Collective Power for Local, Just, Sustainable Food
The C in CSA stands for community, of which communication is the foundation. We as growers and eaters are all here for the same reasons. We all desire and deserve to imagine the possibility of a better world and make it real.
At the center of that, we have the flavors, colors, and textures of a diversity of fresh foods. The kind of foods that make you excited to cook with family and friends. The nutrient-dense meals that carry you through all the daily trials and tribulations. New and old traditions that take root around seasonal availability of the best tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, or basil you can eat. The skill and magic of taking fresh raw ingredients and transforming them into delicious nourishment. It’s the same skill and magic that it takes to form deeper connections with those around us, heal and replenish ourselves, and the Earth.
Sorry to get so deep in here, but hey, sometimes we need to stop and appreciate the magnitude of the little things. One farm may not solve all the world’s problems. What we can do is support and empower each other to make the most of this one life we’re each given. We all do better when we all do better.
We as a farm and as humans living in unprecedented times are constantly in imagination and adaptation mode. As we put forth more of our story and experiences while growing this food, it’s our hope to germinate and grow connections with those close to us who resonate with the need to build strong local community-based food systems. CSA is the culmination and the source of that. It’s also a continual source of joy with each planting and harvest, providing the much-needed reminders for us all of what it means to be human within the context of the land where we live. The closest I have to understanding that, with help from author Octavia E. Butler, sounds like this: to be human is to change everything we touch, and for everything we touch, to change us. Our ecological niche has always been among those who transform foods and materials into something different than it was when we found it. For better or for worse, this appears to have been a constant of the human nature.
Luckily for us and all the species we share this Earth with, we capable of shaping the changes we cause. And, as I’m sure most of whom are still reading this would agree, it’s time we direct our methodology towards the regenerative rather than the extractive. Those of us currently alive are capable and in fact responsible for regenerating the life that has been stripped from the soil, remediating the pollutants released into the water and air, and healing our minds and bodies as best we can. We have quite literally everything to loose if we don’t.
Without coming together as a collective, our individual sphere of influence and power is small. CSA is collective power applied to food. It’s not a solution for all of the challenges we face, but it is one strategy among many that we believe will be relevant and necessary for a future we all can live with.
