by Megan Minnick, Purchasing Director
Last May, as the realities of the pandemic were just starting to hit home, I wrote the following in the Co-op Reader:
“In January, the Produce Managers and I held our annual planning meetings with the farmers who supply us. We heard a similar story from many of them: climate change is an increasingly serious threat. They had just weathered two of the worst growing seasons in memory—2018 and 2019 were both incredibly wet years, with weird weather patterns that made profitable farming very difficult. On top of that, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions in the Madison area are down significantly from where they were several years ago. More than one of our established and experienced growers told us that in order to continue, they simply had to have a good season in 2020.
“Then COVID-19 hit. Typically, our local farmers and small producers make their living by a combination of CSA shares, wholesale accounts to grocery stores (like Willy Street Co-op), farmers’ markets, and restaurant sales. With CSAs already on the wane, restaurant sales diminished greatly due to the COVID-19 crisis, and farmers’ markets largely delayed, many farmers and producers have found themselves with significantly less income than they had planned for. If this crisis had hit two years ago, before the 2018 and 2019 growing season, many of them probably could have weathered this storm, but with diminished reserves, this is an extremely dangerous situation for many local producers.
“It was like that part in a novel where everything is hopelessly wrong, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any way to get to a happy ending…”
So how did it all turn out? I can’t tell you the end of the story—both climate change and the pandemic are ongoing—but I can give you a sense of where we stand a year later; and I’m happy to report that just like in many novels, it’s at the most hopeless point of the story that things start to turn around.
Second harvest foodbank partnership
One of the first bits of happy news came in April, when Dane County announced an $8 million partnership with Second Harvest Foodbank. This money was designated to purchase food from local farmers to supply the foodbank. It proved to be a win-win as farmers gained a much needed outlet for their excess produce, and the foodbank was able to procure fresh, healthy food for people in need.
At least two of the organic produce growers who supply the Co-op have told us that this program was extremely beneficial to the financial health of their farms, replacing necessary income that normally would have come from restaurants and farmers’ markets. The program was set to expire on January 31, 2021, but in December, Dane County announced a $5 million extension until the end of July 2021, meaning that this important income stream will remain viable for farms through the spring and early summer.
CSA consumer support
Another bit of good news in the spring of 2020 came in the form of overwhelming consumer support for CSA shares. The CSA model, where consumers pay farmers up front for a regular box of veggies through the growing season, had been waning in Dane County in recent years. CSA numbers were shrinking across the board, and there was a lot of talk in the farming community about the viability of the model. COVID-19 changed everything. Suddenly, the idea of a “touchless” box of fresh local veggies seemed more appealing than ever. According to Carrie Sedlak, Executive Director of FairShare CSA Coalition, 95% of CSA farms that are part of the coalition sold out of shares in 2020, many of them ending up with waiting lists, compared to only 53% the previous year. Twenty-six of the FairShare farms outsold their original goal, adding 1,200 more CSA shares than they originally intended to.
An excellent growing year
The third and perhaps most important positive development in 2020 was the weather. After two years of poor weather conditions, 2020 provided a reprieve and shaped up to be an excellent year for growing vegetables. This couldn’t have come at a better time!
People
Weather is certainly important, but if you ask me, the best part of what happened in 2020 had everything to do with people.
Our farmers are incredibly resilient—it’s in the job description—but 2020 required a new level of resiliency. Not only did farmers have to do the usual hard work of growing food and managing their farms, but they had to find creative ways to pivot their business models to the realities of the COVID-19 summer. They found new markets, they created online stores, and some even offered home delivery. They also found new ways to structure their crews in the fields and in the pack sheds in order to ensure adequate social distancing. The majority of them somehow found a way to not only survive 2020, but to thrive. According to many farmers that I’ve talked to, 2020 was by far the most challenging and exhausting year in recent memory, but it was also the most rewarding, and many of them ended the year in a better financial position than they began it.
Community of eaters
Which brings me back to you, the community of eaters who call this place home. Without people who care enough about our local farming community to go out of their way to sustain it, none of this positive momentum would have been possible. The people of Dane County went out of their way to advocate for farmers at the County level, purchase CSA shares, shop farmers’ online stores, seek out local produce at the Co-op, and one way or another, find creative ways to fill their fridges and countertops with local food.
This support for farms in 2020 went well beyond the financial. The year brought a new sense of connection between the people who supply local food and the people who eat it. We all realized, really realized, just how much we need each other. I noticed this in my work at the Co-op—a sense of gratitude from our customers that I had never felt in the same way, and many of our farmers felt it too. As Farmer Andrea from Harmony Valley Farm put it during our winter planning meeting this year, “Gratitude is a powerful tool.” This was an extremely difficult year, but successful nonetheless, and it meant so much to feel supported and appreciated by our community or eaters. Thank you.
Climate change
Though the pandemic is finally drawing to an end, climate change is not, and there is no doubt that it will prove to be a much larger threat to our local farming community than the pandemic ever was. As we move into that unknown future, let’s hold on to that resiliency, creativity, gratitude, and sense of connection that we found last year. If we can do that, I have no doubt that our local farming community will remain strong for many many years to come.