Thor Selland: Sustainable Farming

Recently, I sat down with Thor Selland, organic farmer and owner of Red Goose Farms, to discuss his CSA [The farm is a Community-Supported Agriculture operation with consumer shareholders.
[www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html].

I had all of the standard questions in mind such as “How many shares did you sell this year?” and “When will the first harvest come?”

Instead, what resulted was a philosophical discussion about local foods, sustainability, organics, equity, and health. The larger picture is always close at hand in Thor’s thoughts. Here is a recap of our discussion, with some added musing.

Thor lives just outside of Shelly, MN. Take the road next to the Bear’s Den and follow it to the river. His land covers 39 acres of woods, river bank, gardens, and orchards. The river is nearby, and he admittedly worries about flooding in the low-lying lands. Thor uses about half of his land to operate a small, diversified little farm in an oasis surrounded by giant farms and fields. He points out that his type of farm is “hard to find around here.”

Walking through Thor’s gardens last November, when it was cold, and we surely already had a frost, I was struck by how much edible food remained. Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, and broccoli were standing in the cold, ready to be picked. Thor was not falling down on the job by leaving things in the field, the CSA season was over.

Besides, people generally won’t eat the all-important and nutritionally vibrant green leafy vegetables. These are the undesirable foods that Thor inexhaustibly provides CSA members with recipes and creative ways to use. Michael Pollan in his book “In Defense of Food” says very simply “Eat [real not manufactured] food. Not too much. Mostly leaves.”

On the Plains, I hear people repeatedly say how difficult it is to eat local foods because of our short growing season.

But the truth is, we can grow things much longer than we think. This winter I purchased some delicious locally made crackers at the indoor farmer’s market in the Moorhead Center Mall. The woman who made the crackers told me they contained carrots dug from her garden a week previous. She had mulched very high over the carrots and they did not freeze in the ground, proving that even in the dead of winter, we can eat some foods locally.

Foods grown and eaten locally contribute to global sustainability. Thor grew up watching the PBS show “Nature” that highlights the innumerable wonders of the natural world. The message at the end of each show was always the same, “Sadly this environment is being destroyed.” Thor said the show actually made him want to do something about the destruction of nature and rebel against the system. But he contends that in order to change the system, you need to understand it, get inside of it and “jab at it.” Everyday, in his garden, Thor jabs at the system.

Thor muses how change is difficult. Human nature involves doing whatever is easiest, “I’m worried about this local foods thing turning into a fad, and fizzing out.” Indeed, this is a tragic alternative to sustaining the movement. What is needed is both a shift in attitude and civic policy. For example, Thor would like people to push Fargo and Moorhead to build a real farmer’s market that is open more than once a week. We need what Grand Forks has - a dedicated space. The dike farmer’s market exists, but what about when it floods? And, what about patronizing a variety of producers, instead of the few that are always at the dike? As Thor says, “This isn’t the land of small farmers anymore, so it’s hard to attract vendors and producers.”

Other cities, even smaller than ours, have indoor marketplaces with booths of small vendors that either sell their own products or other scrumptious products that may or may not be local but are made with care. Take, for example, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Woodbury County (Iowa). Build it and they shall come (the customers and the producers).
Woodbury County, Iowa took some intentional policy steps before promoting local foods. Their county commission decided to enact two key policies to confront the causes of rural decline and reverse the fortunes of small to mid-sized family farms within its jurisdiction:

The Organics Conversion Policy: June 28, 2005: Provides 100% real property tax rebate for five years to anyone who converts from conventional to organic farming practices;

Local Food Purchase Policy: January 10, 2006: County required to purchase locally grown organic food when available for County Jail, Juvenile Detention Center, and Work Release Program. (Statement of Robert B. Marqusee before the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture U.S. House of Representatives, April 18, 2007)

Setting local policies, a committed citizenry, and education about the benefits of local foods are vital to the process of change.

As Thor says, “We need to capture the momentum of the local foods movement.” Other communities are moving forward and so must we.