A few weeks ago we wrote about the things we do to avoid food waste on our farm. We discussed
several things we do with unsellable and surplus food, things that
even most small, organic farms don't do or don't do to a significant
extent. By far the most important of those things is preserving
food for our own family's later use, but all of the things we do to
avoid food waste take time. The question we aim to address this
week is why you as a consumer might (or might not) want to deal with
a farmer that takes the time to do these things, especially
preserving food for his own family.
And we think the most important answer to that question is that if
you believe in pursuing a real alternative to supermarket ways of
farming then we think it makes sense to look for a farmer that wants
to eat his own food year-round. We think the inverse is also true:
a farmer that would rather focus more on making money during the
busy season (instead of preserving food for his own family) and is
content to take that money to the supermarket in the off-season is
more likely a farmer that isn't so committed to a way of farming
that's so distinct from the supermarket.
This begs the question of whether the products of any local farms
really are preferable to the supermarket to begin with, especially
when it comes to comparing something like home canned local tomatoes
with fresh tomatoes from Florida or California. Perhaps you'd
rather eat fresh tomatoes from the supermarket when they're out of
season instead of eating home-canned tomatoes or doing without. And
perhaps you'd prefer a farmer that shared and followed those same
priorities, concentrating on bringing the best of everything he can
to the market during the market season instead of getting distracted
with things you wouldn't even really care about for yourself.
In theory those fresh tomatoes from the supermarket in the middle
of winter could even be certified USDA organic, but in practice
shopping at the supermarket almost always means substantial
compromises to even the USDA organic label, to say nothing of all
that the USDA organic label leaves to be desired. But one
could trust in and patiently wait for the USDA organic system to
improve and offer more and better options, focusing in the meantime
on the certified organic things one can buy, and taking comfort in
mostly meaningless alternative labels ("all natural," "non-GMO"
olive oil, "hormone-free" chicken, etc.) for all those things for
which there aren't certified organic options or for which the
certified organic options seem like a rip-off. One could trust that
ultimately it's going to be supermarkets, the far-away farms that
supply them, and government programs that fix the problems with our
food and agriculture. Lots of people don't believe that abandoning
responsibility for our food and farms to unaccountable corporations
and government programs was at all to blame for how we wound up with
so many problems in the first place. Pretty obviously, we believe
consumer disconnectedness is at the root of our food and
agricultural problems, but if you'd just as soon buy what you want
to buy when you want to and leave it to corporate and government
specialists to think about and take care of all the details, with (or
without) an organic label to help that process, then you'd surely
think (if you took the time to think about it) that how we farm is
generally a pointless and inefficient waste of our time and your
money.
Even in that case, if we happen to have something on the farmers'
market table that looks good for a price that looks good, you might
still want to buy it, but that might just not happen very often. We
would probably have compromised too much of what you'd be looking
for for the sake of things you don't really care about at all. And
you almost certainly wouldn't want to make any commitment to our way
of farming (like a CSA involves.) Fair enough. Thanks for
looking. On the other hand, if you'd rather not trust the
supermarket or the USDA organic label to answer all your food and
underlying farming questions for you (present and future), and if
you'd like to support and eat from a source that's a lot more than
just a nearby version of that same system, and especially if you'd
like to build and grow a comprehensive alternative to the
supermarket system such that the homegrown alternative amounts to
more than just token supplements to your diet, then we'd encourage
you to consider getting to know and partnering with a farm like
ours. If you share that perspective, you might actually prefer that
we spend significant time preserving tomatoes (and all sorts of
other things) for ourselves when we might otherwise be putting more
on the farmers' market table for you, precisely because there's no
better guarantee of good farming than what a farmer would choose for
his own family. And if you get to know us and decide to partner
with us, you may come to find that we're actually providing you with
good things that the corporate marketing specialists didn't even tell you you were missing.
