[Animals] Why a Coastside animal sanctuary had to make a new home on the east coast

[FazzNoth]

'We had to make that calculated decision to get out now,' says co-founder Nate Salpeter

For years, Kevin the pig, Gizmo the cow, and Paco the llama enjoyed the Coastside air and sprawling pastures of Half Moon Bay's nonprofit animal sanctuary Sweet Farm. They even achieved a certain level of celebrity, popping up in virtual meetings with corporate executives as a part of the "Goat-2-Meeting" program. However, in May, Kevin, Gizmo, Paco and around 150 of their friends found themselves packed into 50-foot trailers headed on an impossibly complicated 47-hour road trip, one that Sweet Farm co-founder Nate Salpeter says his operation was forced to make.

Parents grimace with frustration when packing their children into a car with piles of snacks and fully-charged tablets, but Salpeter assumed the far more daunting task of transporting his farm's animals, all of them rescued from potentially traumatic situations, from California to New York.

Since 2015, Sweet Farm has sheltered animals rescued from petting zoos and overencumbered farms, cultivated organic fruits and vegetables and raised over $10 million for startups solving challenges affecting our food systems. Husband-and-wife co-founders Salpeter and Anna Sweet (also the CEO of JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Games) are climate experts and entrepreneurs advancing a mission that aligns with Silicon Valley's interests in sustainability and venture capital. So what motivated them to spend $250,000 to move over 100 clucking chickens and bleating sheep, and why are other farms following their lead?

 

The Coastside conjures images of foggy skies and condensation gathering on the grass, but a couple of years ago, Sweet Farm's buckets of striped squashes and oblong tomatoes started disappearing from its farm cart and CSA boxes months earlier than ever before due to drought conditions. Since then, the farm's wells have dried up to the point where they can no longer irrigate fields of fruits and vegetables.

Sweet Farm's agricultural program also hosts field trials for tech companies focused on feeding the planet's increasing po[CENSORED]tion. For example, the fields would receive a treatment of biochar, organic matter burnt at high temperatures with limited oxygen, produced by a local waste management company. However, scientific trials and experiments became ineffective when the wildly changing climate complicated the scientific process.

Help sustain the local news you depend on.

Your contribution matters. Become a member today.

"There's a strong importance around the ag program being consistent, rote and robust. And really having predictable seasons … it just became untenable to operate a strong program (in Half Moon Bay)," says Salpeter.

Beyond agriculture, finding housing for Sweet Farm's employees also became a challenge. It's difficult to receive the permitting to build housing on Coastside farmland, and the cost of living was outpacing Sweet Farm's salaries even though they were far above market rates.

Then in August 2020, the CZU Fire spread suffocating smoke across Sweet Farm, which was located on Tunitas Creek Road in the southern portion of Half Moon Bay. Salpeter and Sweet witnessed the evacuation line inching toward their property, and they joined other locals in evacuating their animals.

Thanks to an emergency response group operated by Robin Camozzi of Half Moon Bay Feed & Fuel, trailers crossed up and down the Coastside and Santa Cruz Mountains, herding animals across the Bay Area. Sweet Farm's staff acted rapidly but needed to control their emotions considering that the rescued animals don't respond well to panic. "Maintaining your wits about you helps them make it through a stressful situation," Salpeter says.

It was two weeks before Sweet Farm's animal residents were able to return.

Meet the winners!

At this point, Salpeter asked himself, "What does the long term look like if these fires are becoming more and more commonplace?"

Salpeter and Sweet then traveled to upstate New York to take care of Sweet's parents and started considering a new home for Sweet Farm, or at least a second location. After some investigating, the couple began envisioning a property with rows of farmworker housing and productive partnerships with businesses connected to the nearby Cornell Center for Excellence for Food and Agriculture.

 

More Info: https://mv-voice.com/news/2022/07/22/why-a-coastside-animal-sanctuary-had-to-make-a-new-home-on-the-east-coast