In the farm town of Johnsonburg, Pa., everyone could tell at a glance which family Krista Shaffer came from. Everyone knew the faces of the folks who produced their food. Now the D.C. transplant organizes civic renewal-focused programs at the Hudson Institute — with refreshments direct from farmers markets.
Most Americans have no clue about the source of their food, now that fuel for life has been commoditized as “products.” We grouse about grocery prices over cups of chain-shop coffee and mass-produced snacks that cost more than a bagful of nourishing farm-fresh fruits.
Our health and environment suffer more than our wallets. We live “under a policy of cheap food at any cost, founded on cheap energy at any cost,” said author and fifth-generation farmer Wendell Berry at a recent Hudson conference about preserving agrarian communities. “Aiming for ‘cheap,’ ” he said, will eventually destroy health-giving food supplies, land, energy, communities and innovation.
Berry’s heartened by the local-grown movement. More people are shopping at farmers markets and subscribing to weekly lots of locally farmed food through Community Supported Agriculture groups.
Since joining the Sandy Spring, Md., CSA three years ago, Jennifer Milewski has seen membership nearly double.
Fresh, in-season, more flavorful food is just one benefit of subscribing, Milewski said.
“We save gas and [help] the environment by eating local food rather than food shipped in from across the country,” she said.
No less important: protecting local farms.
CSAs guarantee independent farmers up-front income, helping them withstand risks from weather to economic turbulence.
“I want my baby daughter to eat as few pesticides and preservatives as possible, but it goes even deeper than that. I also want farming to be feasible when she grows up,” Milewski said. Considering the oil consumption and environmental degradation associated with big agribusinesses, she’s voting with her grocery money.
“My husband knows from the first bite whether a dish has CSA tomatoes,” she says. “After a few weeks on fresh tomatoes, you will never want [to settle for] the flavorless sawdust that is the average store-bought tomato.”
Same goes for those chain-store strawberries. “Cut [one] open and see how white and hard it is, compared with the smaller but juicier CSA or farmer’s market strawberry,” Milewski suggested.
“The food on my table has been given to me by hands that have blessed it with their labor and care,” the mindful consumer reflected. “My farmer has a face.”
Good food, great value
“I think the CSA is a steal, financially,” Community Supported Agriculture’s Jennifer Milewski says. Her family splits a seasonal “share” with another couple, working out to about $13 a week for vegetables.
Finding a community supported agriculture group:
Invest in sustainability; reap tasty, healthy rewards:
» localharvest.org/csa
» csacenter.org
» nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml
Robin Tierney is a freelancer who writes about health and environment issues. She can be reached at [email protected].
