Green Friday
Six truly "green" gift ideas for the holidays
Ah, the time has finally arrived—shopping hell. Starting today, you will be encouraged to buy all sorts of things you and your loved ones do not need (nor often want), all in the name of caring for them.
But what about the planet? What about all the packaging, the plastics, and the fact that so many of us already have too much STUFF??
There are ways to give gifts while also caring about things like climate change, social justice, and even animal welfare. One way is to think about the people tasked with “stewarding” the earth—farmers and farm workers—and to support the kind of farming we want to see in Iowa.
The list below is intended to give you some gift ideas for your family, friends, and colleagues. It is not an exhaustive list—there are many more farms and companies in Iowa doing great things than I can list here. Don’t forget to look for similar resources nearby where you live.
Purchase from a local food hub
Many parts of the state are served by “food hubs,” organizations that bring fresh, local products directly from farms in Iowa to consumers. A gift certificate from a hub will give your family and friends access to fresh, local foods, produced within Iowa. Find a hub that delivers in your area.
Iowa Food Cooperative - Des Moines area.
Iowa Food Hub - in the Decorah area
Field to Family - in the Iowa City area
Grinnell Farm to Table - in, yes, Grinnell
Buy gifts from a nearby farm
Winter is arguably not the best time for buying vegetables in Iowa. But farms have bills year-round.
At Whippoorwill Creek Farm (our farm) we have merchandise for sale like books and killer t-shirts, as do other farms nearby. Many farms in Iowa also make their own jam, granola or candles, which would put your hard-earned money into the hands of your neighbors, not large corporate multinationals.
Subscriptions are also a great way to provide income to farms in the off-season. A flower subscription from Barnswallow Farm in Oskaloosa, for example, is not only the perfect gift for your flower-loving cousin; it also helps ensure the chemical-free farm can continue to pay fair wages—a win-win for everyone (and the earth).
Farms like Blue Gate presell boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables (also known as a CSA program) that can arrive weekly for the entire summer—a wonderful gift of health and bounty. Hundreds of other farms in the state offer the same—find a Community Supported Agriculture program near your Great Aunt Bessie by using this list of farms.
Buy gift certificates from an Iowa-based food business
Like a food hub or CSA, there are also companies in Iowa that deliver produce or can help you purchase beef or pork grown in Iowa.
Prudent Produce is one example of a business that allows people to order fresh food to be delivered. The company does not exclusively sell Iowa-raised food, but now boasts 50% of its sales from Iowa farms.
99 Counties is owned by Iowa rancher Nick Wallace—a man many farmers and ranchers in Iowa know and trust. He started a business to address low livestock prices and encourages farmers to raise animals on pasture, without chemicals by creating a market for them. 99 Counties delivers Iowa meat to Chicago—making a lovely gift for that kid who moved to the big city.
Fill the Freezer and Serve a Better Raised Christmas Meal
There are many reasons NOT to buy pork at the grocery store in Iowa (which I wrote about here). Put simply, I don’t want a hog facility going up next to my home, and neither do you.
Yet, most (if not all) of the pork you can buy at Fareway or Hyvee comes from a confinement facility. So does the chicken, and the beef is from cramped feedlots.
Try instead to buy meat directly from farms that manage for the impact livestock have on the land, who care about the treatment of their animals, and who raise breeds that are supposed to eat grasses (instead of corn and beans).
Our farm sells 1/4, 1/2 and whole beef and whole or half goats, as do many other farms in the state. You can also purchase whole or half hogs, sheep or goats raised on pasture, animals that have far less impact than cattle.
Support a farm for taking care of the earth
One of the most innovative programs I have heard of to assist farmers in taking care of the land was started by Vilicus Farms in Montana. While not in Iowa, the concept is called Community Supported Stewardship Agriculture (or a CSSA)—a program where the “community” (those who breathe air and drink water on planet Earth) supports the farm’s stewardship activities, activities that often don’t produce an immediate profit. Buying “shares” helps offset the cost of farming.
As the farm website states:
“At Vilicus Farms we do so much more than grow food. Our integrated system of care for land and people, takes care of things that support all of us - our air, our water, our soil, and our biodiversity. This is the service of stewardship.”
Another group doing great work on farmland right in our Iowa backyard is Whiterock Conservancy. Providing more than 40 miles of hiking and mountain biking—one of the largest contiguous areas for such activities in the entire state—the Conservancy also raises livestock and grains and teaches other farmers about sustainably. A gift certificate for a loved one to stay at the farm or a donation in someone’s name could help protect some of Iowa’s precious oak savannah’s and prairies too.
Give the gift of action
Ultimately, no matter how much we shop, little will change in the world if we don’t become active in our communities and speak up about the kind of food system we want.
Two amazing groups in Iowa working for farmers are the Practical Farmers or Iowa (PFI) and the Iowa Farmers Union.
Practical Farmers of Iowa, while not political, helps farmers connect with one another and share better practices. Buying a membership for those interested in farming or paying for your brother to attend the PFI conference in January would make an amazing gift.
The Iowa Farmers Union is also a great organization (disclaimer: I am on the Board of IFU) that lobbies on behalf of smaller farms in the Iowa Legislature and runs fantastic educational programming. The organization works to end pesticide drift, recreate a local food system in Iowa, and also promotes educational opportunities for farmers and non-farmers alike on a large array of topics. Plus, they are going to have great shirts available this holiday season (coming soon!).
I’m honored to be a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. I invite you to support their pages.
Thanks for adding the Women, Food and Agriculture Network to the list Denise!! They are an important and wonderful group everyone should know about.
They are in the article! They are wonderful.