US shoppers get a share of harvest in return for taking stakes in farms
Straits Times 12 Jul 08;
CAMPTON TOWNSHIP (ILLINOIS) - IN AN environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, more people are skipping out on grocery stores and farmers markets, opting instead to go right to the source and buying shares of farms.
On one of the farms here, about 56km west of Chicago, Mr Steve Trisko was weeding beets and cutting back a shade tree so that baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the 1.6ha Erehwon Farm.
'We decided that it's in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,' Mr Trisko said.
Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilised on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture and has about 150 people who have bought shares in it.
The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming.
But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.
'I think people are becoming more local-minded, and this fits right into that,' said Mr Nichole Nazelrod, programme coordinator at the Fulton Centre for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Pennslyvania, a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms.
The shareholders of Erehwon Farm have open access to the land and a guaranteed percentage of the season's harvest of fruit and vegetables for packages that range from about US$300-US$900 (S$400 to S$1,200).
Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.
Mr Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labour and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.
'It's very hard for them to make ends meet, so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing,' he said.
Under the sponsored system, farmers are paid an agreed-upon fee in advance of the growing season, making their survival less dependent on the vicissitudes of the market and the cooperation of the elements.
At least 24 vegetable farmers serve an estimated 6,500 members throughout the five boroughs of New York City, said Ms Paula Lukats of Just Food, which connects farmers with residents there.
NEW YORK TIMES
