The New CSA: Building the Better Tomato and the Start of the Cycle.

We need to form communities.  Every day I look at tv and social media and I see complaints about
GMO's and Monsanto in particular.  Whatever they are doing, we have to ask why they are so successful and why they are able to capture so much of the food dollars?
Monsanto is able to make a lot of food, relatively cheaply.  Rather, they have been able to make a lot of food more cheaply than the next guy.  The same goes for McDonald's and Taco Bell.  Bad food is more affordable. On the other hand, Whole Foods is not on every corner because good food is expensive.

 The problem is simple and the solution is simple.  Bad food is cheap so it we have to make good food cheap.  We have to provide more of an incentive for people to eat good food, support positive projects, and be knowledgeable about what they consume than the bad stuff.

In the mid eighties and into the nineties, American car sales were abysmal to the point where some were on the verge of failing.  The marketing was focused on buying American cars just because they were made in America.  Fuel prices rose and so did the MPG's these cars and trucks got.  Quality fell.  We were encouraged to buy bad cars that guzzled gas because it was American to do so.  Then Honda hit the market with vehicles that were smaller, better quality, and more fuel efficient.  Essentially, they created a better cheaper product.

We find ourselves in the same position today, except now we are talking about food so it could be argued that the stakes are higher.  We are asked to buy local, which is a good thing.  Sadly though, buying local does not necessarily weigh in when people are considering budgets and thus a tomato, picked in Argentina becomes less expensive and even though it is often picked green and ripened on the trip to the U.S. in a cargo hold flooded with ethelyne gas to make them red by the time they arrive.
We came up with something different.

The Start of the Cycle

We are part of a cycle.  To create a community we had to form a system that was beneficial to the organization and it's participants as well as inclusive.  We started by offsetting our costs for things that we were going to need by gathering them where we could and having others contribute in some way.  We needed good organic soil. The soil and grow medium we use comes from compost.  That compost comes from our members.  As incentive, the cost of their member share is reduced by the amount of compost they contribute on a weekly basis.  A bucket full of compostable material on a weekly basis means a dollar off of their CSA share.  Essentially, you are getting a rebate from you share for your garbage.

We use the composted material as fertilizer and growing medium for our plants and we also donate a large amount of it to local organizations and schools.  Members can even get a bucket or three for their own gardens at home.

Because we collect from so many sources and are instituting vermicomposting as well, we are looking good to have a great deal of compost left over after composting for sale.  Members could even eventually make a profit with their purchase of a share.

This is just the beginning of the cycle!

This is just the beginning of the cycle.