Droughts and Floods

The Risks of Farming and a Call for Solidarity

by Elizabeth Archerd, Member Services Director

This summer, Minnesota Public Radio's ads for their weather reporting service started with a quote attributed to Mark Twain: "It takes a flood to end a drought."

Boy, howdy. It seems eerily predictive, now.

After severe drought most of the summer, mid-August skies doused parts of the Midwest. In some areas, tornado-strength winds followed the rains. What a jolt to learn that one of our farming partners, Featherstone Farm was hit with an amount of rain that sounds positively biblical: seventeen inches in one night. At the time of this writing a week after the floods, other farms already estimated losses as high as 80%.

Co-ops around the region - even that Texas part of the region - rallied to raise relief funds for those affected. The Sow the Seeds Fund, started by the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Wedge, decided to dedicate funds to flood relief for sustainable and organic farmers this year. This effort has just begun, but news about its progress and on continuous donation opportunities will be on our homepage, www.wedge.coop.

The drenching happened less than a week into the Eat Local Challenge, which area co-ops had planned since spring. It seems now is exactly the time to think hard about what our local growers mean to us and how important they are to our quality of life. For too many years, Americans have taken for granted a steady supply of food that has been industrially-produced and delivered back and forth across the country, even when the crops could have been grown locally. The food industry has made money for someone, but rarely the farmer. Small-scale sustainable producers do not qualify for USDA program price supports or insurance, for the most so they take the risk alone.

"As devastated as we feel after something like this, it is an opportunity to recognize the strength of our community and the relationships with our customers and partners at the co-ops. The expressions of support and care have been so heartening," Jack Hedin of Featherstone Farm commented.

Hedin also reflected that the weather and flooding are big reminders about how precarious our food system can be. The riskiest link is a long distance haul from field to table. Recently, a truck carrying salad vegetables from the West Coast to Co-op Partners Warehouse went off the road in Wyoming and caught fire. A week's supply of salad for the warehouse to deliver to stores all over the region literally went up in smoke.

October is Co-op Month and a celebration of the harvest. This year our community has been humbled by weather and a calamity, but also reminded that our strength as a community will pull us through. Celebrate local farms and the co-op community by coming to the annual meeting at Gardens of Eagan. Donate what you can to Sow the Seeds, and let's look forward to the work of building, and rebuilding, bridges.