Plenty of local food to go around

The coronavirus has disrupted global trade and sent shock waves through the economy that are affecting businesses of all types.

Fortunately, the food supply chain is mostly intact. But in the event that it is interrupted, there are a number of local food producers who can step up to the challenge of feeding southeast Iowa. Among them is Kris Johnson, who runs Maharishi International University's Regenerative Organic Agriculture Program in Fairfield.

The MIU organic farm north of Fairfield is in its fourth season of operation. It has 20 acres in all, and in a given year, about 2.5 acres are cultivated. Johnson said the farm produces almost 40 different kinds of vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, kale, chard, lettuce, arugula, greens and other salad mixes. The farm supplies produce to the Annapurna Dining Hall on MIU's campus and to the Fairfield Community Center, and has a regular booth at the Fairfield Farmers Market. The farm has a building where the public can shop for the produce grown right there on site.

In the event that southeast Iowa had trouble getting food from the outside, Johnson said the MIU farm has plenty of ground to ramp up production. He said the hurdles to increasing production lie elsewhere.

'One of our limiting factors would be the lack of skilled labor,” he said. 'We could recruit former students to do it, but at this point, we are an educational farm.”

Johnson explained that the MIU farm is not set up to produce the most vegetables possible or to make the most profit possible. Instead, its purpose is to teach students of the university's Sustainable Living Department how to grow, manage and finally harvest a wide variety of organic crops.

'A lot of our infrastructure and marketing is aimed at being educational,” Johnson said. 'We run in the mode of a commercial farm, but in an educational.”

Johnson said the farm would do things differently if it were trying to maximize profit, like by growing probably half as many varieties to take advantage of economies of scale.

'We take time and make great pains to offer educational opportunities,” Johnson said.

Johnson and three other employees work the farm and do the bulk of the work. The Sustainable Living students help, too, through their coursework. He said it takes a while, but by the end of the year, the students have honed their skills and have become valuable assets to the farm.

Another factor limiting the farm's production at the moment is available markets.

'Fairfield is a town of 10,000, and even then, not everyone is buying local food,” Johnson remarked.

That said, Johnson has noticed an uptick in interest in the farm and in local food in general since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

'I'd say that markets will grow as the year goes along,” he said.

Another entity that is finding ways to get local food onto your plate is the Fairfield Gardening Coalition. Last year, members Barb Stone, Bob Ferguson and Tiffany Raines began a program called The Lord's Cupboard Garden. It's a garden Stone manages all summer, and deliveries all its produce to The Lord's Cupboard food pantry in Fairfield.

'We want to go where the need is greatest,” Stone said. 'Our short-term goal was to take a burden off The Lord's Cupboard.”

The organization's long-term goal is to teach members of the public how to grow their own food. Since the virus has prevented members from convening in public, they're conducting an educational campaign through their Facebook page with posts such as how to build a trellis for cucumbers and tomatoes, or how to prepare a raised garden bed.

'We figure we can start with small videos and begin to create a community through the Fairfield Gardening Coalition page,” Stone said.

Stone led a program through The Lord's Cupboard last year where she invited families to learn about how to grow vegetables from seed. She said 30 families turned out for the event. She's also done a few cooking sessions at The Lord's Cupboard, too.

Stone remarked how local grocery stores are taking an interest in what the coalition is doing. They've begin to add signs in their produce aisle indicating what vegetables were grown locally.

'The produce managers are being very kind and generous,” Stone said. 'They appreciate us very much.”