Salad bar at Franklin Dining Commons, photo by Alexa Marcigliano.
On a daily basis, thousands of UMass Amherst students file into the dining commons, eat untold amounts of food, and leave without ever giving a thought to where the food comes from, or how it was handled prior to arriving on their plates. Maybe they notice the occasional “Locally Grown Produce” signs placed above some vegetables, but that still gives no indication of where they’re grown, or who is growing them.
As it turns out, UMass gets its vegetables from two sources: a produce distributor in Connecticut, Fowler and Huntting, and a local farm in Hadley, Czajkowski Farm.
Fowler and Huntting, UMass Amherst’s main source of produce, is not a farm, but a provider: they buy their vegetables from farms all over the world, then distribute them to buyers. According to Rich Adams, a representative from Fowler and Huntting, the company does supply organic food. Yet Adams stated that UMass opts not to spend the extra money to provide them in their dining commons.
Other than this small bit of information I gleaned from Adams, I found myself wholly unsuccessful in finding anything more in depth from Fowler and Huntting. I advised to call the federal government to answer my questions regarding their practices and policies surrounding the treatment of their produce.
However, Joe Czajkowski, owner of Czajkowski Farm, was willing to speak about his produce. Czajkowski said that the farm occupies 300 acres, 100 of which are certified organic. When we spoke, Czajkowski was off to deliver produce to UMass. He delivers there three times a week, the variety and types of fruits and vegetables depending on the season. The Czajkowski farm grows 27 various types of produce, including beans, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, butternut squash, pickles, and apples. On his 100 acres of organic land, he grows vegetables such as corn, squash, carrots, and turnips.
Czajkowski insisted that in comparison to tropical climates, one-sixth the amount of pesticides is used in this climate because the harsh winters in the north eliminate most insects during frosts and blizzards. Czajkowski also explained that the farm practices integrated pest management. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, integrated pest management is an “environmentally sensitive approach” to farming. It takes into account many different factors, but the main concern is keeping people and the environment safe. These programs do not rule out the use of pesticides, they simply use them when necessary, to cure a problem but not to prevent it. Preventative measures include crop rotation and growing pest-resistant crops.
In practicing integrated pest management, the Czajkowski Farm makes a habit of rotating their crops. Czajkowski says that he rotates crops every two years, and occasionally even trades land with another farmer. He and a dairy farmer swap twenty to thirty acres of land to plant in a place where a specific pathogen does not live.
“That’s really the best way that farmers around here control disease and insects populations,” stated Czajkowski
Although fewer pesticides are necessary in this area, farmers must still use certain kinds to keep their yields high and their crops safe. There are quite a few varieties of pesticides used on the Czajkowski farm: insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and bactericides. Fungicides are most commonly used in Pioneer Valley because of the wet climate.
When asked if his farm could be considered “sustainable agriculture,” Czajkowski replied, “Yes, my family has been farming for three generations on the same land, it had better be sustainable.” In order be considered sustainable, a farm must cause a minimal amount of damage to the surrounding environment, and not let any harmful chemicals into nearby water or the atmosphere, and also that a farmer cannot bend the environment to their will, but instead must work with their surroundings.
Pesticides do have a place in sustainable agriculture provided they are used in a reasonable manner. This goes hand in hand with integrated pest management, and the idea that pesticides should be used as a cure and not to prevent any pests from ever growing in the vicinity of a crop.
John Gerber, professor of sustainable agriculture courses at UMass Amherst, previously created his own set of guidelines for sustainable agriculture, using the input of a board of local farmers. Essentially the principle is “treading lightly on the earth,” as Gerber puts it. Replenish the nutrients being taken from the earth, do not pollute the waters used to grow the food, do not contaminate the habitats of the wildlife living in the area, and help the community to profit from the farm.
After discovering only a small piece of the puzzle of where exactly our vegetables in the dining commons come from, I feel that I have learned much more than I knew. The local farmers who make a living selling their produce do not only have their wallets in mind, but also take great considerations to protect the environment.
