Column -- Share risk, reward for local food

It's hard to refute the benefits of eating local. Locally grown produce is fresher, more environmentally sustainable and better for the local economy.

Generally speaking, it's good to know where your food comes from. But as fifth-generation Marion farmer Curt Zingula pointed out in a letter to the editor this week, it can be riskier and more expensive for local growers to abandon corn and soybeans in favor of growing perishable produce.

Iowa's growing season doesn't leave a lot of room for error. When a grower's livelihood is at stake, you can't blame them for being reluctant to take a chance on locavores.

Add the labor costs and regulations, and it can seem like more trouble than it's worth for producers to consider growing cucumbers and squash for an uncertain local market.

“ ... vegetarian activists expect farmers to assume even more production risk by growing perishables and more financial risk by foregoing proven safe pesticides,” Zingula wrote. “Then at the same time, do it on a small scale that activists can't demonize as ‘industrial production' or a ‘factory farm.'”

But it doesn't have to be as antagonistic as all that. Producers and consumers actually can share the risk through Community Supported Agriculture.

CSAs let buyers and sellers share the nail biting and the bounty. CSA members buy shares of the season's harvest and receive an agreed-upon amount of fruits and vegetables in season.

CSA members take their share of what's growing, and that means they have to be flexible - if cabbage loopers wreak havoc with the crop, they'll have to adjust.

But it's a good way for households to experiment with veggies, and it's a great way to help farmers manage risk.

Meat producers also are experimenting with CSAs. If you're curious about what's out there, check out the list of more than 75 Iowa-based CSAs at www.local harvest.org

Living here in one of the world's most fertile areas, it only makes sense for us to eat what we grow. Consumers can help make that a reality by making sure there's a consistent demand for local produce.

And CSAs lend a little extra stability to growers willing to go out on a limb for locavores.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Comments: (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com