Lettuce in 23 states, including Michigan, is being recalled after sickening more than a dozen people with e-coli poisoning. All of that lettuce was grown on a farm in Arizona.
Do you know where your lettuce is from?
There are more people in northern Michigan who know not only where it's from, but also who grew it.
Community Supported Agriculture farms are on the rise. Members buy a share of the farm and get a share of the produce. It's part of the growing local food movement and the reasons for its success are as varied as the crops they cultivate.
Mike and Phyllis Wells are Grand Traverse County farmers and agricultural pioneers.
He says, "This is the best job I've ever had."
They started their Community Supported Agriculture program or CSA 19 years ago. It was the first in northern Michigan and only the second in the state.
Wells says, "Mostly it was a marketing idea, another way to get people to buy our produce, but it's become a lot more than that since."
At the Wells Family Farm members invest $400, then once a week from June through September members get a box of fresh, pesticide free produce. Mike and Phyllis grow 40 different kinds of vegetables, 5 kinds of fruits and flowers. While the plants are still small now, starting next month each member, each week, will get on average 15 pounds of produce.
Wells says," They know it's fresh, they know where it came from and how it was grown and it's waiting for them every week."
The Wells Family Farm CSA began with only 8 members. It now has 40. But joining takes patience.
He says, "We have a waiting list. We call it the hopeless list."
That's because they've had a waiting list for more than a decade and the list of people wanting to join is longer than the list of members itself.
This reflects a larger trend.
A decade ago there were 11 CSA farms in Michigan. Today there are almost one hundred. A quarter of those began in just the last two years.
Jim Sluyter with the Michigan Land Use Institute says, "I think people are just taking a stronger interest in the food they eat."
He says some of the reasons include worries with food safety when you don't know where your food comes from. Then there are concerns related to long distance shipping, the environmental impact, increasing food costs with increasing gas prices, and decreasing nutrition and taste.
Sluyter says, "it's sitting in a truck for days at a time often at times its often its picked before its fully ripe so it can withstand that travel time for days. By the time it gets to the supermarket it may be several days old then it sits there for a day or two before you buy it."
Then there's the positive economic impact: buying from a local farmer keeps the money in the local economy.
Sluyter says, "I don't think this is a blip or a simple fad. I think this is here to stay. I think people will continue to take an interest in everything local and local food is part of that."
But the biggest reason for their success may be much more basic for members.
Misaeng Liggett says, "It's so good, it tastes so good."
Diana says, "The local farm and its dozens of members are at the core of community supported agriculture or CSA's. But another growing trend is chef supported agriculture as more local food makes the very short trip to local restaurants."
Cooks' House Chef and Owner Eric Patterson says, "Every second it's out of the ground is less freshness. By using local ingredients we're going to have the best flavor."
When Patterson and his partner Jennifer Blakeslee started the Cooks' House in Traverse City several years ago the goal was to celebrate local foods and highlight them in meals with minimal processing.
Patterson says, "Because it tastes so good. Why do you have to do anything else to it?"
Their first year in business they contacted 10 local farmers asking to use their products. Now they have a relationship with 75 producers, many of whom now call Patterson to ask what he'd them to grow.
With regularly sold out seatings, he says, their field to plate philosophy is paying off.
Patterson says, "I would love to sound like the hero and say it's for ecological reasons and stuff like that, but reality wise from a chef's point of view it only makes sense to use local products."
More and more chefs, shoppers and farmers seem to agree.
Farmer Mike Wells says, "It's an idea whose time has come."
There are a lot of different CSA's in our area. What they offer varies per farm.
Here are some additional resources.
Northern Michigan CSA farms
The Cooks' House Restaurant
The Michigan Land Use Institute
Also the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a special panel discussion on local food Tuesday May 18th from 6:30-8 pm. Click here for the details.
