Farmers, New Yorkers Talk About Supporting Local Agriculture

Click on the thumbnail to see a photo slideshow of the day's events and participants.

Many New Yorkers, most of whom were members of one of the city’s 55 CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture groups), networked with one another and with local farmers at the CSA in NYC conference held on Sunday, March 8, 2009.

The annual conference was sponsored by Just Food, a local non-profit organization that works for economic, environmental and social justice through food systems. The non-profit works to make fresh, affordable, local food a viable option for all New Yorkers.

A CSA group is made up of members of a community who buy shares of a regional farmer’s upcoming harvest. The money the farmer receives allows him or her to grow, distribute a season’s worth of produce, pay workers, and sustain a way of life. Once a week, from June to November, the farmer delivers fresh food — usually 7-10 types of vegetables, up to 40 different types per season — to the CSA group members.

The sold-out conference consisted of various morning and afternoon workshops, all pertaining to food, farms and sustainability, and focusing on the CSA model. Later, there was a farmer panel and a food expo to conclude the day.

In the city “no one ever touches Mother Earth,” said conference keynote speaker Cheryl Rogowski, of W. Rogowski Farms. “[The city] is made out of concrete and steel,” she said.

This is why CSAs are important, she said, because they are beneficial to both parties. Farmers need investment and a guaranteed market for their crops, and city dwellers need healthy, locally-grown food, and the feeling of connection to their food source.

Rogowski has been on of the pioneers in the CSA movement in the past decade. A 2004 MacArthur “Genius” fellowship winner and first farmer to win the award, Rogowski also blogs at at The Black Dirt Blog.

Tags: Cheryl Rogowski, Columbia University, Community Supported Agriculture, CSA, CSA in NYC, CSA in NYC Conference, Farm, farmworkers, fresh food, Just Food, local food, New York, Teachers College

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Brooklyn, CSAs, Manhattan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.