What's Happening at Ohio's Farmers Markets?
An in-depth look at CSAs and organic growing
written and photographed by REBECCA MYERS
Saturday mornings bring a host of different things: morning cartoons, weekend travels, errands and local produce. Farmers' markets across the country have become increasingly popular over the past few years with new markets popping up in towns both small and large. Customers and vendors alike enjoy the availability of fresh produce, locally raised livestock and baked goods. The need for locality and quality of food is a growing trend that is manifesting itself in farmers' markets. And within these markets are many different ways of getting your vegetables, dairy and meat straight from the garden and farm. If you want your food without chemicals, choose organic. If you're a city dweller, you may want an option to get local food every week instead of shopping at the big chain grocery store on your street. Let's take a look.
CSA: A-OK?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a system wherein people interested in fresh produce and a variety of different, local foods can connect with a farmer and buy the products straight from them. CSA membership entails paying in advance for a "share" of a farm, enabling you to have food for that season or for part of the season (anywhere from a 10 to 30 week period).
Here's an example: let's say you buy a share from a CSA farmer. This means that every week for the season you can go to a location (like a farmers' market, a co-op, the farm itself, etc.) and pick up a box of produce. Your box could contain breads, dairy products, eggs, meat, vegetables, greens, fruit or an assortment of all of these. If you had bought half of a share, then every other week you could put these fresh foods on your table.
Shares range from $100 to $1,000. The amount of goods in a box varies according to the number of people they're for; a one-person portion or a four-person family portion will be quite different in size. If you receive your produce twice a week or every other week, this will be another cost factor. For an average sized 20-week share, about $600 is in order.
CSAs are not counted nationally, but www.localharvest.org has over 2,500 CSA growers cataloged. Also, CSA programs are not all certified organic. Sandy Sterrett, owner of Elizabeth Telling farm in Barnsville, Ohio, said that she first heard about the CSA program in the 1980s. She was living in Columbus with a farm in Barnsville, when she began work on her CSA program. Sterrett started with 20 members, and after a two-year halt, picked back up with the program. As of 2009, she had around 160 members, some of whom live as far as Kent. She has a non-certified organic business.
Sterrett speaks about how CSA customers, who pick up their weekly produce boxes at the farmers' markets she attends, tend to buy more because they are already at the market. Plus, with produce varying from week to week because of different ripening times and weather, having CSAs "allows you to sell all the stuff you grow." This means that if farmers have an abundance of a product, like a certain vegetable, they know that it can go to their CSAs instead of taking the risk that it might not sell in retail at the market.
Advantages from the pay-in-advance structure of CSAs involve having money in the winter, which is the off-season for Sterrett, and being able to have the funds to buy seeds. Also, she mentions how her CSA system is three times as large as the rest of her farm market sales.
However, the CSA way can bring about problems. She said it is "extremely hard to plan for," having a 30-page long planting schedule. Keeping her boxes full for her customers can also be difficult, too. Although having CSAs takes off retail risk for plants maturing at different rates, not having set times for certain plants to produce can make having enough complicated. Not having an even income because a heavy portion of money is paid to her in advance (outside of stand sales at markets) can lead to pressure for Sterrett. Oftentimes a year's money that is paid in advance goes to the previous year's debt. "If I had a crisis this year, what would I do?" she remarked.
Another perspective on CSA growing comes from Rob Kaminski, the CSA coordinator for Green Edge Organic Gardens in Amesville, a farm owned by Kip and Becky Rondy. Kaminski said Green Edge has had their CSA program since 2006, with this coming summer being their eighth season. Not only does Green Edge offer a 20-week spring/summer season for its CSA members, but they have extended it into fall and winter. So, Kaminski states that they operate 40 out of the 52 weeks every year, with only a six week break to get their fields and greenhouses ready for the following season.
In comparison to Sterrett's program, Kaminski said Green Edge has 125 shares to offer and with some of the members choosing half shares, they have a total of around 150-170 people, with this season increasing from last year. They distribute their produce at the Athens Farmers' Market, in stores in Columbuts suburbs like Bexley and Upper Arlington, as well as at their farm. Besides CSA shares, Green Edge also sells to 15 Columbus restaurants and sells more produce at several farm markets.
The pay-in-advance structure of the CSA system can bring farmers many benefits. Kaminski points out that buying supplies for the upcoming season is easier to do when he can avoid getting a high interest loan or creating large credit card debt. Money ahead of time is "a huge thing from the farmer standpoint," he said. With their summer and winter programs, the deposits from one season can cover the next and pay for the previous.
On the other hand, a large sum of money at one time needs to be dealt with carefully. "Sure, you have all this money at once, but you have a lot to produce [with it]," he said. For their CSA deposits Green Edge has a separate bank account.
Other stresses that Kaminski sees include the hectic 12-14 hour delivery days that encompass farm markets and CSA pick-ups and deliveries to restaurants. The cost of gasoline is critical, as traveling to Columbus is a large part of their business. Also, regarding possible crop delay, he said the CSA members understand the "inherent risk" of a harvest and tend to "roll with the punches." Partners are yet another aspect of CSA farming. Growers can feature other local business and farmers as a part of their box of goods. Kaminski said Green Edge has four partners for fruit, baked goods and dairy products. The Village Bakery in Athens and Snowville Creamery are two.
COMPETITION
CSAs are sprouting up more than they used to; "they're more mainstream," Kaminski expressed. Although Kaminski and Green Edge don't feel much current competition pull, he said they do know of another up-and-coming Athens CSA farm.
Would the CSA program interrupt regular retail sales for other farm market vendors since buying a share is essentially a "one stop shop"?
Peggy Outcalt, the Director of Operations at Columbus' North Market, says that having CSAs as an element of the market is part of the "evolution of the farm market." "If you can't do it (CSA) at the farm market, where can you do it?" she pointed out.
Outcalt has only received one written complaint from a farm market vendor at the North Market concerning CSA distribution. She explains that having CSAs isn't going to jeopardize the need for the other farmers. Customers will still need "supplements to their boxes and they (CSA shares) don't provide everything."
Tim Patrick, a farmer from Danville, Ohio, believes the competition between farmers and CSA farmers sharing customers is increasing, but only to a "certain extent."
"CSAs (have) gone to the product rather than knowing the farmer," Patrick said, a disadvantage about the program. By producing a variety of items and including other products from their partners, CSA farmers can take out the connection to the individual growers and creators of all the products. However, not all farmers hosting a CSA program team up with partners, thus producing the contents of the CSA box themselves. At the same time, Patrick has a small and local CSA program of his own including eggs and greens for a 10-week period.
Another farmer is Mike Laughlin, an organic grower from Johnstown, Ohio. He thinks the CSA process is "good for a farm that is starting out." While CSA farmers might have an effect on other vendors' sales at certain times of the year, Laughlin has the same view as Outcalt. "CSA members buy from us (other market vendors), not that they're unhappy, but have a need for additional items," he voiced.
"CSAs (are) very competitive with advertisements," Patrick said, with Facebook and Twitter accounts becoming mainstream methods. Sterrett, Green Edge Gardens, Patrick and Laughlin all have Facebook pages and the former three have websites. LocalHarvest is a site that includes information on CSA memberships and farms throughout the country, including all four farms.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE ORGANIC?
In case the word "organic" isn't in your vernacular, it is not just a method of growing food but one that can have an assortment of connotations. Chemical-free food, sustainable practices and a healthy world environment are all some implied meanings.
A spreading practice, organic farming focuses on principles of "health, ecology, fairness and care" as stated by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). The IFOAM is an organization established in 1972 that promotes organic processes worldwide in 101 countries.
Organic Certification can range from $650-1200 for producers and $500-2500 for processors/handlers. These fees are from the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association (OEFFA).
Sterrett has a non-certified organic farm, but she maintains that her practices strictly emulate organic regulations. A main deterrent in getting her certification is the application price. Reading the rules, Sterrett strives to still follow these certified methods. There is extensive record keeping involved when gaining certification which she finds cumbersome; "record keeping just doesn't work." Sterrett doesn't use herbicides or pesticides, even those that are approved by organic certifiers. "I think I'm better than organic," she says.
Green Edge is a certified organic farm, having received their certification through OEFFA. In contrast to Sterrett, Kaminski said "we try to stress that we are certified organic," in order to assure their customers of their practices. He said that for farmers who claim they follow organic methods, there is "nothing to back that up."
Patrick, co-owner of Toad Hill Farm with his wife Jane, has been in the farming business for 18 years, the first 12 of which were as a certified organic grower. Greens, heirloom tomatoes, eggs, chicken and lamb are some of his production which he still grows and raises without the use of chemicals. He sells his produce at the North Market in Columbus, and two other farmers' markets. However, the high price for organic certification made him decide against it. Patrick, like Sterrett, still uses organic practices even without the label. "Good, safe, healthy food" and not dealing with chemicals are reasons he continues with the methods.
He said that some of the "mega-organic" businesses, for example those that raise chickens, can still not uphold values of decent agriculture even if classified as organic. Feeding organic grain to chickens, but still housing them in captivity, doesn't sit well with Patrick; he raises his chickens (and lambs) free-range. He said he "didn't want to be associated" with these practices, even though they were classified as organic.
Patrick also believes that the certification is "not strict enough on some things" leaving room for loopholes. An example he gave was farmers who use black plastic in their fields, a non-biodegradable product, often burn it once used, putting those chemicals into the air. "There's no real need to be organic" in title, he said, unless you're selling to a large grocery chain.
Laughlin and his wife Laura are certified organic farmers located between Johnstown and Utica. They own Northridge Organic Farm and have spent 23 of their 25 years of farming as certified organic. Laughlin is certified through OEFFA, with which he has been a member for 28 years. Northridge Organic sells a host of produce like heirloom tomatoes along with lamb. They sell to numerous stores and restaurants and at farmers' markets in Worthington and Westerville.
When the Laughlins started out, they decided to use organic methods "because of our environmental concerns and also we didn't want to expose ourselves to the chemicals." They learned more about the practice through their membership with OEFFA, using the organization as a resource. He said the group was "a teacher in a lot of ways."
Some troubles in the organic world can be vendors undercutting others' prices. "[It] makes it hard for those people who are doing it for a living," Laughlin expressed.
He views the organic regulations that involve record keeping as not being an overly difficult task. The recording can help a business develop and a way for the farmer to "see what's working and what's not."
Plus, he mentioned there are "plenty of customers to go around" for organic growers; he doesn't see it as competitive. "Just the word organic isn't going to sell your product," with quality and flavor also being important.
Farmers from all over Ohio express benefits and deterrents of growing organically or having a CSA program. From Belmont County to Knox and Licking to Athens, locality, production and quality are extremely important to both consumers and growers.
For more information on CSA farmers near you, visit www.localharvest.org.
Also, www.oeffa.com and www.ifoam.org were mentioned in this article.
Elizabeth Telling Farm and Green Edge Organic Gardens
www.localharvest.org
www.elizabethtellingfarm.com
www.greenedgegardens.com
Northridge Organic Farm on Facebook
Toad Hill Farm
www.toadhill.tripod.com
Originally published in the Spring 2010 issue of The InterActivist.
