Jun 30, 20223 min read

The Future is Small Farms {Week 5 CSA}

In a world where so much seems completely upside down, refreshing reminders of all that is right abound on small regenerative farms.

Like the genuine excitement washing over a 6-year-old's face upon discovering May's first ripe tomato. Or a 300 square feet bed of rich soil wriggling with earthworms, celebrating fresh roots and devoted hands. Or the dusty, tired smiles of farmers at the end of a long day tending the land. But especially—the humble commitment to health as a foundation for everything else: health of the land, the hands it receives, the bodies it nourishes, the air above, and the water swirling below.

Cultures far more versed in this language of health and connectedness remain, despite all odds, while countless others have been swallowed by the voracious appetite of more and mine. But the embers of their fierce wisdom landed upon the earth and alchemized future seeds of potential. Those seeds sprouted from a desperate need for restoration and are steadily and awkwardly peeling back their own layers of misunderstanding, ignorance, and presumption to reveal timeless knowlege. A sort of unlearning to create more space to really know—to listen in ways we aren't commonly taught. A revelation through reverence.

Despite the wildly opposing definitions of health from nutritional and behavioral standpoints, there's much less confusion around illness. Few would deny the epidemic of chronic disease, inflammation, and malaise, and no one is questioning the skyrocketing deaths from causes deemed "lifestyle diseases." These are reasonable consequences of an increasingly toxic world and a modern food system rooted in abiotic practices. In our time, to thrive is to fight for life. The good news is there are many of us fighting, and not all of us carry dirt beneath our nails at all times. You, dear CSA reader, are certainly a part of this battle, simply by your choice to support a small (teeny tiny) regenerative farm in the desert, and likely by way of many other lifestyle preferences. The scientists researching better ways, health professionals advising better habits, and even politicians resisting industry pressures are all a part of it. The farmers seeking to revive our soils happen to be tackling a central piece of this upside-down puzzle—one that relies on everyone else in order to fall into place.

Selling our vegetables is an interesting pursuit. It's a delicate balance of sharing the story of how we grow food (without sounding too salesy) while trying to make our produce look as much like the goods people expect to find at the grocery store. An impossible task at best, but there's a huge, gaping trench between what most folks know about how food is grown and what we hope they will understand, care about, and support. The easiest way to bridge that gap is to just try to "blend in" with the megalithic farm products that (almost) everyone considers the standard for food. If only they knew how many chemicals those never-nibbled leaves, exceptionally clean bagged greens, and extra plump roots needed to get that way. Even the "organic" ones!

It's not easy to be a farmer, but it is easy to conclude that farming in a clean, regenerative way holds incredible promise for many daunting problems we face as a society, species, and planet. Agriculture is one of the leading offenders in global pollution, causing more deaths each year than from the pollution of dirty coal power plants. Over 50% of our nation's lakes and rivers are too polluted to fish or swim in, due mainly to agricultural runoff. And perhaps most disappointing and ironic is that agriculture is one of the top 5 drivers of greenhouse gas emissions when it could be one of the most potent banks for carbon to be sequestered beneath the ground.

Our hope is the same as the many other small, regenerative farms rising to the task at this very moment: if we pour our hearts into the ground, our minds into our message, and our very lives into this movement, that maybe, just maybe, our great-grandchildren will not have to fight for life at all. Perhaps though our own tragic, hard-learned lessons, life will thrive without the impedance of empowered greed and encouraged complacency. It's a future worth dreaming of and working towards, and it's made more possible because of you.