The Contributor-Share Network

I don't like the terms “producers” and “consumers”. To my ears it has too much of a Marxist ring to it like “proletariat” and “bourgeois”. The two are pitted against each other: people who make things (producers) and people who take things (consumers). In reality, producers are also consumers and consumers are often producers, it just depends on what is being bought and sold. In the context of agriculture, producers grow food and consumers eat it.

CSA's, or Community-Supported Agriculture, seem to be be a good way to connect local people with nearby farms and ranches in order to get quality food. In fact, as far as I know they are probably the best way currently available, but as commendable and needed as they are I'm intrigued in exploring a food sharing model as opposed to a producer-consumer model. This Contributor-Share Network (CSN) would link like-minded small growers with each other. It could include backyard gardeners as well as farmers and ranchers and everyone in-between. The common denominator between all of them is that they are growing and sharing food among each other (while not necessarily affecting other growing operations they may be involved in). The key to this is diversity. Some members will always grow the same annual product (like apples or cattle) but others can choose seasonally (corn, tomatoes, basil). What's important is that multiple people aren't growing the same crops but are working together to get locally grown food that is varied and nutrient rich. Not only should we be asking ourselves what we can be growing and sharing with each other instead of buying at the mega-chain grocery stores but what can we be growing and consuming that vastly expands our options that may directly benefit our health that can no longer be found at grocery stores?

The way I envision this is for people who like to garden for themselves to continue to do so as they have always done but to also include a 'share crop', if possible. This share crop is part of the contributor-share. One need not have to grow and share a lot but the more that is contributed the more 'bartering' power one has in receiving other crops. Logically, the more CSN members coordinate with each other the less dependent they will be on outside food products...and over the decades they have increasingly become “products” and not food.

What about those who want to join a CSN but aren't growing food? Well, that's what CSA's are all about. Contributor-Share would not be a replacement for Community-Supported Agricultural since everyone can not or is not interested in growing despite wanting to eat well and having good health. Personally, I would be excluded from a CSN at this time since I am only experimenting with a few garden plants this year and will certainly not have anything to contribute or share, but I want to be part of a community that values and grows nutrient dense food produced locally. It seems to me that modern man's separation from the sources of our food has been devastating and that we need a return to getting soil under our fingernails. We reap what we sow, and we can not reap the fruits of our labor if we are not growing any fruit. There are three main reasons that motivate me regarding a contributor-share: 1) I want to be a contributor to my family and my community, 2) I am sick and tired of the choices (or rather lack of) at the commercial grocery stores, and 3) I want to have more input and community control of the quality of our food, the conditions they are grown in, and how the food is distributed. There are thousands of varieties of apple trees – just using one example – and how many choices do we have when we shop, a half dozen or so of the same ones? And how many of those at our grocery stores are organic, one or two? And don't get me going on the paucity of veggy choices at Costco.

The bottom line is that we are held captive to the global food industry, and our passivity as prisoners must end. Those who want to control “the masses” know exactly how to do it and it is through food. If through political decisions they can create the conditions for food shortages and starvation at the local level (such as in Ireland during the potato famine or Ukraine during the Stalinist era) then they can – and will – do it on a global level. One only has to think back not so long ago during the covid era to understand the totalitarian impulse even among so-called democracies. The only real 'weapon' one has to fight back is to grow food for one's own family and community. “They” will try to stop us, of course, by regulations or force, but if our mindset and behavior shifts toward taking more responsibility now we will be in a much stronger position to defend ourselves later.

We need to start by talking to one of our neighbors (those like-minded in our area) in saying that “I will grow a little more of this since you are going to grow a little more of that.” After determining the needs of my own family, how many more carrots do I need to grow for my CSN network of 3, 9, 15, or 25 families to help lessen my dependence upon the global food supply? With Sally supplying the free-range chicken eggs, Tom the grass-fed beef, Mark the apples and pears, Lilly the wheat, and Chris the milk, one makes an agreement with and depends on others to supply specific local products for the benefit of the whole group. I wouldn't expect this arrangement to necessarily completely wean one off of Big Food (but for some it might) but food now becomes personal when you create personal relationships. Out is the idea of “feeding the (faceless and nameless) world” and in is the tangible nurturing of relationships and health in one's own family and community. And just think of the rich benefit of coordinating with those in your area in working through questions regarding gardening and small-acre farming since all in your circle stand to gain by knowledge sharing? For example, Millie might be sharing green beans this year for the CSN but her experience and success in growing tomatoes in previous years makes her an invaluable resource to me as I struggle to understand why my tomato crop is failing. And if I do fail? Well, if nothing else there is always the grocery store. Of course there will be a steep learning curve for new growers like me and there are always environmental challenges in a given year to overcome (floods, heat, drought), but food production must be much more radically flattened from a vertical direction (global food supply chain) to a horizontal direction (local food production) for food resiliency. Yes, a hail storm might take out Bob's field but Margo's a few miles away could get spared. Diversity is key but so is redundancy of key crops to avoid over reliance on one or a few suppliers.