My fellow Fresh Earth Farm shareholders:
Eleven years ago, I declared to no one in particular that “this land will be a Community Supported Agriculture farm … It is my task,” I said, “to report the State of the Farm – to improve it is the task of us all.”
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the Fresh Earth Farms’ workers, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in dirty dungarees are coming back for another season. After years of grueling weeding, our plants have created over six million peas and beans. We eat more kale than we have in five years, and less cabbage than we have in twenty. Our kohlrabi is healing, our lettuce is rebounding, and members enjoy tastier veggies than ever before.
Together, we have cleared away the rubble, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our farm is stronger.
But we gather here knowing that there are millions of seeds whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our farm is adding members – but too many people still can’t eat enough tomatillos. Tomato yields have rocketed to all-time highs – but for more than a decade, bok choi and celery have barely budged.
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of the farm’s growth – a rising, thriving pumpkin patch.
Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our planting scheme – decisions that will have a huge impact on the yields of our produce.
Over the last few years, our employees have worked together to reduce the weed seed bank by more than 2.5 trillion – mostly through hoeing, but also by hand weeding before weeds go to seed. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of 4 trillion in seed bank reduction that agronomists say we need to stabilize our vegetable plots.
Now we need to finish the job. And the question is, how?
In 2011, we decided if we couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our weed seed bank goal, about a hundred dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our pest management. They’d devastate priorities like fertilization, produce washing, and new vegetable trial research. They would certainly slow our soil warming, and cost us hundreds of peas and carrots. That’s why we decided this is a really bad idea.
Now, some have proposed preventing weeding cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like pest reduction and fertilization.
That idea is even worse. Yes, the biggest driver of our weed management troubles is the rising number of weed plants going to seed. And those of us who care deeply about programs like predatory insects must embrace the need for modest reforms – otherwise, our tillage will crowd out the native areas we need for our wildlife population, and jeopardize the promise of a secure vegetable share for future generations.
A year and a half ago, I put forward the Mechanized Cultivation Act that independent agronomists said would eliminate a million new seeds. I thank the last membership for passing some of that agenda, and I urge this membership to pass the rest.
After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our fertility future. We produce more nitrogen at the farm than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the yields our pepper plants produce on a gallon of water, and the amount of fertilizer we generate from sources like chickens and goats – with dozens of eggs to show for it. We produce more sweet corn than ever before – and nearly everyone’s colon is healthier because of it.
Study after study shows that the sooner a plant begins growing, the better it does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 corn plants are started in a greenhouse. Most farms can’t afford to transplant corn. And for poor sweet corn who grow up in the northern latitudes, this lack of access to a greenhouse can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Let’s make sure that a high sugar content puts our sweet corn on a path to a good pot of boiling water.
Our farm share is stronger when we harness the taste of heirloom tomatoes. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, and faith communities all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive heirloom tomato reform.
Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my Administration has already made – putting more trees on the southern border than at any time in our history, and reducing pesticide drift to their lowest levels in 40 years.
Tonight, we stand united in saluting the farm workers who sacrifice every day to protect our produce. Because of them, we can say with confidence that the farm will complete its mission, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of the cucumber beetles.
Today, the pests that attacked us in the past are a shadow of their former selves. Different bugs and extremist insects have emerged – from the Iowa cornfields to the Wisconsin dairies. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to spew tens of thousands of gallons of toxic pesticide. Instead, we will need to help predatory insects like multi-colored Asian lady beetles, green lacewings and ground beetle find an appropriate habitat for their own survival, and help them take the fight to the insect pests. And, where necessary, through a range of organic pesticides, we will continue to take direct action against those insects who pose the gravest threat to our vegetables.
Of course, our challenges don’t end with insect pests. Fresh Earth Farms will continue to lead the effort to prevent the spread of destructive rodents. The gopher regime must know that they will only achieve security and prosperity by meeting their obligations. Provocations of the sort we saw last season will only isolate them further, as we stand by our allies, strengthen our own gopher traps, and lead the neighborhood in taking firm action in response to these threats.
Likewise, the leaders of the deer herd must recognize that now is the time for a diplomatic solution, because a coalition stands united in demanding that they meet their obligations, and we will do what is necessary to prevent them from getting our lettuce and beets.
Fresh Earth Farms must also face the rapidly growing threat from biological pathogens. We know viruses steal plant’s ability to thrive and infiltrate their internal structures. We know fungi swipe our veggies’ nutrients. Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our root system, our irrigation system, and our storage systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our refrigeration.
Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters little if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource – our produce.
It has been three months since the end of last season. I know this is not the first time that our membership has gone without fresh vegetables. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of members – members who reject GMOs – have come together around commonsense reform – like eating more kale. People are working together on exciting new recipes to use all the tomatoes they’ll get this year. People are asking our help to reduce the number of cabbages they receive in this season’s shares.
Each of these proposals deserves a vote. If you want to vote no, that’s your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the three months since the end of the season, more winter squash has been consumed, onions have been caramelized and garlic has been sautéed .
Our actions will not prevent every excessive production of produce on this farm. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this farm, expand membership, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of farming.
We were sent here to look out for our fellow members the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across the Twin Cities. We should follow their example.
We should follow the example of a Woodbury nurse named Anna. When the onslaught of cabbage overtook her fridge, her thoughts were not how to compost it- they were how to utilize all of it and the rescue plan she devised made it into sauerkraut that kept her well-fed and regular this winter.
We should follow the example of a Shoreview woman named Lauren. When she opened her deliver box she saw it contained 30 ears of corn. Her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to enjoy this corn. Hour after hour, she cooked the corn for a throng of neighbors who stayed in support of her. Because Lauren is in her 30s. And they erupted in cheers when she finally said “The corn is ready!”
We should follow the example of a vegetarian named Mike. When a half bushel of tomatoes descended on his home, and Brian was the first to arrive, he did not consider his own safety. He washed and processed them until help arrived, and ordered his fellow vegetarians to start cleaning the canning jars- even as he was covered in red tomato goo.
When asked how he did that, Mike said, “That’s just the way we’re made.”
That’s just the way we’re made.
We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as members, we all share the same proud title:
We are shareholders. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our eating habits or food preferences. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this farm only works when we accept certain produce; that our food choices are wrapped up in the food choices of others; and that well into our second decade as a CSA, it remains the task of us all, as members of Fresh Earth Farms, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our farm story.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless Fresh Earth Farms.