| OCTOBER 2, 2011 -- One of my most joyful childhood memories is helping my maternal grandfather tend his magnificent flower and herb garden. I’d pick fresh coriander and curry leaves right off the stem for my grandmother to garnish just before she set piping hot dishes on the table.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it gives me great pleasure to buy and cook vegetables that are grown locally and are super fresh. I like the fact that my squash and tomatoes haven’t traveled 1,500 miles to reach my plate, generating greenhouse gasses along the way. Equally important is to appreciate what comes out of the earth and help sustain small local farms. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all in favor of globalization and the efficient allocation of scarce economic resources. But when it comes to the food I eat, I’m partial to locally grown produce.
Our ancestors were smart to eat with the seasons; there’s a certain healthy rhythm to it. So I make it a point to ask farm stand owners where their produce comes from. If it’s local, I’ll go back again. But that doesn’t mean everything I eat is grown locally. Some herbs are from my porch and some vegetables are from local farms, others are from Idaho or Mexico. It’s not all or nothing.
But it’s getting tougher to sustain a small farm under the onslaught of mergers between large agricultural corporations and decreasing costs due to economies of scale. There’s no way a small farm can sustain price competitiveness with a large grocery chain.
Plus the economic slowdown and rising fuel and fertilizer prices have sharply impacted the margins of owners of small farms in north central Connecticut. Adding to their woes, the recent hurricanes have led to crop losses and shortages. Spikes in prices – such as beans – stabilized when supply began arriving from out of state. But consumers can expect upward pressure in prices for some vegetables like squash, going forward.
“Because of Irene and Katia, a lot of vegetables are not available since farms along the Connecticut River were flooded. Prices rose by as much as 100 percent. Squash, for example, was $12 a case and but is now $24 a case,” Clint Hayden of Harken’s Market, LLC in East Windsor, said.
Shelly Boticello of Boticello Farms of Manchester said her family was absorbing cost increases.
“Irene devastated our fields. We’re going to get pennies on the dollar in insurance because you can insure tobacco and farm crop under crop insurance but not, say, tomatoes. We have nothing left to pick and sort this season – instead we’re buying vegetables from other farms,” she said.
But other farms have faced losses as well and the increase in demand is driving up wholesale prices. Boticello said her family is doing its best to keep retail price increases moderate.
“For yellow and green summer squash, we had to raise prices from 99 cents to $1.29 per pound because we’re buying it from outside,” she said.
Lorrie Lyman of the 60-acre Rushmore Farms in Somers that grows and sells its own vegetables and fruits said they were struggling with oil price increases before the hurricanes impacted their crop.
Lyman said the farm’s profit margin was shrinking because customers were themselves struggling in a tough economy.
“We’ve been unable to raise prices. Meanwhile we’re paying four times more for oil than three years ago. But we’re absorbing the cost increases,” she said. “Now because of hurricanes, we lost 50 percent of our pumpkin crop and 90 percent of winter gourd and 90 percent of winter squash. We’re uninsured and are using up savings to cover losses.”
Lyman said she is struggling to buy from other local farmers because several farms have lost almost all of their gourds and pumpkin crop as well, and were in the same boat.
“Bigger farms are looking at other sources, probably the Midwest. While I chose not to increase prices because I don’t want to pass costs on to customers, I think overall prices will surely go up for gourds and pumpkins in the market,” she said.
“The community can support us by buying from local places. When big grocery stores charge 99 cents a pound for tomatoes we take a hit. But the advantage is we grow everything we sell, so it’s all local.”
Thankfully, the native strawberry season at the 150-acre Pell Farms in Somers was not affected by the hurricanes, unlike many corn farms in the region.
“A lot of farmers are looking to buy corn (because of crop damage due to the hurricanes). We don’t grow vegetables, so we were not affected,” Luping Pell said.
But like most small farm owners, she is continuing to face increases in fuel and fertilizer prices.
“We’re absorbing the costs right now. But if costs continue to stay high, we may have to raise our prices next year,” she said.
Pell urged the community to come and cut their own Christmas trees at the farm this coming season.
“It’s easy and it’s a lot fresher,” she said.
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DOAG) is continuing to assess damages to farms from the recent hurricanes.
“The loss of late sweet corn crop statewide is between 40 to 60 percent. The corn for silage may have been severely impacted. We’re still assessing the situation,” George Krivda, legislative program manager and public information officer at CT DOAG, said.
He said fertilizer prices would continue to exert pressure on farmers’ bottom lines.
If you’d like to support local farmers and prefer to eat locally grown produce, Krivda offers three ways of doing so:
- Invest in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Buy shares of a local CSA farm – you typically get a box of fresh vegetables on a weekly basis for your investment. This way, you help the local farmer to diversify risk, enable the farm’s cash flow and help prevent him/her from incurring debt to put in crop. If you invest early, sometimes as early as the prior year, you could obtain better rates.
- Go to certified farmers’ markets that sell local produce.
- Pay attention to local ordinances and how your town can support local farms.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), farms with sales under $500,000 annually are classified as small farms. As high as 97 percent of family farms in the U.S. are small. |
