article The New York Times Story That Didn’t Run

Yesterday, a few people noticed that I (Marty) was mentioned in The New York Times - a [photo of me walking through our empty coop in a hazmat suit. The article was about a bird flu vaccine (another story for another day), so nothing to do with Kakadoodle. But I found it interesting that Kakadoodle was never mentioned. And here’s why…

Just days after we lost our flock, I spoke at the Everything Local conference in Springfield about the future of local food systems. After my talk, I ran into a friend from Compeer. We hugged and shared some emotions — everything was still very raw. Then he told me his sister works for The New York Times. She had seen our story on the local news and asked if he knew us. Turns out, he did.

A week later, she was on our farm with a photographer. We spent the evening walking the land, talking about Kakadoodle, the bird flu, the food system, our hopes, our heartbreak — all of it.

That was followed by weeks of phone calls, questions, and in-depth investigative work. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what goes into a single article.

At one point, she asked: “Were there any other losses you experienced because of the bird flu?” There were.

A government-funded program — designed to buy food from local farms and get it to food banks — refused to pay us for eggs we had delivered before the outbreak. That stood out to her, and she started digging.

There was no recall. The USDA confirmed the eggs were safe to sell and consume. So… who made the call to throw them out? (No comment.) How were they disposed of? (No comment.)

Thousands of dollars’ worth of good food, wasted — at a time when egg shelves were empty across the country. She believed it was a story worth telling.

But the article wasn’t just about that. It was about a small business trying to fix a broken food system. It was about us — about cancer, about moving our family to an old farmhouse, and about the ambition to use technology to get clean, local food to our community.

And then it got pulled.

Turns out, our friend at Compeer — the one who introduced us — also helped finance our very first chicken coop. That loan is still active. The reporter didn’t know, but legal flagged it as a conflict of interest. And the deeper story — the one about Kakadoodle, the food bank, and the bigger picture — was lost.

So that’s why I believe Kakadoodle wasn't even mentioned in yesterday's article. After all that work and all those conversations, it quietly disappeared.

And maybe that’s okay.

We believe that everything happens for a reason. We still believe in a new kind of food system — local, chemical-free, and resilient. And with or without the spotlight, we’re going to keep showing up and doing our part.

Thanks for being in it with us.