Bah Humbug...or Not
Beth Hoffman is a co-owner of Whippoorwill Creek Farm, an agricultural adventure on 570 acres of south-central Iowa. We raise grass-finished beef, pastured goats, and veggies. We also offer cooking and writing classes, overnight stays and for the holidays, gift certificates.
John and I applied for a Resilient Food System Infrastructure Program Grant (RFSI) last spring. The grant, which admittedly sounds about as exciting as watching lettuce dry, is a $420 million pot made available through the US Department of Agriculture to “support infrastructure in the middle of the supply chain for domestic food and farm businesses”—a grant to help local farms and processors store, distribute and sell their products.
We applied to buy sinks and bus tubs, coolers and carts to increase the number of farmers able to work on our farm. Our application made it through the first round of proposals in late summer. This week, 24 recipients in the state were announced and will receive the $5.2 million allocated for Iowa.
Whippoorwill Creek Farm was not on the list.
Bah Humbug.
I was cranky about it. Why did they get the grant and we didn’t? I thought to myself when I saw the list of awardees, my pulse rising more than a wee bit. They always get all the money and the attention, I heard myself bite, bitter that others were chosen when we were not.
And yet it’s important in grants, as in life, to keep your eye on the prize. One cooler—or 50 for that matter—isn’t the end all be all. It’s a tiny gold nugget dangled in front of our noses, a carrot awarded to the few. It is a distraction.
Yes, a bit of money injected here and again helps. Infrastructure dedicated to “local food” in Iowa is so entirely lacking that any amount can make a small dent.
It is just that, as a wise friend said to me yesterday, “We all need to work together to bake a bigger pie, not fight with each other over the skinny slices.”
Amen.
I don’t want to be distracted by water cooler (or twitter) gossip about which farm is best, who “deserves” the money, and who might not. We all do, and it is a crying shame there is not more to go around.
When the farm down the road gets money to set up a small shop, “to support infrastructure in the middle of the supply chain,” that farm just made the entire pie bigger for us all. Its a win, not only for them, but for the entire region.
Here’s what I know:
The potential of our farms to produce healthy, good-for-the-planet food in Iowa is massive.
But it will take more than growing and selling food. It will take a change in minds and cultures to improve a diet that is currently fixated on Mountain Dew and frozen pizza.
We cannot afford to wallow in jealousy and envy. If we do, our farms will continue as tiny islands adrift in a sea of corn and chemicals, with all of us exhausted farmers trying to swim upstream, alone.
Instead, the next time I read of a farm in my area getting a grant when we did not, I will reach out. I will email to congratulate them and to begin the discussion as to how we can best work together to strengthen our regional food system.
Carrots grown down the road are not competition for my carrots—they merely add to the options my community has for eating healthier.
This world is far more abundant than most of us acknowledge, and as farmers, we can literally help grow opportunities in our fertile soil.
ITS PARTY TIME!!
The Iowa Writers Collaborative Holiday party is this week! If you are a paid subscriber to any of our blogs—make sure you are registered below. Or subscribe this or any other IWC blog ASAP to get the secret link to attend.
I will also be at the event with my book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America—on SALE! You can order directly from me by clicking here.
I am honored so many of you are paid subscribers. Thank you!
That is super disappointing and your reaction is normal. The larger picture is that the amount for these sorts of grants pales in comparison to the vast amount of subsidies, mostly hidden from the public, flowing disproportionately to the biggest producers, as your book shows.
Here in Salt Lake, our little Slow Food Utah group for years held a fundraiser for our microgrants program for local growers, ranchers, food producers, educators. It was really hard to sit on the other side - on the committee to review grants and chose recipients. These largely came from people we had relationships with. It was never that much $ per grant but we hoped would be enough to make a difference. We tried to keep it as low-bureaucratic and easy as possible to apply and get funded. COVID shut down the event and the program, sadly. It was just hard to see how much need there was and the difficulty of making a go of it.
Best of luck on alternative funding - and let us know if a GoFundMe is in your future :)
Oh Beth I hear you. As you say, there is massive potential in Iowa to grow food to feed Iowans and beyond. We have to continue to work towards changing the hearts and minds of our neighbors that growing only two crops is short sighted and not good for Iowa’s future. I commend you and John for your vision and leadership. Thank you.