Food sovereignty
“Food Sovereignty is the people’s RIGHT to define their agriculture” - La Via Campesina
Rogue Branch Farm is a small-scale pastured poultry farm in Victoria VA working to build and support food sovereignty in the Southern Virginia region. The farm emphasizes this objective of food sovereignty as inseparable from cooperative organization, land stewardship & reparations, and distribution of the harvest through mutual aid to surrounding communities.
Farm
Since its first season in 2021, Rogue Branch Farm has continued to raise birds out on grass, with an abundance of space and constant access to fresh water and forage. Supplementary grain from a local feed mill is also provided to the birds.
Day-old Freedom Ranger chicks are received in the mail, raised in a brooder for the first 3 weeks, and then promptly moved out to pasture.
After birds are 9-11 weeks old, they are sent to Pamplin Poultry!
Regional cooperation
Rogue Branch Farm became a grower-partner farm with Pamplin Poultry in 2024. After raising birds to 9-11 weeks old, birds are sent to Pamplin Poultry for processing, packing, and distribution.
This cooperation allows each farm to specialize and improve overall operational efficiency. In the future, both farms look forward to building more relationships with other pasture-raised poultry producers in order to contribute meaningfully to a sovereign regional food system.
farmer
After graduating from Virginia Tech's School of Plant and Environmental Sciences in 2020, Max Thoreson started Rogue Branch Farm in 2021.
Max looks forward to continuing to grow food and working to contribute to regional agriculture that serves the community.