
We have doubled subscribers, and just yesterday, I fielded 20 phone calls, while making a priority cattle haul to the butcher, in an effort to boost supply (about a 10 hour block of time).
The general question was "Do you have room for an extra subscriber? I need to secure a reliable food supply for my family!"
The answer was "Yes, as of now we still have room; the door to the Arc has not closed, but it is raining"
In other words - we are well stocked, well supplied, tracing all the way back to the Ranch, and well connected from our 5,000 acres direct to your door. At these rates (as of Thursday 3.19.2020) we are still open for a few more folks, but I cannot say for how long.
We, through God's provision and perhaps a little paranoia on our part, have positioned our Ranch to be a lifeline in a crisis. We built in a robustness - termed "durability" (as put forth in my 2010 Masters Thesis), into our supply system that mandated, from our very inception, that we grow all our own provisions - not relying on suppliers or any other outside sources. This was cumbersome, tiring and on many occasions, caused me to nearly give up. We were designing and building as system outside a system - rebelling against industrial agriculture.
The jeers and mockery from our nay-sayers was relentless for the last 12 years.
But, now...
Everything has changed - in four days!
We have a safe, secure, unstoppable supply chain, and I am very glad God gave us the courage and strength to build this. Those 20 phone calls were a breeze compared to the 12 years of hardship. It was such an honor to say to folks, who are rightfully jolted in this current crisis, "Yes, we will be here for you."
Over the next few weeks or so, we have some blogs planned that I will be writing between my Ranch and home time - (My wife always jokes, "Hey, Doug, you've got midnight to 3 AM open, why don't you do it then?").
These will help you understand where your food is coming from right now, both in the industrial system and SonRise Ranch. We will compare and contrast them and take a Q and A with online webinars to help you get a good grasp of where we are as Nation and how this crisis will fundamentally and irrevocably change our food supply.
So, please stay tuned for that those events. We will announce the webinars and blogs on social media (both Facebook and Instagram).
One thing is for sure, we will never be the same after this.
Wishing each of you the best. Stay tuned. Buckle up and hold tight!