Catalyz Nutrition

Imagine building a national business by age 32 that rakes in almost $2 million in revenue per year......without cell phones, internet access, word processing software, cars, trucks, lawyers, or even electricity?  A business that has almost doubled in size in the past four years?

Just such a business has been built by Amos Miller, a Pennsylvania Amish farmer I've bought food from for about 6 years now.  Amos was featured in Business Week this past week.  I visited him a few years back with my daughters during a somewhat schizophrenic spring break expedition which brought us to the Hersheys factory one day, and to meet Amos and the cows whose milk we enjoyed so much....the next.

The food lesson in Amos Miller's astounding success is simple: more and more Americans are catching on to the fact that the way a food is grown, raised, or produced matters immensely to both its nutritional value and taste.   After learning a bit about the underlying nutrition science -- they go to great lengths to get their hands on Amos's dairy products, meats, baked goods, and other products.

The average American tends to have a black-and-white focus on whether a food is good or not.  Do I eat meat...or not?  Milk....or not?  Salt....or not?  Muffins...or not?

The issue is that all meats (or milks or salts or muffins) are not created equal.  So the REALLY important question becomes: Which meat?  Which milk?  Which salt?  And which muffin?

Just to cite one example of how Amos's approach is different:  his beef is raised healthfully on grass, not on corn, soy, or bakery wastes (or worse) in industrial confinement operations.  Unlike standard beef, his hamburger is largely devoid of antibiotic or pesticide residues, growth hormones, and other undesireable components.   It offers up many positives, to boot -- including hefty doses of vitamin A (which cows can only make from the carotenes in grass, not from corn or soy feed), vitamin D (which comes from cow's sun exposure, which is minimal in confinement operations) and CLA, a potent cancer-fighting nutrient.

A similar nutritional tale can be told about each of the 50+ foods on Amos's price list, which finally morphed from a hand-written document to a typed list about two years back (most likely typed by hired, non-Amish hands far off Amos's farm).

My girls and I cheered and marveled when we saw this week's article on Amos.   Although I secretly fear the demand for his amazing sour cream (the most healthy and scrumptious in the world, I'm 100% sure) will skyrocket.   Production on a relatively small farm isn't easy to rachet up overnight.

On the other hand, I hope that other small struggling farmers will read the article and take hope that there IS a niche in the food market for very profitable, farm-to-consumer sales of high quality foods raised naturally, organically, and without the kinds of processing that can compromise nutrient value.

The world needs more Amos's.   Luckily, at 32, Amos may have a long career ahead sharing the tricks of his trade with others, who are sure to take note that he's a rare island of profitability and growth in a generally depressed market segment.   Go, Amos!!!