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Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/165618
natural selections By joining together, many small farms are now able to sell to larger institutional clients, like colleges and hospitals. and South America. "I still enjoy being outside every day, and it is gratifying to grow healthy food for people," he says. But even with the kind of passion that Libsch and others have for their new careers, it is a long row to hoe. "The bottom line is that it's hard work," says Justin Leszcz, owner of YellowTree Farm in Fenton, Mo., who began farming to find something more purposeful after working for years selling cars. "I know people who are putting their whole life into their farms and barely making $20,000 a year. You have to grow your farm to be able to sustain yourself." Leszcz began by creating a fully sustainable working farm with rabbits, earthworms, bees, vegetables and flowers in his yard just outside of downtown St. Louis. Then YellowTree Farm got a $6,000 loan at 2 percent interest to help expand the urban farm to rural pastureland. For his first planting, Leszcz began leasing several acres on a large, century-old, family-owned farm; his first CSA sold out in 24 hours. He now sells large crops of popcorn and sweet potatoes and a range of vegetables, flowers and fruits to seven St. Louis chefs, one who built his tasting menu for a new restaurant around YellowTree Farm's Japanese white sweet potatoes. The farm also sells to 35 CSA families, and to several grocery stores for their CSAs. "I'm farming on a scale that I never imagined I would, and now I feel like I'm hustling every day," Leszcz says. "I'd like to slow down and get back to my roots and be more connected with the land again." Building Momentum Even with all the challenges for the small farmer, Errol Schweizer, global grocery coordinator at Whole Foods Market, says the growth of small farms and interest in food's origin and quality marks a serious course change. With more than 350 stores, Whole Foods has been a powerful driver in the growing movement toward smaller and more local farms. "Two of our core values are: support the environment and the community. We find suppliers who share our mission and values. We haven't had to convince them. They are passionate about what they do," says Schweizer. "We have a contingent of millennials who are in tune with this stuff and committed to eating healthier food." Whole Foods' Local Producer Loan Program has given out $8.94 million in low-interest loans to 140 suppliers with funding to grow their business. Whole Foods provided $500,000 to three Georgia producers, including Harris Family Heritage Beef at White Oak Pastures, which was able to complete an on-farm facility designed to process beef according to rigorous humane animal treat34 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com ment standards and minimize environmental impact. Schweizer also works with suppliers to help find organic or non-GMO ingredients for the products they sell, including nonGMO feed for Lancaster, Pa.'s Nature Fed cage-free chickens laying Non-GMO Project verified eggs. Whole Foods has committed to providing GMO labeling for its entire inventory by 2018. "This is going to last. This is a sea change," Schweizer says. "For the last 14 quarters, the growth of the non-GMO sector has grown at three times the overall store growth rate. At the end of every aisle we have signs telling customers how many products are local, how many products are non-GMO. We wear it like a badge of pride." One of Slow Money's founding members—of which there are 80 in total, each donating $1,000 or more, usually annually—is Jack Acree, who was inspired to get involved when he heard Tasch speak at the Summer Fancy Food Show in 2009. Earlier in his career at Alexia Foods, Acree worked with commodity farmers growing potatoes on farms spanning 1,000 acres or more. Today, Acree is executive vice president of Saffron Road Foods, the packaged food brand of American Halal Co., and his interest in farming continues. One of the company's core values is to work with smaller suppliers to source all-natural ingredients, including antibiotic-free chicken from certified humane growers and processers. In January, Saffron Road launched the first Non-GMO Project verified frozen entree in the U.S., featuring organic chickpeas and spinach mildly spiced and sauteed with Indian herbs, served on a bed of cumin rice. "I think it's generational. This is the first generation growing up with having natural and organic foods their whole life. There are more food consumers who care about what they put into their bodies," says Acree, who lives in a converted dairy barn in Ulster County, N.Y. "We're capitalists. We don't want to dismantle—just to bring in more of a balance. We hope that we have done our small part, and have helped move the needle a little bit." Slow Money's Jake Bornstein, part of the millennial group at 26, believes that for his generation, the dialogue shifted permanently with the 2008 economy crash. Bornstein studied public policy at Princeton, and then spent three years working for a hedge fund before leaving to find something more meaningful, he says. When he heard Tasch at the New York Greenfest, he knew he had found his next chapter. "I don't think with Slow Money that we are offering the answers, but we are creating a dialogue about doing things in a different way. More people in my generation are asking ourselves what form do we want our communities to take," says Bornstein, who grew up in Seattle as a city kid who made his way out to the woods as much as possible. "What shape do we want our lives to take? How do we want to organize our communities? What do we want our relationship to be with our farms and the food we eat?" Robyn Pforr Ryan is a regular contributor to Specialty Food Magazine and Specialty Food News.