First off, I would like to take a moment to welcome our Phoenix members to the farm. This past January, some of you may recall, we began home delivery in the greater Tucson area. Over the last 4 years, the number of growers we have partnered with in Arizona has become very strong. Our winter producers are almost all in Arizona. It is funny, we are ramping up in our fields and they are heading into the last month before their “off-season.”
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It gets too hot to grow much food during the summer, but the winter temperatures are perfect. Additionally, we are neighbors. So as we shared the idea of our home delivery distribution model with our partner farms, many of them said the exact same thing– man, that would be cool if we had that. And after hearing that repeated so many times, the seed was planted to see if we could make this work.
So we welcomed Tucson to the family in February and are now happy to bring Phoenix to the party as well. With Phoenix on-board, our distribution map looks almost identical to the map of our growers. Honestly, this type of collaboration has been and will remain the vision for this farm’s future. These partnerships among growers and producers will be our compass moving forward.
We have to broaden our scope of work and not be stuck in a myopic view that one farm has to bring everything to the table. We cannot be everything to everyone. So I truly believe that the next phase of cultivating a local and regional food landscape must be deeply rooted in collaborative partnerships. We have to get rid of this Us v Them mentality that still plagues agricultural markets.
For this food movement to truly be sustainable, it must be realistic and it must work 12 months out of the year. You cannot put forth a food model that is only viable in July and August and then turn around and say it is sustainable. Our community’s farm food model must feed people every week of the year. No exceptions. And that is what we have put together: a partnership of healthy producers, who grow and make incredible foods, supplying you with food throughout the entire calendar.
I realized early on that we are stronger together than we ever will be alone. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the food landscape is no joke right now. Huge national chain stores are seeing decreasing sales for the first time in years. And when the big box stores get spooked with falling numbers, look out. There is going to be a showdown outside the saloon coming up folks.
And those fights between the big stores means unrest for the small mom ‘n pop growers like us and many other artisan producers. None of the small producers, farmers, or ranchers is strong enough financially to engage in price wars with the big boys and girls. We cannot afford lost leaders on our shelves. Everything that we produce must be profitable and help stay afloat financially. So how the heck can we make all of this work?
The greatest thing that we have on our side is the elimination of the middleman. We have fired the middle man. Working directly with farms means that we do not lose money to outsiders. So besides having the freshest food you can find, we can still bring you amazing value for your money. All while supporting family farms and producers throughout the Southwest. To me amigos, this is what the face of a sustainable food system should look like.
So look forward to some tasty additions to our already awesome line-up of producers. Thank you for supporting us and again I welcome all of our neighbors to the party, Farmer Monte