Live Earth Farm Nwsltr 2008

Greetings from Farmer Tom
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Who says you have to live in the countryside to start a self-sufficient life-style? On the front page, no less, of last Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, amidst its mostly mind-numbing financial news, was an article about front yard mini-farms. If the Wall Street Journal (considered to be the daily financial horoscope for investors around the world) runs a front-page article on a subject such as self-sufficient gardening, is this an indicator that the wheelbarrow may be replacing the mighty shopping cart? Folks with a more pessimistic perspective might interpret the message as we’re on the verge of another Great Depression. The last time victory gardens were in fashion and people grew their own food was during World War II.

It’ll be awhile yet before lawns, the trademark of American suburbia, come under siege and homeowners recognize their value as a potential resource for growing food. Over 80% of US households have lawns, which adds up to a whopping 30-40 million acres of land – something like the size of Kentucky and Florida combined. Americans spend an average 40 billion dollars annually on their lawns, applying over 70 million tons of pesticides and fertilizer – about 10 times more than the average farm applies per acre. Most yards today serve as a status symbol. The greener the lawns and bigger the dahlias the more attractive the home (and often the more valuable when appraised). A compost pile and thriving vegetable and fruit garden in the front yard is not (at least not yet) considered a valuable landscape feature in most urban and suburban neighborhoods.

Not long ago our ancestors really did garden for self-sufficiency; it wasn't an option, it was a way of life. My mother still tells me stories how in her family money wasn't used for things you could grow or make yourself, but only for tools, clothes, or sometimes luxury items such as coffee and chocolate. This may sound a bit radical, but imagine if CSA members grew food in their own gardens and then sold or contributed a portion of their production to fellow CSA members. From Debbie's point of view this would probably be the ultimate logistical nightmare. But it's conceivable to see neighborhood pick-up sites becoming outlets for productive local neighborhood gardens.

It was exactly a year ago that Debbie's husband Ken launched an interactive game on the web called World Without Oil, which opened with the ‘alternate reality’ that gasoline had hit $4 a gallon. In real life, less than a year later, we are already paying over $4 a gallon for diesel fuel to operate our farm machinery. The future of an abundant and healthy food supply is going to depend increasingly on local and regional food belts, where consumers develop direct relationships with food producers. I like Slow Food’s concept of consumers (or eaters, to be more precise) being “co-producers”, i.e. intimate participants in the food growing process. Being a Community Supported Farm we are well on our way to building our network of food producers and co-producers.

Finding energy-efficient strategies for growing and delivering crops to you, our ‘co-producers’, is becoming increasingly important. From my point of view, I am looking for ways to become more efficient in how we package and distribute our shares; I am also looking into ways to reduce the cost of outside inputs by increasing our own compost making capabilities. We were fortunate this winter to have seized an opportunity to acquire a piece of land adjacent to our farm, which in the long term will substantially cut our production costs since it will reduce the amount of time and transportation required to tend our fields (currently we grow crops on 5 different leased parcels, two only a mile or so away, but three, although still here in the Watsonville area, are much further). Having our own land also removes the uncertainty that comes with leased land.

Elisa

Our goal, as Carlos Petrini (founder of the Slow Food Movement) so well describes in his book "Slow Food Nation", is that our food must meet three criteria: quality, purity, and justice. We are what we eat, and we are all called upon to evaluate how our food is produced, sold, and consumed. When I see Elisa play in the fields, tasting and exploring the treasures this land sprouts forth, it reminds me that the most important thing about food is that it is pleasurable. When food meets Petrini's three criteria, it will inherently be more pleasurable to consume. The pleasure of food serves as the primary reason why we should care about a sustainable food system, which in turn contributes to a happier and healthier future.

- Tom

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