Tuesday: a food story, short and sweet
photography: Buff Strickland
Mixed greens go straight from the fields to a washbasin and then into bags for pickup. |
Casey and Harris Henderson walk up the steps to their Athens, Georgia, cottage after work—Harris from law school and Casey from her sales and design job. It's a spring Tuesday evening. Casey reins in their yellow Lab, Gus, while Harris carries a big brown bag overflowing with arugula, kale, rainbow chard, radishes, squash, and cucumbers. Jason Mann and Laura Brams, with Full Moon Farms, began this same Tuesday 6 miles away in the rolling countryside outside the college town of Athens. In the early morning cool at the base of a green pasture and at the edge of a hardwood forest, Jason and Laura pulled arugula, kale, rainbow chard, radishes, squash, and cucumbers from neatly planted rows. The produce then went from their hands to washbasins, on a drying rack, and into big brown bags in the back of a pickup. The truck drove to downtown Athens and a restaurant called Farm 255. A few hours later, on his way home, Harris walked up to the brushed metal restaurant counter and picked up the bag with "Henderson" written on the side. The end.
photography: Buff Strickland
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A short (distance) and sweet (taste) story of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This is just one example among thousands. But the story, the local roots of the CSA, might be the answer to an escalating problem founded in our corporate-controlled food industry. Food travels across countries and continents before it arrives at stores and then in lunchboxes where consumers are unaware of its origins—who handled it and what happened along the way—and of the hidden costs of trucking, flying, or shipping a head of lettuce from a farm in Mexico or Chile's central valley. The CSA idea is spreading throughout the country because it makes sense. We like farms, even if we'll never work on one or live next to one. They are our roots, and the good ol' American small farm growing an array of produce to feed a household is as patriotic as the windowsill cherry pie. Also, the CSA follows the well-rehearsed principle of investment and returns. Imagine buying stock in a company that offers weekly dividends of fresh produce, dairy, eggs, and sometimes meat: short-term benefits. All the food is healthy—no pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics—thus improving the investor's daily diet: long-term security. | 
