We Have CSAs!

So thanks to a huge amount of work by our friends at the Vassar Food Cooperative, there’s now a CSA (community supported agriculture) program at Vassar for the last six weeks of the semester!  You pay a lump sum up front ($138 for six weeks of produce, $168 for produce plus cheese, or $42 for six weeks of just specialty cheese) from Sprout Creek Farm.  If you have four other housemates, the shares break down to be super affordable- the produce and cheese share is only $5.60 per person per week!  It gets delivered right to the college every week, and you get a ton of local food.

Here’s the catch:  we need ten more people to sign up by the end of the day today in order to break even.  We need your support!  Talk to your friends and your housemates about signing up- the first delivery day is March 28th, so you’ll get to come back from break with a house full of good local produce!  Email getoland@vassar.edu to sign up!

Would you buy ‘imperfect’ fruit?

Tonight’s article is from the Grist talking about selling ‘sub-standard’ apples for cheaper.  This is an excellent way to both cut down on food waste and to make good, fresh produce more affordable.  Food waste in America is embarrassing- one 2004 study estimates that we waste 40-50% of our food.  One of the many reasons for this lies in grocery stores’ reluctance to sell ‘imperfect’ produce- not spoiled or old, but imperfect produce- for example, peaches that are too small or apples that have a smaller than desirable proportion of red to green coloring.  Seriously.

A consequence of this perfectionist view, though, is that we’re drastically reducing the amount of food that we consider fit for grocery store consumption, where most of the country gets its fruit.  And by doing that, we’re driving up produce prices.  The company in this article works with suppliers and grocery stores to create a supply of cheaper, imperfect produce- food that’s still fit for consumption, of course, but that’s not as pretty as the standard we’ve set.

So what do you think?  Would you buy imperfect produce if it was cheaper?  Do you think this is a viable business model?  Come to the faculty commons tonight at 8:30 pm to discuss it!