At the Local Farm our focus is people. Yes, we grow food, but there is so much more to it. In the almost four years that we have been in operation, we have been building our infrastructure, learning the land, building relationships, and developing an idea of what we want to see as a community. Now, we are moving on that vision.

 

Luckily, we don’t have to recreate the wheel. Did you know that there is a movement across the United States to build and sustain more cooperative businesses? With this comes examples of ways we can grow and incorporate more aspects of the community. We are working to learn from and emulate parts of various models, including aspects of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in the South, Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Our Harvest Cooperative in Cincinnati, and Mondragon Corporation's famous network of cooperatives in Spain, among others. These projects have various key principles, some around building local food economies, some bring community and worker ownership together, some seek to tap into anchor institutions such as hospitals and universities--but all work to democratize wealth and business ownership, so people have a democratic say in their economic lives. See our history here to see more of our lineage and who we have learned from over the years

 

Currently we are developing a Summer internship program aimed at teaching local youth about the food cycle, how to grow food, and how to prepare food that is healthy and tastes good.