Network helps find markets, mentors for organic growers
By Bob Johnson An innovative new way of selling and distributing fresh produce spared a group
subscription system enables consumers to pay for weekly boxes of fresh produce throughout the season. However, unlike with a CSA, Tera Farm customers buy only the produce items they choose for the weeks they want. There is a $25 minimum purchase for each week they schedule. Vaidyanathan supplies the land for the four farmers who each grow on 5 acres of the 20-acre property she bought adjacent to the ranch headquarters of Phil Foster’s Pinnacle Farms. In addition to being a neighbor of the four ALBA graduates who farm the 2 acres next to his ranch, Foster also sells a small share of his harvest through Tera Farm and serves as a mentor and role model for the upstart growers. Phil and Katherine Foster built their 295-acre organic fruit and mixed vege- table operation after deciding that the return from selling processing tomatoes was not good enough. Maria Reyes currently farms 5 acres at the San Juan Bautista site with her daugh- ter, Yesenia, having leased land there for three years. Like the Fosters, she part- nered with Tera Farm because she found the return from selling her produce to wholesalers inadequate. “I started selling to wholesalers and didn’t make much money,” Reyes said. “The small farmer needs to have direct communication with the eaters to survive. The online sales also let me diversify.” Some of the farmers using Tera Farm are too small to sell at farmers markets, and their variety can be limited. Vaidyanathan hosts field days and farm visits to introduce people to small farm- ers and learn their stories. “The customers know where their food comes from,” she said. Meanwhile, Reyes is working with four to six small farmers she knows in order to diversify the fruits and vegetables avail- able through Tera Farm.
of small new Central Coast organic farm- ers the worst im- pacts of the early
days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The small-scale growers were gradu- ates of the Agriculture and Land-based Training Association, which offers class- es for field workers who want to learn how to become farmers. When the pan- demic hit, they had vegetables ready to harvest from their 5-acre plots outside San Juan Bautista in San Benito County. But, suddenly, they had no market for their produce because the farmers’ key customers—area restaurants—had shut down. Los Altos junior high school teacher Sheena Vaidyanathan, who owns the San Benito County farmland, recalled seeing a beautiful plot of kale about to go bad. Vaidyanathan, who had a previous career in the technology sector, swung into action. Soon, she was able to sell the kale after texting acquaintances in Silicon Valley. That effort inspired Vaidyanathan to found Tera Farm, a nonprofit dedicated to helping small farmers sell their produce. Tera Farm neither grows, harvests nor packs any produce. It partners with small farms along the Central Coast, enabling member growers to deliver produce to 28 Bay Area locations, where it is picked up by customers. “The small farmer is an important part of a resilient food system,” Vaidyanathan said during a tour of the San Juan Bautista field on the eve of the 43rd Annual EcoFarm Conference at Asilomar in Pacific Grove in January. “They need market access, land access and a network of supporters.” The nonprofit’s name was chosen because “tera” means “your” in Hindi. Hence, Vaidyanathan said, Tera Farm is “your farm” for the customers who pick up organic produce at sites across the Bay Area and the Monterey Peninsula, and at the San Juan Bautista farming location. More information on Tera Farm, in- cluding a list of the distribution locations and a menu of available produce may be found at www.terafarm.org. The menu from one recent week in- cluded organic strawberries, carrots, green and purple cabbage, celery, yel- low onions, garlic, leeks, apples, oyster and shitake mushrooms, fennel, winter squash, kale, lettuce, chard, cilantro and herbs. Every week, the farmers selling through Tera Farms estimate what they will be able to harvest over the next few days. Then, customers browse the pro- duce options online and make their pur- chases before the crop is harvested. The system is much like community-sup- ported agriculture, or CSA, in which a
Sheena Vaidyananathan, left, founded the Tera Farm nonprofit to help upstart organic growers sell their produce. Maria Reyes, right, a Tera Farm partner, teaches a young visitor at her small farm.
In addition to Vaidyanathan and the Fosters, the support network for the small farmers includes Kitchen Table Advisors, a nonprofit that offers small farmers busi- ness advice and help building a network. The group was started by David Mancera, who has a masters degree in agricul- tural economics from the University of California, Davis, serves on the board of the Big Sur Land Trust, and operates
Mancera Consulting Group. The Tera Farm support network also includes volunteers who help direct pro- duce from small farmers to customers. That way, Vaidyanathan said, “all the money goes to the farmers.” (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)
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February 15, 2023 Ag Alert 13
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