Spadea and McDowell are part of a growing movement that has some people rethinking their connection to agriculture, whether it be as farmers, retailers of locally grown produce or consumers of pesticide-free foods.Rockland County is upstream and the other side of the Hudson to New York City. Before the Tappan Zee Bridge was built in the middle of the 20th Century, the area was all farmland. But the bridge narrowed the commute to the City, and towns started to replace farms.
They rent an 1870s home on a 6-acre parcel, but they farm just 1 acre. The couple hope to buy the property one day.
The couple's goal is to create a model for how a small farm might operate successfully in the suburbs, where housing developments and strip malls have replaced most fertile farmland.An admirable dream. Low-impact farming that sustains, and is supported by, the whole community. But how much work is it?
They want to support existing farms and nurture new ones so that enough food can be locally grown to feed all of Rockland's nearly 300,000 residents.
"That's a dream," Spadea said, "a dream we are working towards. What keeps me going is all the response."
A local supply means food doesn't have to come from distant places in trucks, reducing fuel consumption and air pollution while providing fresh produce, she said.
The couple continue to get the community involved with the farm, where educational programs are held for schoolchildren. A fundraiser Saturday attracted people interested in a tour and in supporting the farm's mission.
McDowell and Spadea [do] the lion's share of the work, but they get some help from two Rockland AmeriCorps workers and a student intern.It sounds amazing. All those wonderful vegetables, waiting to be picked and eaten.
Maryam Mohiby, one of the AmeriCorps workers, lives nearby and said she wanted to work at the farm this summer to ensure future generations have such a growing place.
"I want this place to prosper," Mohiby said. "I want to help out so I can have my children come along and say one day: 'This is where your mother used to work.'"
All around the small farm last week, fields brimmed with lush tomato plants, lacy carrots, slinky squash vines and more, all of it a big change from early spring, when open fields abounded and it was still too cold for planting.
The support of neighbors, elected officials, agriculture experts and others has helped inspire the couple to pursue the farming, even on the most challenging days.Even when they face adversity, they turn it into a benefit for their farm.
A few weeks back, an invasion of Japanese beetles swamped the farm, McDowell said. It took him, Spadea and eight friends about three days to collect the bugs.
The beetles were frozen, then burned, and the resulting powder will be used as a natural insect repellent on next year's crops.
So is this a template for localised, environmentally friendly food, or is it a romantic delusion that will live for a few years before petering out? Look deeper.
A few weeks back, an invasion of Japanese beetles swamped the farm, McDowell said. It took him, Spadea and eight friends about three days to collect the bugs.The infestation took ten people three days to clear. Perhaps not everyone worked every day, but it is still 20-30 man-days to clear beetles from a single acre of land.
McDowell and Spadea [do] the lion's share of the work, but they get some help from two Rockland AmeriCorps workers and a student intern.Even without beetle infestations, they still need three unpaid workers to help with their acre of produce. How is the farm faring financially?
Like most people, McDowell and Spadea also grapple with money issues and finding enough to pay for all the equipment and supplies needed to keep the farm going.The farm is losing money. They are dependent on the charity of the community to keep them running.
The couple continue to get the community involved with the farm, where educational programs are held for schoolchildren. A fundraiser Saturday attracted people interested in a tour and in supporting the farm's mission.
So the fund-raiser is on top of regular donations they already receive.The McDowells now offer baskets of fresh produce to those pledging to support the nonprofit Camp Hill Farm with weekly or seasonal donations.
They are concerned that biodynamically grown food is too pricey for the majority of people.McDowell and Spadea love the way they grow food and want the whole county's food grown the same way. I'm sure if that was achieved they would want the whole country's food grown that way also. But their system requires five to ten people to work a single acre and they would still fail if their friends and neighbors weren't regularly topping up their bank account.
"It's almost like a luxury item, and I don't want it to be a luxury item," Spadea said. "Everybody should be able to afford biodynamic food."
Reducing the costs of the food is one of the many issues they work to figure out.
How can they seriously think their farm is a model that could be extended across Rockland? Why are they giving educational programs to children when their farm does not work? It cannot work without generous physical and financial support. They can't sell their food at the price it costs to make it. If people did pay the amount it costs to farm this way, then they would have less money for the rest of their life-style. Nothing for vacations perhaps, or their children's sports and after school activities.
It's a wonderful dream, but it's a childish dream. We all want to live in Eden, but most of recognise that if we don't want to impoverish our children we need to go to the dull, tedious, modern job that pays for our family's happiness. This farm is not feeding its community it is feeding off of its community. If their neighbors didn't work in the strip malls and the city, they wouldn't have the money to give to McDowell and Spadea and allow them to keep dreaming.
Meanwhile, large-scale, economically viable farms continue to produce food at a price that allows the rest of us to enjoy our lives. McDowell and Spadea's dream is to take this away and replace it with people working in the fields every hour of daylight.
"That's a dream," Spadea said, "a dream we are working towards. What keeps me going is all the response."I suggest people respond with a polite, "No thanks."
I visited the farm, it is great, i tell you!
ReplyDeleteWe do actually need biodaynamic and organic growing farms, with all the chemicals planted into millions of veg. and food we eat, people are goign mad. We see obesity, deseases, and others malfunctions. This biodynamic food will actually bring back the ehalthy environment so Thanks alot the McDowell family, we appreciate yur kindness and love for the plants.
ReplyDeleteWe have our tax money helping the community! we need farms in our neighborhoods, with the system of supply in demand, the more veges. the cheaper the growing food, why not help the community? This is the beginning, it needs tolls and equipments..... We will all help and inreturn get free veges. Thanks alot McDowells!
ReplyDeleteNo, I can't say I agree...
ReplyDelete"with all the chemicals planted into millions of veg. and food we eat, people are goign mad."
Well that's obviously not true, else the lawyers would be having a riot.
we need farms in our neighborhoods, with the system of supply in demand, the more veges. the cheaper the growing food, why not help the community? This is the beginning, it needs tolls and equipments..... We will all help and inreturn get free veges.
No, this form of food is more expensive not cheaper. It costs more in man-power, and yields less food per acre. There are 400 million acres of farm land in the United States. Using these labor-intensive techniques to farm would mean America would need a billion people to tend their farms!
In fact, it's worse than that, as you would need twice the acreage to provide the same food, so (assuming you are happy with converting 400 million acres of forest or cities to farm-land) that means two billion people.
Even assuming that larger farms could be more efficient, a huge part of the population would be needed to tend the crops. Those people are currently doing more useful work in other industries. Moving them into farming would increase the cost of the food and cause shortages in the other industries. Additionally, farming by hand is horrible, back-breaking work. So you would be forcing people to switch from low-stress office jobs to 12 hour-a-day hard manual labor, with all the obvious effects on the lifestyles and families of those concerned.
And for what? Why on Earth roll-back to the dark ages in this way? Not because organic food is better for us, studies have shown that it has no higher concentrations of vitamins or minerals than intensively-produced food.
So what would be the gain from all this?