We brought the Farmer Focus Message to Richmond, Atlanta, and Durham through partnering with chefs, journalists, food influencers, and local restaurants.

In The News:

Dinner on the Deck

Learn more about Farmer Focus, an organic chicken company built by farmers for farmers, on the latest episode of the Eat It, Virginia podcast.

Founder and sixth-generation farmer, Corwin Heatwole, tells Scott Wise and Robey Martin how the company empowers farmers to make the best decisions for their farms, their birds and the planet.

"We have a very unique mission to promote and protect generational family farms," Heatwole explained. "Because of the pressure that farms have felt, with the consolidation in the industry that has been a challenge for farms to be viable and sustainable."

As a result, Heatwole said the company's independent family farmers really care and are invested in the process. That care translates into a more delicious chicken for you and your family, he said.

And every package of Farmer Focus chicken is traceable to one of 60 family farms in the Shenandoah Valley.

Corwin Heatwole, Founding Farmer and CEO of Farmer Focus, stops by Virginia This Morning to share a bit of their mission and what makes their organic chicken different.

Friends of the show Chef CoCo of Favour Cookie Co., and Robey Martin, co-host of “EatItVirginia” Podcast, fired up the CBS 6 backyard grill to make a delicious recipe for beer can chicken using organic chicken from Farmer Focus.

“Jason may be a little crazy about his birds; but that kind of dedication makes him an extraordinary farmer.”

Guests at the Burger Bach event also heard from Lee Kuykendall of Farmer Focus, a small, farmer-created brand that supplies the restaurant’s organic, cage-free chicken from Shenandoah Valley. Founded by sixth-generation family farmer Corwin Heatwole, Farmer Focus centers around the principle of humane and sustainable farming practices. When Heatwole was three years old, his father built his first poultry house, and Heatwole grew up farming and tending to the flocks. After years raising chickens for other companies, and seeing the demands on his family as well as the toll it took on the birds, Heatwole established Farmer Focus as a way of fostering generational farming. By partnering with independent family farms, the organization helps promote a humane approach, while at the same time empowering small farmers. Farmer Focus partners must be certified humane by outside parties, and tend to have smaller flocks than commercial farms. What’s more, every Farmer Focus product includes a four-letter ‘Farm I.D.’ on the package, so consumers can trace their chicken back to one of the 60 Shenandoah Valley families who raised it. Kuykendall was joined by Jason Daugherty of Pleasant Hill Poultry in Lexington, who could be said to epitomize the humane approach to raising chickens. According to his Farmer Focus profile, Daugherty sleeps in the house with his flock on winter nights when temperatures plunge too low. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust the equipment,” reads the bio. “He just isn’t willing to take the chance.” Taking it to extremes? More like all-in-a-day’s-work for family farmers. As Daugherty’s profile puts it, “Jason may be a little crazy about his birds; but that kind of dedication makes him an extraordinary farmer.”

Guests at the Burger Bach event also heard from Lee Kuykendall of Farmer Focus, a small, farmer-created brand that supplies the restaurant’s organic, cage-free chicken from Shenandoah Valley.

Founded by sixth-generation family farmer Corwin Heatwole, Farmer Focus centers around the principle of humane and sustainable farming practices.

When Heatwole was three years old, his father built his first poultry house, and Heatwole grew up farming and tending to the flocks. After years raising chickens for other companies, and seeing the demands on his family as well as the toll it took on the birds, Heatwole established Farmer Focus as a way of fostering generational farming.
By partnering with independent family farms, the organization helps promote a humane approach, while at the same time empowering small farmers. Farmer Focus partners must be certified humane by outside parties, and tend to have smaller flocks than commercial farms. What’s more, every Farmer Focus product includes a four-letter ‘Farm I.D.’ on the package, so consumers can trace their chicken back to one of the 60 Shenandoah Valley families who raised it.

Kuykendall was joined by Jason Daugherty of Pleasant Hill Poultry in Lexington, who could be said to epitomize the humane approach to raising chickens. According to his Farmer Focus profile, Daugherty sleeps in the house with his flock on winter nights when temperatures plunge too low.

“It’s not that he doesn’t trust the equipment,” reads the bio. “He just isn’t willing to take the chance.”

Taking it to extremes? More like all-in-a-day’s-work for family farmers. As Daugherty’s profile puts it, “Jason may be a little crazy about his birds; but that kind of dedication makes him an extraordinary farmer.”

Read the full article here

We spread the word about Farmer Focus across the East Coast!

We kicked off our media tour with a chicken dinner at Burger Bach in Richmond's West Broad Village. Then, we headed to Atlanta, to have lunch with Hugh Acheson of Top Chef at his restaurant, Empire State South.

Farmer Focus is on a mission to promote and protect generational farming by partnering with independent family farmers to humanely raise organic chicken

About Farmer Focus

Founded by sixth-generation farmer, Corwin Heatwole, Farmer Focus is on a mission to promote and protect generational farming by partnering with independent family farmers to humanely raise organic chicken. Our unique business model shifts decision making and ownership back to farmers empowering them to make better decisions for their birds, their farms, and our planet. Every package of Farmer Focus chicken is traceable to one of 60 families farming the right way in the Shenandoah Valley. Join us at farmerfocus.com to support independent farmers and change the future of farming.