The LocalHarvest Blog

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

A few days ago I went down to the pantry to get a jar of jam for a sandwich. While there I took note of the supply and found it surprisingly low -- only two jars remaining. Immediately my mind went to the bags of strawberries I had put in the freezer last June. "I could make a batch of jam one night next week;" I thought, "then we would have plenty." I added it to my mental list, which was already cramped with holiday tasks. Then I stopped. The mistake I so often make in December is adding one more thing when the days are already full. Having plenty of homemade jam on hand is a good thing, but slowing down is better. Jam can wait until January.

The holiday season is an ironic time of year. We get extra busy in the darkest weeks of winter, when our bodies naturally want to go to bed early. And this busyness sometimes keeps us from looking around and counting our blessings. Every year I try to remember to keep December simple. Every year I get stressed out and have to re-learn the lesson.

This week I found myself repeating "simple is good" like a mantra. We are having eggs for supper tonight...simple. Bean soup tomorrow night...simple. We will bake Christmas cookies on Saturday...but only two kinds. A couple of years ago my extended family started drawing names for a book exchange and it transformed the shopping experience into something manageable and enjoyable. Every small simplification offers a gift: the opportunity to be a little more relaxed and grounded. Taken together these have the potential to create a holiday season in which I am both nicer to be around and happier.

Sometimes we think that we need to buy, cook, schedule, bake, do a lot of extra things to feel the holiday spirit and make our family and friends feel loved. But I think what we all really crave at the holidays is feeling connected. Connection doesn't take a lot of hoopla, and in fact, that gets in the way. Connection takes intention and the willingness to put aside whatever keeps us from opening our hearts to those around us.

So in this season of holy days, my wish for myself and you is that we may all put our holiday energy into genuine connections with the people we love. As the folksinger Kate Wolf said so well, "Give yourself to love, if love is what you're after..."

With our wishes for connection and peace for all, now and in the new year,

Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

06:00 PM CST

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Last July we asked our CSAs to tell us their thoughts about the current status and future of community supported agriculture (CSA). Over 1,000 CSAs participated in our survey, which yielded some thought provoking results. Here is some of what we learned from the survey and some number crunching from our own database.

The vast majority of CSAs are relatively small. Over 85% of our CSAs have fewer than 150 members. Though many CSA farmers find ways to thrive at this size, others operating at a small scale find it quite trying. When farm income does not cover expenses, farmers must work off-farm jobs and/or do without hired employees. For some, these things become unsustainable over time.

The traditional CSA model is changing in many ways. We think of traditional CSAs as those with one farmer, one size weekly box, and one payment made by members before the delivery season begins. Fewer and fewer CSAs utilize this model. More farmers are expanding their offerings. Our survey found that over two-thirds of respondents now sell add-on products like eggs or meat in addition to their vegetable shares. Meanwhile, 71% of CSAs surveyed said that offering multiple payment options has been a key part of their growth strategy. The traditional model is evolving.

CSAs' top concern: low profit margins. We gave survey respondents a list of 11 challenges faced by CSAs and asked them to indicate which three were of chief concern. The most frequently named obstacle, across every size category and number of years farming, was "low profit margin." One farmer wrote, "Every dollar [farmers] make off the farm is a direct subsidy of the cost of food. "What other segment of our society is asked to produce and provide their goods as well as subsidize the cost?"

Other issues of immediate concern to CSAs included climate changes affecting food production, the number of CSAs in their area, balancing demands of farm/off-farm employment, and finding/retaining qualified employees.

Looking to the future, CSAs worry about money and regulations. Given the same list of obstacles and asked to choose the single biggest challenge facing CSAs in ten years, the top two concerns were low profit margins and increased federal food safety regulations. These were followed closely by climate change and retirement/succession issues. Interestingly, small CSAs ranked "climate changes affecting food production" third among potential future challenges, but large CSAs placed it ninth of 11; large CSAs were most concerned about future pressure from food aggregators and home delivery services.

Some CSA farmers are moving on, but many believe CSA is the way to go. Just over half of the CSAs we surveyed are anticipating a growth in their membership over the next three years. Newer farmers anticipate more growth than experienced farmers, despite the fact that more experienced farmers enjoy significantly higher member retention rates from year to year.

Some farmers reported that they are closing their CSAs, typically because they find the model labor intensive and unprofitable. Others love everything about the traditional CSA model. One of these farmers wrote, "I think CSAs are THE FUTURE of small farm marketing." The biggest group of farmers told us that while they think CSA is a good idea, it needs significant modifications to work well for their farms. Ideas farmers are testing include offering CSA-like "grab and go" boxes at the farmers market, smaller share sizes, customization options, and a CSA cooperative.

Farmers are inventors and problem solvers by nature. We have no doubt that over time they will create new forms for CSA that suit both themselves and the members of their communities.

We want to thank all the CSA farmers who participated in our survey. We learned much from your comments and will write about how your thoughts have informed our sense of the future of CSAs in our January newsletter.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

P.S. Don't miss the great offer below from our new partner, NakedWines.com!

Guillermo

06:00 PM CST

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Last week we heard news worth sharing about several LocalHarvest farmers. First, two of our farmers' heritage turkeys received high praise in the current issue of Cook's Illustrated. Those of you familiar with Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen will know what a big deal this is: these cooks pride themselves on their perfectionism in the kitchen. When they say a turkey is special, it is. Here's what they wrote about Elmwood Stock Farm's heritage turkey: "This turkey [has] white meat "so rich in flavor that it tastes like dark meat." The dark meat was even more tender and flavorful, prompting one taster to ask, "Is this dark turkey or pulled pork?" Taste testers for Heritage Turkey Farm's bird designated it as the "best buy", and gave it this praise for its flavor: "Fantastic," "perfectly juicy," and "full of turkey taste." The "lovely" dark meat was praised for being "packed with meaty flavor," "supple," and "richly flavored"."

We were so pleased to see this piece describing the differences of high quality poultry. (Spoiler alert: the Butterball turkey didn't get high marks in Cook's taste test.) Hopefully the article will prompt many people to seek out a good bird this Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, we are delighted that these two farmers are getting the recognition they deserve for their exceptional turkeys!

Six years ago, one of these farmers, Bob Both of Heritage Turkey Farm, was just beginning to sell his turkeys with LocalHarvest. He and I spoke on the phone many times that season. Bob was comfortable with raising the birds, but the idea of shipping them had him a little nervous, with good reason. Shipping a frozen bird across the country and having it arrive in perfect shape just in time to thaw before the big day is a big deal, and any missteps tend to have disastrous results. We all wanted everything to go well. Bob was careful to ask a lot of questions, and fortunately we had experienced poultry farmers willing to teach him a few tricks. He developed his own system, tested it, and quickly became one of our most reliable farmers for shipped birds. Now he's getting national attention for his turkeys.

Bob's success serves as a good reminder of all that goes into mastering a new skill or craft. There's the need to tolerate one's initial incompetence, commit to the learning curve, seek outside help, experiment and make mid-course corrections, all while maintaining a strong commitment to quality. When the skill being mastered is farming, one has to take significant financial risks as well.

The other farmers I wanted to tell you about this month are all seeking to expand their operations. Like Bob Both back in 2009, they have developed their initial skill set and are looking to move into new products, new markets, or into a new scale of production. All of these activities strengthen local food economies, which is work worth supporting. And we can offer our support, in tangible and significant ways.

Last May, I wrote about Kiva Zip, a new zero-interest micro-lending program for U.S. farmers. Getting involved in the capital needs of small farms is one way we who don't farm can support those who do. Since that article appeared, about 20 LocalHarvest farmers have initiated fundraising campaigns through Kiva Zip. A number of them are already fully funded and the farmers are using the loans to buy equipment, expand their herds, or strengthen their infrastructure. Several more are currently in the fundraising phase. I am hoping that many of you will read these farmers' profiles and consider making a small loan to their fundraising campaigns. (Individual loan amounts start at $25.) Becoming a micro-lender on Kiva Zip is easy and, for me, a satisfying new way to support small farms. By helping share the financial burden of growth, we can help a new group of farmers solidify their businesses and feed their communities.

Here are the LocalHarvest members currently raising funds through Kiva Zip.

• Bryan and Cindy Pruett from Appleby Community Farm & CSA - (zip.kiva.org/loans/7379)
• Gale Livingstone from Rainbow Hill Farm, LLC - (zip.kiva.org/loans/6363)
• David Fisher from Fisher Family Farm and Ranch - (zip.kiva.org/loans/7469)
• Ron Trunk from Iron Mountain Nursery and Farm - (zip.kiva.org/loans/7514)

Thank you for lending your support to these farmers and those in your own communities. Together, we can help family farmers thrive, and they, in turn, will feed us well -- at Thanksgiving and around the year.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Photo by: Rosie Creek Farm

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

A couple of months back a journalist asked me why I feel so passionate about local food. She caught me at an odd moment and my mind went utterly blank. All I could think was, "Yikes. Do I feel passionately about this?" I don't remember what answer I gave her, but the question and my blankness stuck with me for days.

Weeks, actually. For a while I felt restless and guilty. "What am I doing promoting local food if I can't find my passion for it?" Eventually my husband helped me out of the hole I was digging; he pointed out that I have been supporting family farmers and eating locally so long that what once inspired a lot of emotion is now regular life.

This isn't just happening to me, of course. The culture is changing. Everywhere we look people are embracing the notion of 'local'. What was a new idea back in 2000 when we launched LocalHarvest is slowly becoming the standard. That is just what we wanted! Fortunately, a life that includes beautiful local foods yields a lot of delight and gratitude (e.g. our neighbor's early apples are fantastic this year!) even as passion for the idea of local food may fade with familiarity.

To me, all this means it is time to go deeper. Buying directly from farms is good. It gives farmers a higher return, making small scale farming more economically viable. Buying local is good too. Communities benefit when their members keep their money recirculating within the group. But we can do much more to protect the integrity and viability of small scale farming. First, we need to make sure that "real" food stays real. The more successful 'local' is within mainstream society, the more likely it is to be coopted by big business. "Farmer McDonald's CSA Egg McMuffins" - it sounds farfetched but it could happen, and in smaller ways already is. Second, our communities will be strengthened as more of us get involved in the complex issues facing agriculture. There are many issues to choose from, such as local zoning issues, federal farm regulations and the ongoing GMO fight, to name a few. For all the incredible momentum buying local has gained, making substantive, long lasting political and economic changes in the food system will require tenacious collective attention.

We can do it. My hunch is that our love for real food will be what prods us to make the effort and strengthens us along the way. Then we may both rediscover our passion for local food and put it to good use.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Someone once told me never to ask a farmer about their career choice in August. By this point in the summer, most produce farmers are tired, if not downright weary. Too much worry about weather and bugs and money for one summer. Too many 14 hour days in the heat. Too much uncertainty and guesswork. By the time they have to lift a few tons of melons out of a field in August, some farmers say, "Never again!"

At least quietly, to themselves. Luckily for us, most get rested enough over the winter to go back out and do it again.

Fall is the traditional time to give thanks for the year's harvest, but it seems to me that we should also do so in the heat of summer. What better time than August to express appreciation to the people who produce summer's bounty? Starting now.

To all the family farmers and all the farmworkers:

We are so lucky to get to eat the food you grow! Thank you for all the work that goes into it - the long days and endless tasks, the freezing hands and aching back. We appreciate your willingness to take risks and tolerate financial uncertainty. For your labor, skill and perseverance, we are grateful.

Most of all, thank you for the beautiful food. Eating it makes us feel healthy. We who have access to such magnificent produce are truly fortunate. We give thanks for the food, and for all the hands and hearts who nurture it from seed to table.

-- With love from local farm fans everywhere

Hopefully our deep appreciation will give the farmers who receive it a measure of the sustenance their food brings to us. And later, with any luck, they can sit down and crack open one of those beautiful watermelons and enjoy it for themselves.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

A while back one of my sisters and I were sitting around talking about the farmers market she had been frequenting, when one of her sons came in and got mildly interested in the conversation. We began talking about where and when different things grow, and I was surprised to realize how unfamiliar he was with the origins of his favorite foods. Potatoes grow underground? Cucumbers on vines? Almonds on trees? I will never forget the flash of insight that lit up his face when he said, "So that's why there are always pictures of cows on milk cartons!"

We know that kids are not born knowing where food comes from, yet we may assume they pick up that information along the way. In most cultures, in most periods of human history, children did just that. Nowadays, though, how could they? The typical activities of modern childhood do not afford kids many opportunities to use their natural curiosity and observation skills to learn about food production or the wider natural world. Given the chance, children still like to do so.

Summer and fall are great times to take kids to visit farms or plant a garden so they can see food production in action. What's not to love about picking berries, digging for potatoes, squatting on the ground to watch worms wiggle through the soil, or leaning against a fencepost watching goats be goats? Most children I know have fun doing these things, IF (and it is a big ‘if') their grown-ups do not spoil the experience. From a kid's perspective, it isn't very fun to be outside if your parents make a fuss when you get muddy, or whip out the hand sanitizer every time you touch something cool. And who can really look at anything if the grownups are always in a hurry?

Don't get me wrong: some days I am that parent. ("The ripe strawberries are RED!" or "Keep moving, we have to go!") In other situations I can be the kind of parent who wants to make everything into a "teachable moment." But I am trying to relax and remember that if I want my child to be curious about food and enjoy exploring the natural world, I need to give her chances to do these things and then get out of the way. I am not suggesting that we take our kids to farms and leave them to their own devices. Not at all. Yikes. I am suggesting, though, that once our kids are settled at the farm or in the garden, we step back a little and let them have their own experience. Maybe we talk with them about it on the ride home, or maybe we let it be. They'll figure out which strawberries taste the sweetest, and next year they'll remember that it was the red ones. They might even remember that strawberries grow on the short plants with the dark green, deeply veined, serrated leaves that grow in groups of three.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

At the beginning of each month I sit down with a calendar and write out dinner menus for the whole month. I have been doing this since 2009. I have said that this chore changed my life. It's true. The worst part of any weekday used to be coming home from work and having no idea what to make for dinner. It turns out that 5:30 p.m. is not my most creative hour. I know I am not alone. Having a plan completely eliminates this form of stress, which alone is reason enough to take up the practice. But there's more. Menu planning allows for a balanced, thoughtful plan across each week, which for us means a variety of vegetables and proteins, not too much pasta, bigger meals every couple of days to allow for leftovers for our lunches. It also reduces trips to the grocery store and it allows me to plan easy meals for the nights I know will be busy.

Lately I have become aware of another advantage of meal planning, and that is the opportunity to reduce food waste. When I buy a head of lettuce, for example, I put salad on the menu a couple times that week. If I roast a chicken, I make a plan for using the leftovers in a pasta. About the only food that gets thrown out at our house is the occasional half-bunch of parsley that I didn't find a use for before it got old. Thinking ahead about how to use the food we buy has significantly reduced the amount of food we waste.

If menu planning caught on it could have a huge impact on the food system. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), members of the average U.S. household waste about one-quarter of the food and beverages they purchase. That is an incredible statistic! Buy four grocery bags full of food and one of them is destined for the trash. If you include the food wasted in the fields, in restaurants, etc., the amount of wasted food rises to 40 percent of all that is produced. What a sad and sorry use of fresh water, pesticides, fossil fuels, nutrients, labor and money.

The bad news/good news here is that the problem has gotten much worse than it used to be. The NRDC reports that food waste was fully 50 percent lower in the 1970s. As their report states, and this is the good news, “This means there was once a time when we wasted far less, and we can get back there again.” Indeed we can.

Menu planning is just one way to do so. Taking steps to store food properly at home to reduce spoilage is another. Composting is a third; though it does not reduce food waste directly, it does keep uneaten food out of the landfills. Food rotting in the oxygen-deprived environment of a landfill creates methane gas, a major contributor to climate change. On the other hand, food decomposing in a compost pile turns into a rich resource for the garden, landscaping, or houseplants. Sustainable America has a great info-graphic on how urban dwellers can compost, among others.

Reducing food waste makes good sense, and is something that all of us can help with, whether we do so through composting, improved storage, or menu planning. Menu-planning is a great place to start, since it helps cooks reduce stress at the end of the day. If you need a little inspiration to get your menu planning off to a good start, check out our cookbook giveaway below.

If you plan your menus a week or month at a time, or have other tips for reducing food waste, we would love to hear from you.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Earlier this month I poked through the recently released 2012 agricultural census data. The more I dug, the more concerned I became about the story the numbers tell. I came away feeling that we who support local farmers need to get more directly involved in the success of family farms.

According to the census data, nearly 100,000 farms were lost and over 7.5 million acres of land were taken out of farming since the last agricultural census was taken in 2007. The American Farmland Trust, says that translates into 1200 acres of U.S. farmland being developed every day. The census also found that one-third of American farmers are age 65 or over, and another 29% are between age 55-64. Our aging farm population puts more of our nation's farmland at risk. Oftentimes, farmers who want to retire must sell their land to developers because their retirement "savings" is in their farms and the highest bidder wants to plant houses or a strip mall.

We need sufficient farmland to feed the nation; we will also need hundreds of thousands of new farmers to take the wheel from those who retire. These new farmers will need to be able to afford farmland and equipment. When farmers and developers compete for the same land, farmland becomes prohibitively expensive, or leaves farmers with too little money to properly equip the new enterprise, thus driving down its likelihood of success. Small and mid-sized farms are disproportionately hit by these economics. Nearly 70% of the farms that went out of business between 2007-2012, were under 180 acres. For those of us who believe that thriving rural economies mutually benefit the communities they surround, these numbers are not good news.

Agricultural census data is used by policymakers to fund farm programs, some of which we at LocalHarvest support. But after spending time with the data, I found myself feeling impatient. Thoughtful federal farm programs can do a lot of good to support new farmers, but wheels turn slowly in Washington D.C. and these numbers tell me that we are not moving quickly enough to create a nation of vibrant direct-market farms committed to feeding their local communities.

The reasons behind these numbers are many and complex. But there are things that we as supporters of local food systems can do to help farmers make their operations viable and help them grow. Last month I was introduced to Kiva Zip, and I would like to let you know about their work. Like its parent organization, Kiva, Kiva Zip exists to facilitate small scale, "crowd funded," zero interest loans to emerging entrepreneurs. Whereas Kiva works on a variety of kinds of projects all over the world, Kiva Zip focuses on the U.S. and has a strong emphasis on food and agricultural businesses.

Unlike traditional lenders, which determine eligibility based on credit scores and the like, Kiva Zip uses a more relational model, which they call "character-based lending." It relies on a farmer's ability to build trust, confidence, and relationships. Farmers can post their project online and have people from all over the world chip in as little as $5 to fund the project. Over the last year, 80 farmers have raised up to $10,000 each to buy a needed piece of equipment, expand into a new market, and the like, usually raising the money within a few weeks. One hundred percent of farmers have successfully raised the funds they sought, and thus far the pay-back rate from the farmers has also been 100%.

Kiva Zip allows  all of us to help farmers quickly raise needed capital with favorable terms. We hope you will consider participating. If crowd sourced funding of farm projects takes off over the next few years, we can hope that the 2017 census will show momentum building toward a time when hundreds of thousands of  small farms are prospering all across the nation.  

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

We all know there are compelling environmental reasons to choose organic food. Many of us buy organic out of a belief that it must be healthier, too. In terms of avoiding the potential toxicity of pesticide residues, it is. But the case for organic food actually being more nutritious has been harder to make. Over the last few years, though, there has been a growing body of research demonstrating not only that organic food is better for us, but how.

This month I had a chance to speak with Jessica Shade, Ph.D., Director of Science Programs at The Organic Center. She pointed out that scientists haven't yet demonstrated that all organically grown food is more nutritious than conventional. Studies have focused on individual crops, and even then there are so many variables that it is difficult to isolate the impact of organic management practices. Still, research on a variety of fruit and vegetable crops has shown that organic methods yield produce with higher levels of certain nutrients and other good things. Research has established, for example, that organically grown spinach, peppers, oranges, pears, peaches, strawberries and tomatoes all have higher levels of Vitamin C than their conventionally grown counterparts. Other studies show significantly higher levels of antioxidants and other phytochemicals important for disease prevention.

So the research is beginning to back up what intuitively seems like it must be right: nix the noxious toxins, treat the soil well, and the resulting food will be more nutritious. But exactly why is this? According to Dr. Shade, there are two prevailing guesses. The first is that plants respond well to the somewhat increased stress level found in organic systems. "What?" you say, "My organic tomatoes lived a life of stress?" It's true: plants are less protected from weeds and pests in organic systems, and that puts a little more strain on them. Taken too far, the plants will not produce. There seems to be some optimal level of stress, though, where the plants' response may be to produce more antioxidants. That turns out to be a boon for human health.

The second hypothesis on how organically grown produce comes to be more nutritious has to do with plants' self-defense system. As insects start to gnaw on plants, the plants fight back by producing compounds to make plant unsavory to insects and, like the antioxidants produced under stress, many of those compounds are good for us. Remarkable, huh?

The above applies to produce, but the dairy story is equally interesting and possibly more impactful. The main known nutritional benefit of organic dairy as is the high level of omega-3 fatty acids it provides. As many are aware, diets low in omega-3 but high in omega-6 fatty acids are linked to increased rates of many diseases, and increasing one's level of omega-3s is a good thing for your health. In a study released last December, organic milk was shown to have a significantly lower ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids than found in conventional milk, making it a very healthy choice. The reason is believed to be because in organic systems the cows are required to be on pasture longer, and the fresh grass they consume there leads to milk rich in omega-3s and low in omega-6s. According to Dr. Shade, the pasture rule in the organic law was put there for the cows' well-being, but it turns out that more time on pasture means healthier milk, so everyone wins. The study's authors encourage people to leverage their findings to maximum benefit by minimizing the intake of foods high in omega-6s while also shifting some of their fat intake to full-fat, organic dairy products.

For me, all this research points to an elegant intelligence inherent in organic food production systems. What's good for the plants and animals is also good for humans and the environment. To learn more about organic research, visit The Organic Center's website.

On a different note, if you are a farmer or other food producer, please see the announcement below about an important survey pertaining to the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

LocalHarvest Newsletter, March 28, 2014

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Most of us have a project or two we've managed to put off for a few years now. For whatever reason, there are always a few jobs that are hard to get to - painting the back bedroom, cleaning out the storage room in the barn, replacing that ratty winter coat, whatever it is. The inaction may show no signs of ending, and then one day we surprise ourselves and begin. Momentum builds and eventually, with a last push and a flourish, the long dreaded task is finished! Procrastinators everywhere know the particular mix of relief, pride and delight that follows. It is exactly that feeling that we at LocalHarvest are reveling in this week.

At long last, "redesign the website" made it to the top of our To Do list in January. We thought we might be able to get away with just doing a little touch up here and there, but eventually gave ourselves over to re-doing the thing from top to bottom. This week we are absolutely delighted to launch the first redesign in our 14 year history. Happy birthday, LocalHarvest. We got you a new suit for the party.

Our main intention was to make it easier to find and utilize the information LocalHarvest users find so valuable. So, along with the updated design, you will notice a few structural changes when next you visit LocalHarvest. We expanded the search functions and moved them to the top of the page. The map, events and listings are specific to your location. Our popular Farm Events feature gets more space, and the farm listings are improved. We streamlined the catalog checkout process, and made a lot of other little changes.

We hope you will spend a little time on the new LocalHarvest! There's a lot to see. The feedback we've gotten thus far from our members has been overwhelmingly positive. We'd love to hear your reaction to our new site too.

Meanwhile, the weekend is coming. Maybe it's time to tackle that project that's been hanging over your head for too long? Take it from us: you'll be glad you did.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

LocalHarvest Newsletter, February 24, 2014

photo by Tolay Valley Farms

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

People join CSAs for all kinds of very good reasons, but they stay for only two: really liking the food, and workable logistics that work for their family. The food, of course, is primary. It needs to be luscious, more or less the expected quantity, and of good variety, but not too weird. That is, most people don't mind a couple experiences of "what is this thing?" during the course of the growing season, but few want to brave unfamiliar vegetables every week. In terms of logistics, the pickup place and time must be convenient, the payment options need to work for the family's cash flow, and the delivery frequency needs to match the quantity of food delivered so the frig suffers neither deluge nor desert. There are many other great things about being part of a CSA – getting to know the farmer, for example – but usually these are not strong enough to retain members if the food and its delivery are unsatisfactory.

Satisfaction, though, is highly subjective. "The perfect amount" to one family may be too much or too little to another, and notions of acceptable quality and convenience are similarly personal. CSA farmers try their best to meet their members' needs, but sometimes they don't. A growing issue faced by CSAs nationwide is that of member attrition. Some people join a CSA and stay for a season but don't re-up the following year, making it difficult for individual CSAs to grow. My message this month is to try, try again. With your second farm you may find a better fit.

My sister's experience is a good example. A few years ago, she signed up for a CSA. She went in with a lot of motivation to support a local farmer and expose her kids to local food. Sadly, it was a flop. The farmer was new to CSA, which led to inconsistent food quality and too many unidentifiable vegetables. My sister ended up tossing a lot of the food. At the end of the season she left. Still wanting to eat local, seasonal food, the next year she tried to shop at the farmers market. That wasn't ideal for her either. Too often her Saturday morning schedule filled up without getting to the market. She realized that she liked the commitment and routine a CSA offered. ("I already paid for it. I better pick it up!") So last year she tried a different CSA. This time she did more research and asked a lot of questions. She found a CSA that focused on what she calls "the basic vegetables" – those that she and her family like to eat. The quantity and quality were excellent. The pickup fit with her work schedule. Her family had an enjoyable experience and she signed up again for this coming season. Everybody won: my sister kept trying until she found a format and a farm that worked for her, and the farmer gained a returning member.

If you have had a less than stellar experience in the past, perhaps 2014 is the year to give it another try. We have some articles that offer ideas about how to decide if CSA might be right for you, and if so, how to find a good match.

If you've had a good CSA experience - even if it took a couple of tries! - we'd enjoy hearing about your experience.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

P.S. Be sure to read on for the announcement of our new mobile version of LocalHarvest!

Guillermo

06:00 PM CST

LocalHarvest Newsletter, January 25, 2014

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Earlier this month, General Mills announced that Cheerios would no longer be made with genetically modified (GMO) ingredients. Anti-GMO activists were pleased, while defenders of Corporate Food insisted it was no big deal. General Mills did have a relatively easy job of it; the only GMO ingredients in its original Cheerios were a little cornstarch and sugar which were readily replaced by non-GMO sources. Unfortunately, General Mills is not removing the GMO ingredients from its myriad other products so there is no reason to think that the company is concerned about the widespread use of GMOs. To the contrary, General Mills owns organic brands Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen which made campaign contributions that helped defeat the GMO labelling initiative in the State of Washington last November. Given all this, some people have suggested that the change with Cheerios was just a PR ploy. Maybe it was. Certainly General Mills knew that the move would appeal to many parents who feed Cheerios to their toddlers. Whatever the motivation, Cheerios going non-GMO is a very small gesture on the part of a very big food conglomerate.

So, does it matter? We at LocalHarvest think it matters deeply over the long run.

Most people in this country find themselves in the cereal aisle at least once a week. Most of those shoppers would probably not go out of their way to find a GMO-free cereal, but given that polls show that the vast majority of Americans want access to GMO-free food, we have to assume that many of them will be glad to have a convenient option. The change with Cheerios is important because it gives everyone a chance to easily and knowingly choose a product that is free of GMOs. What begins with Cheerios may very well carry over to other GMO-free products. Sometimes peoples' buying patterns actual strengthen their beliefs, which then deepen their commitment to their buying patterns. Anyone who buys organic food has probably experienced this; I know I did. I started buying organic vegetables and fruits out of concern about pesticides. Gradually, organic became a higher priority and I started investing in organic meat. Then I switched to organic milk and yogurt. I'm still working on cheese and get organic grains or beans when I can.

We start with something easy and eventually realize that the issue has become more important to us. We put effort into it. This is one way to create change. One choice leads to another, leads to another, and to a strengthened conviction over time.

Moving toward a GMO-free food system will take a lot more than Cheerios. But if a few million people get in the habit of buying this one GMO-free product, they may begin looking for others. If they do, America's food manufacturers will respond. What sells gets produced. Meanwhile, if even a couple of million of those people started making a little noise for GMO labelling, it will only be a matter of time before a labelling law gets passed in a populous state, and that could be the tipping point for labelling laws across the nation.

Genetically modified ingredients have infiltrated nearly every corner of the food system with very little public debate about the risks and possible benefits. It is that public discussion, along with the kind of labelling laws already in place in Europe and elsewhere, that we at LocalHarvest feel are vital. GMO-free Cheerios may play a role in furthering those causes...even if that wasn't General Mills' intent.

Until next time, take good care and eat well,
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

P.S. Be sure to read on for the announcement of our new mobile version of LocalHarvest!

Guillermo

06:00 PM CST

LocalHarvest Newsletter, November 21, 2013

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Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For weeks I look forward to preparing a beautiful meal and relaxing with my family. Sadly, Thanksgiving night invariably finds me deflated. I regret having gotten irritable in the final crazy minutes of gravy making and turkey carving or feel dispirited by the lack of meaningful conversation at the table. I miss the family members who are absent. I wish people would have gotten along better and connected more deeply. The list of discontents varies from year to year but the theme is the same: it didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped.

This year I am on to myself. All month I've been thinking about letting go of my imaginary ideals and showing up with an open heart for whatever happens. I anticipate that it may be a little hard to pull off on the big day. I know I'm not alone. For many people the holidays are a time of heightened need for things to be a particular way. Certainly there's nothing wrong with wanting a lovely holiday. But high expectations can hold us in their grip. What we want to see blinds us to what is actually in front of us and diminishes it. If we then distance ourselves from the imperfect, that gap makes it even harder to connect to things as they are. It is only in approaching a thing — be it this particular holiday meal or an individual human being — with attention that we can fully appreciate it, for all its faults and strengths, for all its funky uniqueness. Paying attention with kindness opens us to the wholeness around us. From there it is a short leap to gratitude. That which we see deeply enough can virtually always be counted as a blessing.

As we each look around our Thanksgiving tables next week, may we focus on the kindness and generosity that is shared between us and give thanks for the day we have been given, whether or not it is the one we had imagined.

Blessings on your holiday table.
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Click here for our readers' comments.

Guillermo

06:00 PM CST

LocalHarvest Newsletter, October 25, 2013

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Photo by: Smith & Smith Farm

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

After the shenanigans of the last month it feels almost in poor taste to bring up yet another example of the folly in Washington. I would happily write about something more pleasant if there wasn't so much potential for damage here. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed another set of regulations that, if implemented as written, will negatively affect many LocalHarvest farmers and could very well put some of them out of business. (Careful readers will recall a similar theme in last month's LH newsletter concerning outdoor access for chickens; believe it or not, this is a separate issue.)

These proposed regulations fall under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the first overhaul to food safety rules in 75 years. For several years before its 2010 passage, farm and food activists worked hard to make sure that the law would address the known threats to food safety from industrialized agriculture, and differentiate between those activities and ones that are non-threatening. Thanks to their hard work, Congress passed an amendment exempting small-scale farmers, thus protecting them from overly burdensome regulations that shouldn't apply to them. But that didn't entirely work.

Sometimes 'fair' means that the same rules apply to everyone, but sometimes what is fair is to ask the people who engage in the riskiest activities to meet a higher standard than others. In the food system, the riskiest activities are those with a documented history of contamination leading to human illness. In the U.S., those products are bagged salads, sprouts, and much of what is grown downstream from confined animal feedlot operations (CAFOs — aka feedlots). Bagged salads are risky because when the salad leaves are cut they become vulnerable to pathogens; putting these vulnerable greens in a sealed container and removing the oxygen creates an excellent environment for bacterial growth over time. Sprouts are risky because of a history of contaminated seeds and the lack of sufficient post-harvest safety checks. Irrigation water tainted by runoff from CAFOs may contaminate produce. Instead of focusing the regulations on these few problem areas, though, the FDA produced a set of rules strict enough to keep the high-risk products safe and applied it to all produce. According to The Cornucopia Institute, over 90% of the farmers to whom the regulations will apply do not produce these high-risk foods. Requiring them to abide by the same strict rules just isn't fair.

Nor is it smart. Despite being so expensive to implement that the FDA itself predicts the new rules will put some small- and medium-scale produce farmers out of business, asking them to follow these rules is unlikely to make the food system any safer at all because these farmers are not the bad actors. Society will lose an unknowable number of good farmers for nothing, and good food will become harder to find. We think the government has a role in keeping the food system safe, but rules that put good farmers out of business and leave gaping holes in known problem areas is not wise governance.

Several organizations have developed excellent materials through which you can learn more about these proposed regulations and their impact. One good source is The Cornucopia Institute. If you really want to dig in, read their whitepaper on the food safety rules. Another good source is the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. They offer step by step instructions on how to submit a public comment and what to say. Finally, the offers an in-depth analysis, sample comments, and a downloadable PDF flyer that can be printed and distributed at farmers markets.

I hope that many of you will help protect LocalHarvest's produce farmers by contacting the FDA before the November 15 deadline. Let them know that you want the FDA to create rules that don't unfairly burden the small- and mid-scale farmers from whom you like to get your food. Good food — and good farmers — are worth protecting.

Until next time, take good care and eat well.
Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

Click here for our readers' comments.

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT

LocalHarvest Newsletter, September 21, 2013

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT