I hope everyone is having a great CSA week! What, you don’t know what CSA week is? Well, it is like Festivus but without the aluminum pole and the airing of grievances.
I thought with it being CSA week this would be a great time to remind people of the importance of alternative food systems. I think we can all agree that the pandemic has exposed the weaknesses and flaws in having an industrial food system feed our country. Supply chain disruptions at the beginning of the pandemic led to pandemonium. Empty shelves in grocery aisles led to runs on products and increased shortages of essential items. And though the supply chain issues have eased somewhat they still have not gone away two years later.
Back in 2020 when COVID first started and people panicked that there might not be food in the grocery stores we had an onrush of interest in joining our farm. It was the one bright spot in an otherwise dreary pandemic (I was so hoping this pandemic would be more cheery!) We were happy for the increased interest but were frustrated that the interest only occurred once people felt their ability to find food was in peril. Though we tried to accommodate as many new customers as we could we were unable to meet the new demand. In addition, I felt that we tried our best to satisfy the new customers who we were able to accommodate but we fell short of my usual high expectations for our product. We just couldn’t adjust quickly enough given the short notice and sudden increase. Plus we had our own supply chain issues trying to purchase supplies for the growing season.
This past year, 2021, we also had strong demand for shares but unlike 2020 the demand began at the end of the prior year and gave us plenty of time to plan, prepare and purchase the resources and supplies necessary to meet the demand. Having this time and knowing what we needed to grow made it far easier to meet our expectations and I believe the expectations of those who joined our farm. I felt last season was successful despite the extraordinary weather pattern we had never experienced before. And this success can all be traced back to careful planning.
Which brings me back to the main point of this newsletter. If we as a society feel we need resilience in our food system, we shouldn’t be reliant on one food system to feed us. We have to support alternative food systems even when the main system is functioning. I can’t count the number of local farms who have disappeared during the time I have been farming these last 20 years. Sure some may not have been sufficiently capitalized to make it or lacked the knowledge to be successful. But a good number of them failed because the local market didn’t support them. Without local farms we are completely reliant on the industrial food system and the supply chain/delivery mechanisms to get us our food from far flung locations — the same system that failed us two years ago.
It seems to me that the CSA business is counter-cyclical to most other businesses. When the economy is doing great people eat out more and travel more. They don’t tend to cook at home as often so their interest in having a box full of produce every week seems less valuable or helpful. But when the economy suffers or there is a global shock to the food system, the interest in local food suddenly increases. If we suppliers for the local food system go out of business during the times when food is plentiful and there is less demand for the products we grow there will not be any of us left for when the system breaks down. And those who do survive may not have the capacity to meet the increased demand. This is exactly what happened in 2020. After years of sinking demand for CSA shares across the country the number of farms selling CSA shares decreased. Then, with the pandemic and supply chain issues, we were hit with this sudden interest and the farms that were still around were unable to meet the increased demand. This inability to meet the demand was the direct result of the reduced support during the prior many years.
Of course those of us who live in the areas of the country where growing food is difficult during certain months of the year have to rely on either long term storage solutions (e.g. canning) or on the system that grows and feeds the majority of the country. However this doesn’t mean we can’t support the local system during the spring/summer/fall growing season. So this summer don’t find a way to not join the farm. Find a way to support us or another small local farm. If you will be traveling this summer for a couple of weeks realize there are still 17 other weeks you can eat great local produce. Do you quit your gym because you’ll be traveling for two weeks? Do you quit your day care? No, you support them so when you come back from vacation they are still around for you when you return. You should treat your farms and farmers the same way. If the economy is picking up sufficiently to make you comfortable to spend money on travel it should be sufficient enough for you to support the local food system to ensure it is available for the next economic downturn or pandemic.
So celebrate this year’s CSA Week by joining our farm — or another farm. Just join one and support a more resilient food system. Besides, even if you couldn’t care less about food security and resiliency, you can’t deny that local food just tastes better. And as always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, purchase orders or anything else you think would be interesting or helpful! Now for this week’s joke:
How did the organic vegetable die?
Natural causes.