Week 10 Newsletter

Reading back, our last two newsletters went from a drought to a flood. It has been a challenging season. The numbers are in and July is now the wettest month on record in Albany since NOAE started keeping track in 1829. We were actually spared some of the storms and we were still in a drought after surrounding areas had experienced quite a few storms. But the last 6 inches of the month fell on the farm. To top it all off, we even had a hail storm come through last Saturday night. The rain with the hail was simply more than the soil and the crops could bear.
This weather impacts a lot of farmers and you can see the result of it in your share. Normally, our fruit farmer supplies a number of customers with peaches, apricots, and plums – but not this year. His whole crop is going to Roxbury, as most of it is not marketable due to the hail. Before the hail he had already lost most of his pears to freezing temperatures. I told him that our members will be accepting of some cosmetic blemishes, as long as the fruit tastes good. I have no complaints about the flavor, and I am glad we are able to pay top dollar for fruit that would not stand a chance in the wholesale market. This is the second year in a row that his apples sustained too much damage to be marketed to their regular customer: Great Britain. Yes, you got that right; New Yorkers do not eat apples from the Hudson Valley, because wholesalers deem the fruit too small or whatever other complaints they have. Wholesalers and supermarkets would rather buy apples from Washington State. This has become a lot easier with the opening of a gigantic warehouse in Albany (thanks, George!) that receives fruits and vegetables directly off freight trains from the West. Is it a wonder we see more farmland going into development?
This has not been an easy season for farmers in the Hudson Valley, and not even a Community Supported Farm like ours is insulated from incurring hardships. I am not only talking about the weather. We look at our financials and there is little chance of staying within our planned budget. Who could have foreseen that all our suppliers would increase their prices this dramatically? You all know about the cost of fuel, but fuel is connected to almost every line item, including wages, as people need to heat their home and drive to work. So the question arises: Is Roxbury Farm too deeply embedded in our oil culture? The problem is that every time we compare the numbers, our model of agriculture wins at any price of oil as even the most sustainable farming method will go bust when oil prices hit the roof. It is an illusion that a commercial farm (I am not talking about a homestead) can emancipate itself from the world economy. We are a part of it and I believe that is a
good thing; it means we interact with the world around us. At issue is not the interaction but the responsibility of being part of a world community.
We are still an example of what is considered a low-input farm. For example, when we grow sweet corn, we use some organic fertilizer as a source of nitrogen, but it is only a quarter of what our conventional neighbors use if you compare nitrogen pound for pound. That means that we produce the rest of the corn's nitrogen needs on the farm. According to our extension agent, our sweet corn has similar yield to the neighbors', and he can only find a 4% infestation of harmful bugs. He can’t get over the beneficial insects he finds, from lacewings to praying mantises. But even such accomplishments are a drop on the economical plate as our other costs to raise sweet corn are so much higher than our neighbors'; our labor input alone is twice as much and, somewhere, wages are still connected to fuel as the prices of food, transportation, and other living expenses are affected by the price of oil. Unless we find a solution to emancipate our workers, suppliers and products from their energy dependence, we will always depend on oil. Still, that doesn't take away our excitement about building a new packing barn that's carbon neutral. Jody is looking into grants that are given specifically for new buildings with a lower carbon footprint. Simultaneously, our answer to overcoming any future crisis will not be in just becoming less oil dependent (actually a new energy-efficient barn will increase our costs); we will try to find it in becoming more dependent on each other. Our financing of the new delivery truck last year was a great example of how you, the members and the farm, found another way to underline our interdependence.
I have never had the misunderstanding that either the CSA model or our farming methods would save the world. Building a carbon-neutral barn won’t either. But they provide good examples of what is possible. Our accomplishments with low-input crops will help our conventional neighbors revise their methods (we hope). We are credible because they know that we are faced with many of the same problems they encounter on a daily basis. Change begins when that first little ripple forms in the pond after you throw in a small pebble. That first ripple happens when someone performs something extraordinary – something that people did not believe was possible. In our information age we have learned to filter out almost everything except exceptional things. Our farm, as small as it is, is known nationwide; that proves my point.
About a month ago, Jody received a delegation from the commissioner of agriculture (including the commissioner himself) when they came through to inspect the hail damage in Columbia County. They looked at the damage and asked her how we dealt with it. Without realizing it at the time, Jody made one comment that created a ripple. Jody told them that she had written a letter explaining why we were coming up short and delivering blemished produce and that the responses from the membership were incredibly supportive. “Our members understand that their food is connected to the weather and the earth,” she said. Apparently, the delegation is still talking about that incident, as they instantly realized what is wrong in their worlds. If all farmers were connected to community, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today. ~Jean-Paul