First off, I want to thank everyone who came out last weekend for the Plant Sale. Great turnout and I have to say I love hearing from folks about all the success they had last season with our plants, so they needed more this year. We have trialed so many varieties of plants over the last 13 seasons, that it feels good to pass along plants to you that I know for a fact that grow well here.
Too many times, nurseries sell you plants that are not acclimated to NM so they don’t grow well here (go figure). The plants that we grow in our fields are the ones we sell to you. We talk a lot around here of setting up systems for success, not failure. And when folks are taking our plants home, I know they are setting their gardens up for success.
On another, more regional note, I want to share with you a little bit of what is going on in the larger food movement.
Unless you have been working on a research station in Antarctica, like our own Cameron Banks has done, you know that California is in the midst of a serious drought and water shortage. This is just beginning and will continue to show greater strain on the country’s food supply. Dairies and farms have already begun the relocation process to areas with more water, like Oregon. So the water situation is not being over emphasized by the 24-hour news machine, this is a very real situation.
As you probably already know, I am a food nerd and have my finger on the pulse of the food systems both locally and regionally/nationally. About a year ago I started to see the price of produce going up pretty significantly. This usually happens when a storm or some event hammers an area. The difference this time, is that the storm has not and does not look to be passing.
So the usual blip in food prices has become a new norm rather than a peak. And when you really start to peel the onion and look at its core, the only reason food prices have not jumped to a pain point for most consumers is because gas prices being low helps mask what the true cost of the food should be. Companies are able to offset the higher food prices because of cheaper gas prices. But then that has to leave you with the uneasy question of “Well what the heck happens when gas is not cheap any more?”
Here is my crystal ball amigos. We will see food prices shoot up probably fairly quickly. Sooner or later the cheap gas and cheap water that our society has been subsidizing will collapse like our cheap money collapse of 2008. At this point we will be in a dark moment, but we will also be on the verge of a new food system. The large industrial ag of California will splinter and disperse to various regional areas. Did you know that southern Colorado used to be a huge producer of spinach and carrots? Those days could return.
The farms will move to where the water is and that will mean more regional players who are closer in proximity to their markets. This regional farm model will mean less fuel to transport over long distances and less concentrated agriculture in one area which is better for the environment. They say that it is the darkest hours before the dawn, and I honestly believe this to be true. I am an optimist at heart, as all farmers are I think, and we will see some cool things transpire in the coming years. So stay tuned.
How will this affect your farm you may ask. We are currently increasing our efforts to partner up with more regional farms to help insure that you (and me) have a consistent fresh food supply as the situation in CA becomes more dire. The support that we are able to provide a grower through our CSA is very enticing to a potential partner farm who is looking to sell more food.
We have made great strides in this direction in Colorado and now are really trying to find a few more growers in Arizona to help round out our year-round salad bar. We are so fortunate in the Southwest to have such an amazing growing region. We look forward to bringing even more growers to our CSA party. We get by with a little help from our friends.
Enjoy,
Farmer Monte