Balancing Act: Parenting, Farming, and Advocacy with Anna Pesek

This week, Caite and Arlene interview Iowa farmer, Anna Pesek of Over the Moon in rural Delaware County, about what she’s “growing”: farrow-to-finish purebred Berkshire hogs, pasture-raised chickens and turkeys, a meat business, alternative supply chains, and a two-year-old. Anna describes scaling from two to 21 sows, finishing about 100 pigs a year with hopes of 200+, raising a couple thousand birds, aggregating meat with other young farmers, and balancing an off-farm remote job. She shares her Massachusetts-to-Iowa path through ag education, policy work, and advocacy organizations, and highlights Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Savings Incentives Program and Chop Local’s role in building direct-to-consumer meat sales before moving to overthemoonmeat.com. They discuss how parenting changed farm priorities, childcare supported by nearby family, mom guilt and travel for advocacy, and concerns about USDA cuts to land-access training programs, plus a host’s uncertainty over a potential high-speed rail route.

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