Roots > Grassroots Farming
Grassroots Farming
Keeping it local with community-supported agriculture
By Melinda Feucht
The average American dinner travels 1,500 miles before reaching the dinner plate, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Web site, requiring 250 gallons of gasoline to transport. Chris James’ Fresh Earth Farms reduces that number to 30 miles and 5 gallons for Twin Cities residents. The farm is a community supported agriculture farm, or CSA farm, which means city-dwelling customers buy a portion of a farmer’s harvest and receive produce weekly.
Brian DeVore, media coordinator at the Land Stewardship Project, says CSA farming is on the rise. There are approximately 20 CSA farms in Minnesota and 14 in Wisconsin that deliver to the Twin Cities, DeVore says.
James, a former software sales representative in Silicon Valley, Calif., and University of Minnesota graduate, says each CSA farm runs differently. Some farmers deliver their harvest and others arrange for the members to pick it up. Some farmers encourage the members to help out on the farm, but their main responsibility is to pay their membership fee. Although Fresh Earth Farms has drop sites around the Metro Area, about 60 percent of its members pick their food up at the farm.
James and his wife, Susan, have been operating Fresh Earth Farms in Denmark Township, Minn., for five years. James has seen how CSA farming affects both the farmer and consumer. “What we found is that people get a greater sense of the choices and availability that’s out there—that’s not typical of what’s in the supermarket,” he says. Most produce in the grocery stores is bought for the appearance off the ship, not the taste. “We don’t have perfectly round tomatoes, but they taste good,” James says.
Another consumer benefit James points out is the direct relationship he has to the consumers. “We have people come out to pick up produce, and if I’m outside they can ask me questions about cooking, etc.,” he says.
For more on Chris James and other CSA farmers see our feature “Down on the Farm.”