November 17, 2009
Sustainable Food for All – Plus, Evil Alien Worms! - By Sara Jaye Sanford
Evil Alien Worm! Known to most as a common Tomato worm (Photo: Jon-Rappaport)
This summer, I took it upon myself to find out what this sustainable agriculture business is really all about. So I got in touch with Anonymous Farm (names changed to protect the innocent and the guilty) and spent July there with my sweetie as a “Woofer.” Anonymous was just getting started as a CSA farm with one acre of vegetables producing for twenty-odd members. I remain grateful to everyone I met there, human and animal alike, for their incredible generosity and teamwork and everything I learned from them. I harvested copious amounts of zucchini and pattypans, drowned an untold number of evil, alien-like tomato worms (see left), and weeded. (Mostly weeded.) By their own standards, I think Anonymous was successful. Getting a quality harvest your first year working a field is an ambitious goal to begin with, and we were providing our shareholders with an adequate amount of quality, delicious produce.
Puppppyyyy! This little guy "supervised" us in the field.
But in a broader context, I don’t think this model would “scale up” very well. And that’s not a bad thing. I think it’s fabulous for people to be able to work in a field, to support a local farm, and to build community around that. What it isn’t, however, is an answer to the question “How do we give everybody – or at least more of us – access to quality food?” At the end of the day, half a dozen people working one acre to provide vegetables for twenty or so families isn’t efficient enough to reach very many people. About a zillion times more workers would have to be engaged in agricultural labor and a lot more land would need to be farmed.
So what is the answer? Agribusiness says it’s not possible. They’ll tell us that we NEED them to feed the world. Now, I am skeptical of this claim – some research has shown that organic farming can have yields just as high as conventional farming, and there are plenty of better-established organic farms out there that get a lot more produce out of their land with relatively less labor. Michael Pollan seems to think the answer lies in each of us developing a closer and more honest relationship with our food. That’s cool and all, but what about the single mom trying to put food on her table who doesn’t feel she has time (or the need, frankly) to go hunt down her own wild boar? Her needs and constraints are legit too, and it’s been a growing peeve of mine that the movement for sustainable food often seems geared towards those of us who wield some consumer power.
In the field workin'.
But when you think about it, is something that’s really only available to a fraction of the population really sustainable? As long as the vast majority of our food is coming from agribusiness, we as a population are still going to be feeling the hurt.
That’s why I hope those of who care about these issues will spend more time thinking beyond our own consumption. Many farmer’s markets accept WIC and food stamps and some are even dedicated to serving communities without adequate access to fresh food, like DC’s Ward 8. Elsewhere in DC, check out Common Good City Farm and Martha’s Table’s schoolyard garden (cute kid alert!). Growing Power is fightin’ the good fight in Chicago and Milwaukee. To me, supporting organizations like these – and there are plenty out there to connect with – is as important as worrying about where my own food comes from.
Editor’s Note: Hope you enjoyed our guest blogger today! Feel free to leave comments thanking her for her thoughts, disagreeing with her conclusions, or asking questions about her incredible experiences! I’ll certainly ask her to reply to any inquiries in the “Comments” channel below this post. It’s America, people – say what you think! I’ll be back on Thursday for your end of the week post – including EARLY Friday Awesome Bonus content!
Working on an organic farm for a while sounds like it was a lot of fun for you but what did you learn if it didn’t seem like an experience that could realistically be expanded and brought to the masses? I’m not sure you really gave an answer here about how to do that.
thanks for your comment, kyle! good question and you’re right, i don’t think i gave a very clear model. I think there are a few parts to the answer (and you still may not think it adds up):
a) more efficient and productive sustainable farming than Anonymous practiced at the time – its very possible;
b) more food self-sufficiency: people (like our lovely hostess at this blog!) growing some of their own food rather than relying on the market to provide it all; and
c) creating models like those at Growing Power, Common Good City Farm, and elsewhere that give people without the time, money, or simple possibility to shop at a farmer’s market or join a CSA direct access to healthy food. This last one is maybe the most important to me in terms of accessibility.
there are lots of other issues that could & should be brought into it (for example, changing supply chains so that groceries & restaurants offer local produce – how much more convenient would that be for some people?) but that’s my short answer for now.