Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet!

Locovore (n.) a person who eats food grown locally.

I first heard about CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) on public radio and I was charmed from the start. All over America, small farms are selling “shares” of their fresh produce in exchange for work on the farm or money. For about $30 a week or a few hours’ time each week of labor in the dirt and fresh country air, you can get a box of food straight from the fields. CSA’s are local farms selling their produce to local families and businesses like markets and restaurants. By selling direct to the consumer, fewer costs are incurred (middleman/retailer, transportation, storage) and the small, local family farm receives more profit.

Just as with any other kind of business investment, when you buy a share of a CSA, you take on risks. Drought, disease, pests, or too much rain can damage a crop. On the flip side, the same weather risks can result in a bumper crop of certain types of vegetables and fruits. So one year you might have just a few berries due to heat, but more beans and squash than you know what to do with. The same risks take place in the conventional food market and grocers simply raise the prices of food that has a low supply to meet demand. (In my own CSA experience, the farmer is generous to a fault, loading up shareholders with extra tomatoes, beans and peas for canning/preserving. And if he couldn’t get a harvest in fast enough, he’d invite shareholders to pick as much as they wanted for free, just to get it out of the fields and put to use.)

Though not a requirement, most CSA’s are organic. Because they grow a variety of crops, their soil and water practices are healthier for the environment. By growing a greater variety of crops on smaller acreage, CSA’s help biological diversity. (That’s a fancy way of saying “the more, the merrier.”) Another advantage of buying food through a CSA or a local farm co-op is the Fresh Factor. Most fruit and vegetables are grown on huge factory farms in places like California and Florida, and are genetically engineered to have a longer shelf life. A strawberry harvested in California will sit in storage, in a semi truck, in another warehouse and on the grocery store shelf before you buy it. Ever wonder why those Dole strawberries you buy for $4.99 a pint taste bland and boring, and even get moldy after a day in your fridge? They’re bred and raised to SIT–but only for a week to 10 days. There is no taste comparison between that winter California strawberry and the freshly picked June berry from your local farmer’s market. They’re not the same fruit, and I think it’s even fair to wonder if they’re the same species after the pesticides and herbicides used by factory farms are applied. Talk about Frankenfoods! Dole has developed the original Frankenberry! But that’s fodder for another day. On average, food travels 1,500 miles or more to get from farm to table. If you’re serious about conserving gas, you’ll look into buying food locally grown. Most CSA food goes from farm to consumer within a day of being picked. This way, all the food’s shelf life is used up in your kitchen. Talk about Fresh Factor! What tastes better than beans straight out of the garden?

I mentioned biological diversity–most CSA’s grow heirloom or heritage plants, plants that are native to a region, with special characteristics. By joining a CSA, you’ll meet some exotic foods that most supermarkets don’t even carry. (Celeriac, anyone? Kohlrabi?) A sample “share” looks like this:

July, Wisconsin: 2 cloves garlic, 8 cucumbers (2 varieties), 6 peppers (2 varieties), 8 tomatoes (3 varieties), 1 bunch parsley, 1 bunch cilantro, 2 onions, 3 summer squash, 3 zucchini, 1 # potatoes, 2 eggplants, 2# mixed greens, 1 # spinach, 4 carrots, 1 head cabbage.

Mmmm. (That’s a lot of food. My family actually buys a 1/2 share, half the price, half the food, all the great benefits.)

To make you feel even more virtuous about joining a CSA, (as if eating healthy and saving money isn’t virtuous enough), locally grown food uses no or recycled packaging. Support of CSA’s means that local farms are able to stay in operation and hold communities together. And this means that more money and resources stay in local communities, too. CSA’s connect people directly with the Earth, the source of their food. By participating in a CSA, you learn about food production and gain new perspective and respect for Earth–the water and soil and plants that feed us.

Enviro Girl says go to http://www.localharvest.org/ today and find your nearest CSA. Feed your Inner Locovore!

* This post originally ran on March 3, 2008.