Co-op raising growers' prospects

It links small-scale produce farmers to state customer base

Mary Bone picks okra earlier this month on her farm in Monroe County. Deer wiped out her purple hull peas and a fungus killed most of her tomatoes this year.
Mary Bone picks okra earlier this month on her farm in Monroe County. Deer wiped out her purple hull peas and a fungus killed most of her tomatoes this year.

LUCAS -- Joe Carr stepped back and watched volunteers put the finishing touches on his new hoop house, a plastic-covered structure that enables farmers to grow crops in cold weather.

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Vilma and Joe Carr stand in front of a hoop house being built on their farm in the Lucas community in west Logan County.

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Crop markers fill a bucket on Mary Bone’s farm in Monroe County.

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Volunteers guide plastic sheeting over the frame of a hoop house on Joe Carr’s farm in Logan County.

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Mary Bone weeds a fi eld on her farm near Fargo in Monroe County where she’s growing collard greens, Swiss chard and kale this fall.

Carr, a small-scale farmer since the 1970s, was optimistic that the sweltering September day in west Logan County would mark a turning point in his fortunes.

"I'm just cutting corners right now to get by," said Carr, 61. "This is definitely going to help me. It will give me multiple-season production."

Some 200 miles east of Carr's place, Mary Bone harbors similar hopes. She and her husband are in their third year of working a 37-acre produce farm in Monroe County, a daunting task for just two people.

"I've always wanted to do this," said Bone, 60. "It looked kind of crazy to some people."

Carr and Bone attribute much of their optimism to a statewide co-op supported by Heifer International and the Little Rock Rotary Club.

Small-scale farmers often struggle because they have few resources and only limited access to markets. The "community-supported agriculture" network that Heifer is incubating with help from a Rotary grant seeks to change that by marketing their fruits and vegetables to large institutions as well as individuals.

About 15 farmers are participating in the network, Heifer officials said. They transport their produce to one of three insulated and cooled trailers each week, and Heifer employees collect it, package it and deliver it to pickup locations in Little Rock and North Little Rock for customers who have bought "shares" in the program.

Ben Wihebrink, operations director for Heifer USA, said the community-supported agriculture program grew from 150 shares in its first season to 400 in its second.

A big win in that second season was Baptist Health in Little Rock, which purchased shares for use in its cafeteria and enabled employees to buy their own shares through payroll deductions.

"Baptist Health's vision is to improve the health of Arkansans and provide resources so people can live better, healthier lives," said Troy Wells, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Health. "We also want to work with like-minded organizations and create meaningful partnerships and the [community-supported agriculture program] provides the perfect opportunity to do that."

Wihebrink said the produce co-op hopes to sell 450 shares at a cost of $150 for the six-week season that starts Oct. 12. Shares are available at foodshedfarms.com. (A separate Heifer-supported community-supported agriculture program, the Grassroots Farmers Cooperative, delivers meat and may be found online at grassrootscoop.com.)

Perry Jones, Arkansas director for Heifer USA, said the group initially focused on connecting with customers in central Arkansas because the area has an established market for organically grown food.

"The co-op has to be a business that can pay for itself, but it can't do that at the beginning," Jones said.

He said the community-supported agriculture program would operate on a thin margin, enabling farmers to earn about 30 percent more than they would if they sold their produce to grocery stores.

Wihebrink said the entire operation, including a small number of employees, would be turned over to the co-op after it's incorporated later this year.

In the meantime, Heifer is providing technical assistance as well as marketing expertise to the participating farmers.

Karen Fetzer, a former president of the Little Rock Rotary Club, said the civic group provided a $60,000 grant to help underwrite the project.

Bob Denman, the current Rotary president, said the grant included a contribution from the group's Brazil club, the first time an international club has helped with a project in Arkansas.

"This project creates a built-in market for the farmer and produces great things for local people to eat," Denman said. "Everybody wins."

Part of the grant will go toward purchasing hoop houses like the one installed on Carr's farm.

While Carr watched, volunteers from Rotary and Heifer helped stretch a sheet of heavy plastic over a series of metal hoops, forming a growing space 96 feet long, 30 feet wide and about 13 feet tall. Carr said temperatures inside his structure would reach as high as 85 degrees on sunny days when the outside temperature is 32. He planned to grow lettuce, cabbage, mustard greens, radishes and other crops in the hoop house.

The additional growing season made possible by the hoop house, along with the convenient market created by the community-supported agriculture program, changes the game for small farmers, Jones said.

Carr agreed. Until the community-supported agriculture network was established, he sold all of his produce through the Fort Smith Farmers Market, which he helped establish. Although the market is successful, it's time-consuming because he has to leave his roughly 100-acre farm to sell his produce.

"This [the community-supported agriculture network] is a real boon for me," he said. "All I have to do is raise my crop and get it to the collection point. That is the only way I would ever realize additional markets."

Bone and her husband, Ricky, a retired captain with the Little Rock Fire Department, operate a produce stand at 1510 Wright Ave. in Little Rock, something they plan to continue doing, but it does take them away from the farm. They started selling through the community-supported agriculture network this summer.

"Heifer has been a real lifesaver for us," Mary Bone said. "They not only buy some of my vegetables, but they have given me a lot of [technical] help."

Bone, who lives in Little Rock and rents her land in Monroe County from the nonprofit Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corp., said she had invested about $120,000 in her farm but found it difficult to make a profit.

"I'm spending, spending, and I'm not getting a lot of results, but I'm hopeful," she said.

Bone was raised by her grandparents in Phillips County, where her grandfather was a farm laborer. They didn't have electricity until she was 10, Bone said, and she didn't have indoor plumbing until she moved to Little Rock after graduating from Lake View High School. She worked for the American Red Cross for 25 years but dreamed of having her own vegetable farm. This fall, she's growing collard greens, Swiss chard, kale and other crops while anxiously watching the sky for rain.

In addition to uncooperative weather, there have been other setbacks this year. Deer ate Bone's purple hull peas and a fungus wiped out most of her tomatoes, but she said she won't give up. She wants to buy 5 acres and pass the farm along to her daughter and son-in-law.

"I just love it," Bone said. "I love the idea of being able to grow things."

SundayMonday Business on 09/27/2015

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