Who’s Your Farmer?
Cultivate’s mission is to strengthen our local food system with a focus on supporting small scale producers and regenerative farming practices.
We do this through educating and cultivating a supportive community of food citizens.
What is a food citizen?
A food citizen is more than a conscious consumer. A food citizen understands the wide-reaching impact of their decisions about what and where to eat—and is inclined to vote accordingly.
“Citizen” versus “consumer”
A food “consumer” label implies a passive identity and suggests minimal (or no) involvement in how one’s food is produced and processed. Consumers face limited choice and are forced to accept what is made available—a diet that is the result of a food system that erodes public health, degrades our ecosystems, and takes advantage of the poor and marginalized. In contrast, a “citizen” is informed, deliberate, and active.
(Adapted from John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future)
Did You Know?
Just 16¢ of every dollar spent on food in 2020 went back to the farm; in 1975, it was 40¢.The more processed and convenient our food becomes the more middlemen are involved and the less money goes to the original farmer.
University of Michigan: Center for Sustainable Systems
You could easily live your whole life in Iowa without eating an Iowa-grown meal. More than 85% of Iowa’s land is farmed, yet Iowa imports 90% of its food.
Iowa’s Local Food Systems: A Place to Grow by Laura Krouse & Teresa Galluzzo
Pesticides have been found in 94% of water sources across the US with industrial agriculture as a major contributor. Local farmers are more likely to engage in sustainable practices that limit pesticide use, keeping chemicals out of our water system.
United States Geological Survey
If one were to factor in the damage industrial agriculture does to the environment - its cheaper prices wouldn’t look so appealing. Instead those costs are left to local, and often marginalized, communities to bear in the long term.
Iowa Farmer, Angela Tedesco
“Sustainable agriculture is that which depletes neither the people nor the land.”
— Wendell Berry
