Sustainable farming, in many different forms, brings healthier, fresher food to tables across America.
Food cycle
Freewheelin’ Farm outside Santa Cruz, California, delivers community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes of fresh produce by bicycle. Since 2003–as the CSA’s membership has expanded from 40 to 100–Freewheelin’ farmers Amy Courtney, Kirstin Yogg and Darryl Wong have biked the produce down California’s famed Highway One into town twice a week during the growing season. Courtney, who is also a masseuse, understands the increased interest in local farms. “I think it works well with hard times financially,” she says, “because people will eat out less, so they need more food to cook, and they want it to be good.”
A growing education
In suburban Sunnyvale, California, school kids grow their own food on an 11-acre farm; three local schools enjoy the harvest via monthly boxes of produce. Full Circle Farm, a project of the nonprofit Sustainable Community Gardens, works with the statewide Community Alliance with Family Farmers to help students plant, harvest and sell crops–produce from strawberries to cabbage. Their produce supplies salad bars and fresh veggies to the district’s cafeterias.
Edible scenery
The national “Eat the View” campaign aims to get large Victory Gardens planted in high-profile places such as the White House front lawn. The White House “First Garden,” planted on the first day of spring in 2009, produces fresh fruits and veggies for White House meals and a local food pantry. Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit network of about 20,000 gardeners, coordinated the campaign to interest people in growing their own food.
