VTDigger posts regular coronavirus updates on this page. You can also subscribe here for daily coronavirus news. Please send your Covid-19 questions to coronavirus@vtdigger.org
Farmers Karin Bellemare and Jon Wagner faced a crossroads when Covid-19 shuttered their usual food stand haunts.
In an average year, farmers market sales would account for a solid chunk of money for their 6-year-old Bear Roots Farm in Barre. They’d need to make up for it.
So the couple decided to expand their farm’s CSA program. Community supported agriculture programs are subscription models that send food directly to consumers.
The result: 92 members signed on for the farm’s spring subscription, which normally draws 50 or 60 people max, said Bellemare. And 165 people have joined the summer version, up from 110 last year.
“We actually cut it off,” she said of the spring sign-up. “We stopped accepting members because we didn’t have enough food.”
Bear Roots Farm is one of many around the state that have seen a bubbling demand for their CSA products. The system works like any subscription: You pay monthly or upfront for weeks’ worth of fresh farm food, picked up or dropped off.
It’s a model farmers say helps them more efficiently feed communities and get operations in order, and it’s one reason why Vermont tops national rankings for its locavore movement. The state had the highest direct sales from farms to customers per capita nationwide in 2019, according to the sustainable food nonprofit Strolling of the Heifers, at a figure nearly three times greater than the nearest competition.
One metric for the mid-pandemic increase comes from Kim Mercer, a spokesperson for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont: Of the 104 CSAs in its directory, more than a dozen have reported booms. The directory’s size has gone up by a dozen, too, which is unusual, Mercer said.
For Bellemare and her husband, offering CSA services from the beginning was a way to have money up front at the start of each season. And it helped establish rapport with the community, building relationships that would last.
Customers in turn sought out Bear Roots as a reliable source of local produce — root vegetables and greens in the spring; zucchini, tomatoes and more in the summer.
But why are consumers growing so much more interested since the coronavirus outbreak?
“I think they’re seeing farmers are the safest and kindest place to support right now,” said Meryl Nevins, who owns Prospect Farm in Lunenburg with her husband, Lane.
Nevins too has seen more appetite for her farm’s CSA, which specializes in pork, poultry and beef.
The farm usually has about 40 members, and that figure has more than doubled, she said. “Which is something that we’ve been able to do by just shifting and pivoting things around.”
Her farm normally sells meat to half a dozen restaurants, and their closures meant the Nevinses had to change how they did business.
“It kind of allows us to open up and have a little more product to bring on CSA customers,” she said.
Along with those seeking a shopping experience safer than supermarkets, customers who would have bought meat at Prospect Farm’s market stands have signed up for its CSA, she said.
“I think right now, every single farmer is like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is what I’ve been waiting for — I wish I had this much interest all the time,” said Bellemare. “We all hope for this many members or this much business, but it’s hard to get people normally.”
She thinks people’s eating habits have changed since the outbreak, though, and she believes some might stick with CSAs even after a recovery.
“People want to participate in their community and they want to eat high-quality food that’s grown right in their community,” she said. “It’s all in one place — you pick it up and go.”
But if they don’t, she and her husband will make do.
“We’re just always in those moments of panic and challenge,” she said, laughing. “That’s farming 101.”
Get the latest statistics and live updates on our coronavirus page.
Sign up for our coronavirus email list.
Tell us your story or give feedback at coronavirus@vtdigger.org.
Support our nonprofit journalism with a donation.
