A View from the Center: How Green Are Your Veggies?

by Michelle Sedaca, Program Associate
South Africa Partners

A staff member of a NonProfit Center tenant organization, Michelle writes this monthly column on life at the center, and the unique culture of a multi-tenant center created specifically for nonprofits. Photo: Michelle (left) meeting with Jackie Cefola, program coordinator at the NonProfit Center

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Eating locally isn’t something I’d ever consciously considered until I read Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. A sojourn into her family’s triumph and turmoil during their year growing their own food on a farm in Virginia, Kingsolver transforms food in its entirety – everything from broccoli to potatoes.

Kingsolver illustrates the reasons to go local in sometimes comical, yet poetic prose. “This story about good food begins in a quick-stop convenience market,” she ironically begins in her first chapter, “Called Home.” Kingsolver and her partner-in crime and husband, Steven Hopp, as well as daughter Camille Kingsolver, relate both hard facts (like the amount of fossil fuels burned to transport food from place to place) and daily experiences on the farm (such as awaiting the arrival of the first eggs from their chickens).

 Food Politics at the NonProfit Center

This summer the NonProfit Center brings Barbara Kingsolver’s appeal for local food closer to our kitchen tables. Tenants have an opportunity to participate in the Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program through Three Sisters Farm located in Montague, Mass. CSA enables people to purchase a share of a farm’s harvest and receive a weekly supply. By doing so, participants directly support local farms by ensuring a sufficient market for the goods produced.

“Buying local is the most politically active thing you can do – no matter where you stand on the political spectrum,” emphasized Kristina Kainen, account manager at Three Sisters Farm. According to Kainen, the current industrial mode of agriculture simply does not work. She points to the vast number of unhealthy Americans as evidence of the failure of today’s agriculture to adequately nourish the population. Additionally, eating local is a sure way toward self-sufficiency, says Kainen. “What better way to act, than being close to the land?” she remarked.

The Impact of Eating Local

On the enormous amounts of fossil fuel being consumed, Steven Hopp writes, “Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles… If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.” Such wasteful expenditure profoundly depicts the importance of conservation and buying locally.

Kingsolver and family also address the advantages of organic farming, which doesn’t use pesticides. According to Hopp, using pesticides results in increasing the number of insects that become resistant to the chemicals. Besides being a poor solution to protecting crops, the chemicals in pesticides are harmful to your health. 

Play with Your Food

Throughout the commentary about going local, delicious recipes abound with playful names like “Holiday Corn Pudding A Nine-Year-Old Can Make” and “Eggs in a Nest.” With the Three Sisters Farm CSA at the NonProfit Center from June-October, tenants can become creative with their food supply this summer and fall.

Please visit www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com for savory recipes from the book to liven your dinner table.

To find a CSA program near you, the following websites contain more information about CSA and a database of programs around the country.

http://www.biodynamics.com/csa.html

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Interested in finding a farmers market near you? The Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets offers a full list of Massachusetts locations, or go to the USDA site for a listing of markets throughout the United States.

NonProfit Center tenant Chefs Collaborative can help you find restaurants that focus on a sustainable food supply and celebrate local foods.

Keep up-to-date with Michelle’s latest columns - sign up for the TSNe-Bulletin, a monthly e-newsletter providing tips and ideas to help you strengthen your nonprofit’s impact with and for the communities you serve.