Do Good, Eat Well
By Gretchen E. Knapp
Henry Brockman grows vegetables like your grandparents used to eat. Against all conventional advice, he began farming several acres in central Illinois the old-fashioned way ten years ago. In a world where the average age of a U.S. farmer is 62, Henry, a 30-something native of Bloomington-Normal, is an anomaly.
At first bite you notice how delicious are Henry's tomatoes, carrots, arugula, potatoes, mustard greens, and other varieties of vegetables. Customers say that Henry's produce tastes as good as the vegetables their mothers served them. By and large, today's vegetables and fruits are tasteless, watery, or mushy. And that's no surprise as your salad has been on the road for 6 to 12 days after harvest. The food you ate today came from factory farms an average of 1,500 miles away, grown by people you will never meet and using methods and chemicals you will never know about. Not too long ago, Great-grandpa bought his produce from neighboring farmers who kept small independent organic farms providing fruits, vegetables, grains, eggs, milk, and even meat to the local community.
Henry's vegetables are also highly nutritious, unlike supermarket produce. Recently, scientists noticed an alarming trend occurring in the U.S. and around the world. Since the 1940s, the fruits and vegetables which are vital to our health have been declining in the quantity of important vitamins and minerals they contain. Levels of iron, calcium, vitamins A and C in our produce have fallen dramatically since the 1970s. A British study demonstrated a decline of over 75% in vital nutrients since the 1940s. The tasty tomato your great-grandparents ate in 1950 likely had over 10 times the amount of vitamin C than that flavorless tomato you put in your salad today.
Flavor is related to nutritional quality, as your great-grandparents knew very well. Chemical-intensive agriculture favors attractive produce with high output yet sturdy enough to withstand a lengthy trip to your local supermarket. Typically, fruits and vegetables in factory farms are picked when unripe. Unfortunately, plants pump most of the nutrition into fruits and vegetables in the ripening stage. Within three days after harvesting, nutrition levels begin to fall rapidly. The much-touted phytochemicals which help fight cancer and regulate cholesterol also decline. By the time your salad reaches the supermarket, most of the nutrition has leached away.
In contrast, organic produce reaches the farmer's market 12 to 18 hours after harvest. And if you happen to be a member of a local CSA (community supported agriculture), you'll be eating fruit and vegetables 6 to 12 hours after they're picked. That's fresh produce!
The popularity of this winning combination of taste and nutrition is why Henry and his fellow organic farmers are part of a growing national movement called community supported agriculture, or subscription farming. For an annual fee, local customers sign up for 26 weeks of fresh produce from May to November. Henry's Farm serves 100 families throughout Bloomington-Normal. Every week he chooses 7 to 9 varieties of vegetables, including parsnips, celery root, collards, kale, tomatoes, carrots, bok choy, and others too numerous to mention. Other CSAs in the area offer meat, egg, and grain. His sister Teresa Jean's fruit CSA filled up months ago. Organic Pastures, a meat CSA, offers organic beef raised by third-generation farmers Larry and Marilyn Wettstein. The Kaeb Family Organic Egg CSA came about when Leon and LeAnn Kaeb decided to return to the land as organic farmers. Both Kaebs grew up on farms.
Henry, his fellow farmers, and interested customers recently formed a nonprofit organization called the Land Connection. They believe in preserving our rich farmland, promoting organic agriculture, especially among new, young farmers, and connecting people with the sources of their food. Over the past two decades the number of small family farms has decreased by 30% while the number of agribusiness farms which require constant treatment with chemicals has increased 300%. All around us, rich farmland is threatened as 1,800 acres are turned into pavement daily. Central Illinois has some of the richest farmland in the world. If you take a ride beyond Veterans Parkway, you'll see miles and miles of dark-soil fields rapidly turning into subdivisions and highways.
The Land Connection is purchasing farmland to convert to small organic farms. It takes three years to transform land farmed by chemical means into a sustainable organic farm. Henry is looking for interns who want to learn organic farming. His hands-on approach includes free room and board plus a small stipend. Eventually, the Land Connection plans to offer an organic dairy and bakery.
To reach Henry's Farm, email:
henryhiroko@cs.com or phone 309/965-2771. The Land Connection (www.thelandconnection.org) offers farm tours, educational workshops, and speakers for schools, community groups, and individuals. Contact TLC president, Terra Brockman, at:
terrabooks@earthlink.net or 309/965-2407 for more information about the CSAs. Look for locally grown organic produce at the Bloomington Farmer's Market or, as Henry suggests, grow your own.
