How one small farm’s vision could help change the world.
The North Bay is known for its social activists, environmentalists and foodies. It’s also known for a subculture that embodies all three of these identities: small-scale farmers.
The North Bay has become a mecca for people who believe that providing nutritious, delicious food and a healthy, beautiful planet for their fellow man is the most important work they can do. Many of these growers have the education, contacts and pedigrees to be the grand prize winners of the American Dream. But, instead of taking advantage of their good luck and privileges to snatch high-paying jobs, six-bathroom mansions and fancy cars, they’re using their education and social connections to farm in the best manner possible.
They’re stewards of the land, nourishing the soil and protecting the watersheds for a healthy planet. They’re environmental and nutritional educators, teaching the community about some of the most vital parts of life. They’re social advocates, often actively involved with helping provide free or low-cost, quality food to the poor. They’re cheerleaders for joy, reminding us to relish the taste, sight, sound, feel and smell of a perfect strawberry. And they grow our food. Sure, there are easier, more cost-effective ways to be a farmer. But in a day and age when the sustainability of the planet is in question, and when fake foods have contributed to a health and obesity epidemic, these folks are stepping up and doing the right thing.
But they’re paying a hefty price.
Of all the many economic, environmental and social services they provide to the community, and of all the jobs they do, they only get paid for one. “Many people and food businesses still think of farmers as manufacturers of a commodity,” says Nick Papadopoulos, general manager of Bloomfield Farms in Sonoma County. “And when people buy produce, many times, they’re not factoring in the total value that healthy, local farms and agricultural operations create in a community. They’re simply looking at the price per pound.
“We all want to pass on physical health and a healthy planet to the next generation,” he continues. “And we, as a community, are reaping the benefits of all the vital social, economic and environmental services that responsible, local farmers provide. But they’re the ones paying the price. More than half of the farms in the United States are operating with a net loss, and the farmers are struggling to pay the bills. Many of them go under. When we lose a farm, we all lose out. Farmers need help. And it’s in all of our best interests to give them the help they need to do the best job they can.”
To this end, Papadopoulos partnered with Sebastopol’s Gary Cedar to build the online marketplace CropMobster.com to help all area farmers, ranchers and stewards of the land. Since its launch just a few months ago, the website has gained widespread praise from farmers, consumers, health advocates and policy makers. Groups and individuals have been pitching in to support the site any way they can. For example, rancher Tim Furlong of Tomales Bay auctioned off one of his cows with all proceeds going to CropMobster, and the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market held a fund-raiser in June with earnings from beer sales going to the site. The website has also garnered both local and statewide media attention, and Papadopoulos has received requests from individuals and organizations in all 50 states, as well as other countries, asking for help in starting similar programs in their area. San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Market family of companies will be piloting a San Francisco-based CropMobster starting June 1.
CropMobster has also caught the attention of elected officials, who see the project as a viable way of addressing a host of social issues. “CropMobster is an enterprising and innovative solution that supports family farms, local food production and benefits all who visit the site,” says Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo. “Our county is proud to be home to this project, which perfectly supports our Health Action goal of providing access to locally grown, healthy food—and I’ve been very impressed by the operation at Bloomfield Farms as well.”
With its special events and outreach projects, Bloomfield Farms already had a reputation as a fun and vibrant gathering spot for the local community. And now, CropMobster.com is fast becoming an online gathering hub.
A fresh idea
It started off with a simple enough idea.
“About 40 percent of the food in the United States goes to waste. This is a huge crisis. One in six people are food insecure, and many more can’t afford local food—which is crazy! So much edible food is going to waste!” Papadopoulos says.
“Sometimes, retailers can’t purchase certain crops because the produce doesn’t meet visual standards. Other times, we return from farmer’s markets with unsold produce. It can also be a matter of overproduction or seasonal variation. Either way, a huge percentage of perfectly nutritional food goes uneaten and ends up in the compost heap, the chicken coop or, worse, a landfill—at tremendous environmental cost. For a while there, before CropMobster, our chickens were getting so much wonderful, premium organic food that we called them ‘The One Percent.’
“Aside from our neighbors who are going hungry, there are others who are interested in local food but who are priced out. We need to bring them into the fold. I thought that by creating a crowdsourced community marketplace for excess food that’s at risk of going to waste, everyone could win. So, I said to Gary, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if farmers and food sellers could sell their surplus produce and other items at a discount to a group of people who could self-organize, quickly take the perishable food away and distribute it among themselves? That way, they could have access to some great food and the farmer or food business would be able to recoup some of his or her costs.’ Gary agreed and, together, we built our first prototype in two days.
“With food waste and hunger crisis on the one hand, and with farmers and small businesses struggling to survive on the other, we have an infuriatingand immoral tragedy. But if we connect the dots and look at the system differently, these problems can be transformed into solutions that, I think, have the potential to transform our communities and economy, especially when we incentivize and mobilize our citizens to roll up their sleeves.”
But produce is highly perishable and, in the past, a local farmer would have to spend time he or she simply didn’t have to try and give produce away to hunger relief groups. “You’d have to call an organization and get in touch with the right person, and they’d have to figure out the logistics of how to pick up the food,” Papadopoulos continues. “And often, after a lot of time and effort had already been spent, things just wouldn’t fall into place. I figured there had to be a more efficient and fun way to get that nutritious food to the people and organizations that needed it.
“And so we developed CropMobster. With just a few clicks, a farmer or food seller can instantly send an alert to any interested individuals, groups and organizations who’ve signed up on the website to receive free alerts. It could be an organization that already works with the needy and has a distribution system already in place. Or it could be an upstart individual who takes the lead as a community organizer and distributes the food to a group of neighbors or friends.
“That’s the beauty of CropMobster: Through better information and a bit of creative crowdsourcing, everybody can win. And we don’t compete with anyone, rather we work as a facilitator or ‘hub,’ of sorts.”
Even Larry King recently singled out CropMobster in his Huffington Post blog, which focuses on his foundation on heart health, which states of purpose of using the “media as a megaphone to up the importance of exercise, better nutrition and minimizing stress—and we’ll celebrate the organizations and individuals who are making a huge difference neighbor by neighbor, heart by heart.” He points to CropMobster as just such an organization, and asks readers if they know of anything similar.
Not all CropMobster posts are about surplus produce. Other farm-related events and freebies are also offered. There have even been new businesses, such as Tim Furlong’s FollowYourBeef.com, launched on the platform and one ranch’s rabbit operation placed up for sale. CropMobster also helped find a home for two sibling show horses for Forget Me Not Farms and the Sonoma Humane Society. The unique ways to use CropMobster keep emerging organically.
Gleaning events are also posted. One time, Sonoma Humane Society had 30 egg-laying hens that were no longer in their prime and at-risk of being put down. Instead of putting them down, the 30 free hens were posted on CropMobster and they quickly found a new home.
Another day, Bloomfield Farms posted it was giving away 300 pounds of free, organic produce. In several minutes, a Santa Rosa man responded that he would pick up the medium-sized pallet of food. He also left a message on the website that anyone who wanted to have some of it could give him a call on his cell phone. For good measure, he also posted his home address in case someone might want to drop by and get some food.
“This is about uniting community members to forge stronger ties with those who grow or sell food, and then leveraging that relationship to tackle urgent problems in an uplifting way that drives measurable and inspiring impact,” Papadopoulos continues. “The help and support that people are giving each other over the site—and just the good, plain fun everyone is having—it’s really inspirational. Our nation is digging itself out of a long financial recession. But remember, this was an emotional and psychological recession as well. We need projects that mobilize our communities and create new local economic stimulus. Doing something so grassroots and beneficial…it just feels good.
“The website offers farmers a platform to get the word out, help others and, at the same time, get valuable exposure and build brand recognition in the most authentic, inspirational way possible—by being of service.”
Homegrown solutions
Papadopoulos is quick to point out that CropMobster is just a small part of the solution and a lot more help needs to be offered to farmers and other food system organizations.
“For example, getting people out to the farm is the number one thing we can do right now to help sustainable agriculture,” he continues. “Once people get out there, meet their farmers, really experience how everything is interconnected, that’s when people start valuing the work farmers do. And that’s when society will place a higher value on real food grown the right way by agricultural producers.
“So, the first step is getting them to the farm, but then roadblocks emerge, For instance, liability insurance can be a killer. Opening yourself to the public can be cost prohibitive to many small farms. So, how do you even get to the first step, let alone beyond that? It shouldn’t be so difficult. Groups like the Farm Bureau, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, FarmsReach and others are doing amazing work. But we need more policies and innovative businesses helping out our small farmers so they can help themselves and, in turn, help the entire community.”
The folks at Bloomfield Farms know a thing or two about getting people out to the farm and forming a community.
Each week, dozens of visitors drive through the green hills between Sebastopol and Tomales Bay and descend upon the farm for U-Pick Sundays, and about 60 percent of guests travel from outside Sonoma County to harvest produce and experience the farm. On one recent weekend, children were pulling the borrowed carts through the fields, laughing while harvesting their own kale and broccoli to fill up a large bin of organic produce for $30.
In another area of the farm, kids were planting heirloom gourds and pumpkins and squash as part of a special community event. The farm is growing this year’s “Pumpkin and Squash Pile” display at the annual National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa September 10, 11 and 12. The Baker Seed Company and Petaluma Seed Bank donated the seeds, and the kids were doing the planting while learning about heritage crops. They’re all invited to come back later in the year and pick up a pumpkin, squash or gourd for themselves.
In still another section of the farm, Chef John Lyle was cooking a pay-what-you-can brunch for visitors. Lyle, another true believer in the North Bay food community, feels it’s his calling is to help nourish others. “In this life, all we really need is air, water, food, shelter and human contact. There’s something that feels so amazing about providing people with one of these primal needs,” he says.
Lyle was frying up some eggs, fresh from the farm, as a grandmother called from her outdoor seat asking for more coffee. With a cheerful smile, he brought her a refill and reminded her that if she wants some jam for her biscuit, he’d be happy to bring some over as well. He pointed out the Gravenstein apple jam from Hales Farm, quince jam from a variety planted by Luther Burbank at Gold Ridge Farm and Nancy Skall’s famous raspberry preserves from Middleton Farm. Then Lyle asked if anyone would like some bacon or perhaps some apple fritters before he headed back into the small kitchen.
His warmth and unpretentious demeanor belie the fact that Lyle is an underground star in the foodie community. When he isn’t serving up pay-what-you-can meals for families at Bloomfield, he’s putting on popular special event dinners and fund-raisers or catering to A-list clients who fly him throughout California and beyond. Many of his trips are to Los Angeles, where, in the past, he’s worked for Jodie Foster, Gene Simmons, Janet Jackson and others.
“I love coming to Bloomfield Farms and just helping out and contributing and cooking for families,” he says while flipping over another egg. “Cooking here speaks to my soul. This is an incredible place with incredible people. The team here holds itself up to such a high personal standard. All the things they talk about—the environmental stuff, the social stuff, the amazing food—it’s not just talk. They’re genuine.”
The genuine article
The word “genuine” comes up a lot when people in the North Bay food community talk about Michael Collins, the farmer at Bloomfield who, along with his wife, Karen, owns the farm; they hired their son-in-law, Papadopoulos, to help grow a sustainable business. The words “visionary” and “genius” pop up often as well.
On a different day, when the crowds are gone, Collins sits by his fields and stares off into the clouds, pondering the secret of a successful farming enterprise. After another stretch of silence, he responds in his usual slow and mellow manner, “It’s all about balance.”
With that, he goes into a lengthy, philosophical discourse on permaculture and sustainability and a world in balance. Collins, who studied vegetable science at UC Davis is recognized as an expert in permaculture design and has traveled the world giving lectures and classes. As he speaks about balance, he references everything from new research on the Egyptian pyramids to the immense biodiversity of Mexico to the cultivation of broccoli in Bogota. Then he talks about an idea to grow tropical fruits in Sonoma County. A roof could be placed over a portion of a small ravine with a creek running through it, which would make a greenhouse of sorts. After this, he mentions how computers create a lot of heat and a great deal of energy is wasted in cooling down large data centers.
Collins is not one to communicate in a linear fashion. When he speaks, he draws from a gestalt universe. At first, the topics appear to be separate and disjointed. But soon enough, all the disparate parts come together to form a coherent whole. And soon enough, Collins talks about how we should think about our systems and build structures accordingly. For example, a data center could be built next to a tropical greenhouse canyon, and all the heat from the building could be pumped inside the canyon to help grow the mangoes, guavas and bananas. One system’s waste could be fueling another system’s growth, a closed loop, everything in balance.
He describes how the structures would be built with an eye toward permanence, like the ancient pyramids; and the biodiversity still seen in Mexico could be the norm throughout the world; and guavas would be a really nice addition to the crops he already grows (“These are just a few of the hundreds of ideas rolling around in Mike’s creative brain at any given time,” says Papadopoulos). “That would be fun, to grow some tropical fruit around here,” Collins adds. “And it wouldn’t be that hard.” With that, he sits back and glances up toward the clouds again.
Papadopoulos comes out of the office, his hands on his cell phone, trying to access some information from the cloud. Soon, he finds the facts and figures he’s looking for and sends them out before sitting down next to Collins.
The two talk business for a while, and then the conversation turns back to food and farming. Collins once again goes into a philosophical discourse, this time about the traditional methods of preparing regional foods. Papadopoulos looks over and smiles. This is why we work well together,” he says. “I help manage the business side of things and try to create innovative “win-win” programs like U-Pick Sunday, CropMobster and, coming next, FarmSpotting.com. And this frees Mike up to do what he loves as a farmer, which is work with the dirt, design more sustainable systems and feed people. And for me, it’s great to have the freedom and support from the family to put some of my ideas into action to benefit both our farm and the community. At the root, we do this work because we love the land and our community.”
They balance each other out. Perhaps that’s the secret to success.
