Food With the Farmer's Face On It
Sat Sep 01, 2007 at 06:40:29 AM PDT
It seems only fitting that a panel at YearlyKos regarding food and agriculture would be responsible for sowing seeds of change in my daily life.
I've already written about how helpful I found the Forging Links to An Alternative Food Chain panel. I'm now in the middle of reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and What To Eat is waiting in the wings. Both of these books do a great service in raising awareness of where our food comes from. Tom Philpott's portion of the panel was a fitting complement to these books, in that he explained how factory farming is dismantling our agricultural infrastructure, poisoning our environment and leading to an increased dependence on an unsustainable model.
But amid all the sobering facts, Tom also offered ways to combat the trends. And one of them is the CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - model. I think of it as a combination magazine and farmer's market, for the idea is to support local farmers via a subscription-based model. You sign up for a set number or weeks of support (or shares), and you receive fresh, locally-grown produce on a regular basis. Farmers benefit through direct financial support from the community and a more guaranteed market for their crops.
I left YearlyKos eager to learn more about the concept and see if I could put it into action for myself. So I went to localharvest.org, entered my zip code, and found Morning Song Farm. Located in the unincorporated community of Rainbow, California, Morning Song Farm "starts with the premise that farming is a lifestyle, not a factory operation". Just the kind of place that appealed to the progressive in me. I contacted Farmer Donna to learn more about the CSA program, and I was sold.
My first basket arrived Wednesday. After work, I stopped by the Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa, the drop-off point for my food. Just trying to locate the cafe is an adventure itself - it is hidden in "The Camp" - the OC's attempt to recreate an outdoors experience, complete with faux campfires and chirping crickets. But I found the place and was soon carrying out a large wicker basket piled high with fresh produce: swiss chard, lettuce, asian pears, blackberries, tomatoes, japanese cucumbers, mint, rosemary, basil, oranges and limes. All of it organic, and all of it grown within 100 miles of my home.
The Japanese have a word for this concept of community-supported agriculture - "teikei". Meaning "cooperation" or "joint business", it is also translated as "food with the farmer's face on it". I think this is a great way to think about it. For me, food is no longer just a package I buy at the supermarket with no knowledge of where it came from, but a fundamental ingredient of life, grown and tended to by real people with names. And in addition to the health and taste benefits, I'm discovering some other fun things as well.
Tatsoi. One of the delights in this model is not knowing what you're going to get each week. That's because unlike in the supermarket, this produce is picked locally, when it's ripe. I was pleased that I recognized everything in the basket - except for a green vegetable with spoon-like leaves. Turns out this is "tatsoi", and now I have the opportunity to experience something new for me. Morning Song also grows other things I don't often try, like heirloom vegetables, yuzu, jujubees, macadamias, kumquats and mulberries. What a great way to learn about the wonderful variety of foods out there.
(The adventure of) Creating a menu around what's available. My grandmother, who grew up canning foods, doesn't quite understand my newfound romance with seasonality. But for someone who's used to first picking a recipe and then knowing I'll be able to finding its obscure ingredients any time in the supermarket, it's grounding to remember that good food is grown, not produced. And I feel a sense of accomplishment in finding a good meal "home" for these items. Already they're finding their way into salads, pesto, stir-fry, juice - and yes, mojitos.
Forming connections. Through this program, I am discovering new places and meeting new people. Next week, I'm looking forward to not just picking up my basket, but to dining at the Old Vine and getting to know a new place that focuses on seasonal ingredients and food's close connection to the earth. Morning Song Farms doesn't require labor as part of the CSA support, but they do have volunteer days and I'm looking forward to meeting first-hand the people who grow my food. And at The Camp, I also found a cool new raw food restaurant, 118 degrees.
Reducing dependence on foreign oil. This is one of the greatest hidden appeals of the CSA for me. For not only is my food traveling far less than the 1500-mile average of most foods we buy in the supermarket, eating more vegetables and less meat saves the energy needed to raise an animal. As Kerry Trueman noted in the panel, we get more mileage from a plant-based diet than from driving a Prius. And buying organic reduces the dependence on oil-based fertilizers. If I can find friends and neighbors to go in on the some additional baskets and share in the pick-up, we can save even more on the transport.
What's more, CSAs don't break the bank. Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and tried to price how much an equivalent basket of food would cost. I came within a few dollars of what I pay for the CSA subscription. Furthermore, that doesn't take into account the hidden environmental costs of food transport, the additional packaging of supermarket food, the fresher taste of my CSA produce - and the fact that TJs doesn't stock tatsoi!
Above all, I'm helping an endangered "species". Heck, I live in Orange County. Fifty years ago, Walt Disney built his Disneyland park amidst the orange groves of Anaheim. Thirty years ago the county still produced a wide variety of produce and agricultural products. But today it may as well be called House County, as developers continue to build on every last bit of farmable land. As the strawberry fields of Irvine and dairies of Cypress and La Palma become history, we have to look further and further for our food.
Joining a local CSA is a way to arrest this trend and keep agriculture local. In San Diego and Orange County, we're fortunate to have several CSAs from which to choose. Combined, there's a little something for everyone. And LocalHarvest lists other CSAs nationwide. The more we support these farmers, the more they are able to sustain their businesses. I'm glad for places like Morning Song Farm and am proud to support this form of agriculture.
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