***

in 1981, carol anne sayle and her husband larry butler began farming in milam county, an austin suburb. they sold produce to whole foods, a local grocery store, and opened a small farm stand in front of wiggy’s liquor store in clarksville, texas. sayle and butler were not only ahead of their time as urban farmers, but also as early voices in austin’s locavore movement, encouraging austin residents to see the benefits of eating locally.

“when we first started selling in front of the liquor store, we had to explain what ‘organic’ meant,” sayle said with a smile.

although milam county farm thrived, it was a long drive to austin to sell their produce. in 1992, sayle found a five acre piece of fertile land in the boggy creek watershed, and their urban farm was born.

“we found this property, and we thought ‘ooh!… this would be a farm’,” sayle said. “we could make it a farm, and we could live in the farmhouse, and just step right out the door and go to work! this is great!”

***

nearly two decades later, but just around the corner from boggy creek farms, a former restaurant owner named dorsey barger had a similar vision. faced with an empty, two-acre farm in the heart of east austin, she saw an opportunity to sow and harvest. her vision became reality. hundreds of chickens provide fresh eggs to the farm. baby bunnies abound, and a pet goose named gustavo quacks amicably at passers-by.

the farm, named hausbar, is an ideal model for many who dream of sustainable food systems. barger has a rainwater collection bin that has 30,000 gallons of storage capacity, which they use to irrigate their crops. according to their website, they are currently expanding their solar panel capacity, so that 90% of their electrical needs will be powered by the sun. and, perhaps most delightfully, barger uses donkeys instead of lawn mowers to mow and fertilize the pasture.

to top it off, barger is often credited with spearheading austin’s locavore movement. “people often say to us that we…. really started the locavore movement in austin,” barger said. “i do think that we did; we were there at the beginning, of what became, i think now, a true locavore movement.”

but before barger opened the farm in 2009, things looked much different.

“it was pretty much two acres of trash with three crack houses on it,” barger said. “we figured if we just cleaned the place up enough… it would be something pretty amazing here.” after purchasing the property, barger embarked on a seemingly impossible task.

“in our quest to be sustainable we wanted everything to be improved by our being here, so we dug the 51 beds of vegetables that you see out there, with pitchforks and shovels, instead of tillers and trucks,” barger said with an expression that she still could not believe what she accomplished.

***

both barger and sayle started their respective farms for one principal reason — they believed in the importance of locally grown food.

“the reason we wanted to do it was to give people good, clean food,” sayle said. “if you don’t have fresh food, it’s worthless… (our) arugula is sparky and fierce.. but in the store, it was just, ‘bleh!, this is arugula?’ it’s flavor, see. there’s no flavor there, and there’s flavor here, and that flavor tells you that it’s fresh.”

the minute a vegetable or fruit is picked off the plant, the flavor starts to fade away. and flavor, sayle explained, is a direct indicator of nutrition. the c, e, a, and some b vitamins deteriorate over the days, or even weeks, it takes to pick, package, and ship produce all over the world.

“in california or in chile or china or wherever that vegetable in the store came from, it was probably once wonderful,” sayle said. “but when you go through refrigeration — almost freezing, for weeks on end — it all goes away.”

according to barger, local produce is vital not just for the health of austinites, but for the health of the planet and the local economy.

“there’s so much pollution that goes on in bringing that organic produce from california, to texas, let’s say, that it’s not enough just to eat organically,” barger said. “not only is it it not enough for pollution reasons, but it’s also not enough because it doesn’t make any sense to depend on somebody else for your food, and so we need to be supporting local farmers.”

when one buys produce from a grocery store, a very small percentage of revenue goes to the farmer, barger explained. the rest of the profit the packager, the middlemen, and the processor. but when a customer buys produce from a farm, most of the revenue goes directly to the farmer. that farmer will have much more money to spend in the same economy.

“by spending locally we are actually supporting everyone who lives in our area,” barger said.

***

in the midst of a global pandemic and a plummeting economy, it is vital now, more than ever, to invest both in local businesses and in our own well-being. visiting your local farm can have that dual benefit. and on a cool october morning, nothing is more pleasant than to wake up early, drive across town, and walk among rows of dew-flecked kale. nothing is more uplifting than to gather with friends, neighbors, and strangers, all distanced during the pandemic, but united by their love of carol ann’s flowers. that, i believe, is well-worth the mask.

“initially, i reached out to katie mckenna in carleton’s dining service, bon appétit, like, i want to talk about reusable to-go containers and what they would look like in sayles café,” said farias, an environmental studies major who works both as a sustainability assistant in carleton’s sustainability office and with the food and environmental justice cohort in its center for community and civic engagement. “i’m still astounded by how far the program has come.”

farias has been involved in a number of sustainability and food projects on campus, including the swipe out hunger initiative, where students donate a meal swipe to benefit peers who experience food insecurity. as a member of the waste team in the sustainability office, reducing material waste in campus food services had long been one of his goals. he originally meant to run a pilot project in spring term 2020 with 100 students and 25 faculty and staff opting to use exclusively reusable containers in sayles café. then, the start of the covid-19 pandemic shut campus down, and plans were abandoned. but the carleton student association had already funded the purchase of 300 reusable clamshells, and there were 280 students still on campus. so farias and his team thought: why not try the project anyway? 

“a lot of students did not want to eat in the dining hall—they were scared,” said katie mckenna, the dining services manager with bon appétit. “they just wanted to take food out, and we were going through a lot of disposable clamshells every week. it was frightening, the number with only 280 students on campus.”

for the last week of spring term, a revised pilot program ran in sayles and one of carleton’s two dining halls. farias and sustainability program coordinator alex miller served as project managers, with mckenna running bon appétit’s end of the program. bon appétit student sustainability ambassadors karen chen ’21 and ella hein ’23 were brought on to represent a student perspective and market the project. chen took the lead on designing posters and a green2go exchange card.

on-campus students were each given a copy of the card, which they could trade out for an ozzi brand reusable clamshell at a meal. after eating, they were expected to rinse out their container and return it at their next meal, either for a card or another container. according to farias and mckenna, the program was informative and an overall success.

then the college decided to bring 1,500 students back to campus in september, and they realized that the time for a full-scale green2go program had come.

“when we were talking about this fall, my options were throwing all this money into one-use containers that were just going to fill the compost bins on campus, or trying to do this green2go rollout,” mckenna said. although compostable containers were already the default, they are still produced with disposable material and take a long time to biodegrade. 

“the other concern was there being a shortage,” farias added. “with so many other schools relying on these compostable containers, we wouldn’t have been able to supply any more of them. instead, we might have to turn to something like styrofoam, which in my opinion is my worst nightmare.”

so farias reached out to jesse cashman, the director of auxiliary services and client manager for carleton’s contract with bon appétit. cashman had dealt with the funding for the disposable containers during spring term; with about 2,100 meals per week at $0.26 per clamshell, they had been spending $546 every week. that would have gone up to 16,000 meals and $4,160 a week come fall term. comparatively, a green2go container that can be used upwards of 300 times is only $4.10—the equivalent cost of 16 disposable containers.

“when we looked at what the cost was to get the product in here, it was pretty easy to arrive at,” cashman said. “we’re going to return our cost here within 3-4 months of this operation, which is pretty astounding.” 

thanks to cashman’s advocacy, the college purchased 3,500 green2go containers in july, and 1,000 more in september, with money set aside for covid-19 expenses on campus. because it wasn’t just about sustainability; without a pandemic, carleton would never have needed this many to-go containers. it was about safety.

during new student week, all meals were packaged in disposable to-go containers. but starting on the first day of classes, with many students taking their food out in green2gos, bon appétit has been able to set up limited and distanced seating in the dining halls and cafés.

“because there are so few seats in the dining halls, because the occupancy limit is so low, having these green2gos really allows people to get out of the dining halls,” farias said. “i see them on carleton’s quad, the bald spot, i see them all around campus. it allows people to eat in a socially distant manner.” even as colder weather arrives and students eat outside less often, they can take their food back to their rooms rather than crowding the dining halls.

and so far, it’s working. mckenna was initially concerned about whether students would return the containers, given a poor track record for reusable programs in the past. “we tried it once before with the reusable cups,” she said. “students were taking soup in them and not washing them for days. they’d come back full of mold. they just didn’t care. we went through six thousand cups in the first three weeks of fall term, which is insane for a campus our size. they just weren’t returning them. but they’re returning these green2gos.”

hein had similar concerns at the end of spring term. she was worried that students wouldn’t understand how the program worked or would just hoard the containers in their room.

but being back on campus, hein has been pleasantly surprised. at the beginning of october, she conducted an inventory of the containers that showed the dining halls had the right number at meal times. sometimes, she said, she even feels like all of her friends have adjusted to the program more smoothly than she has.

she has a theory as to why. “i think everyone came in with an ability to adapt to all of the changes this fall,” she said. “if the green2go program had been the only thing that was changing, if it was a normal campus year, it might have gone worse. it’s a different system, but because there are so many new systems across campus, people were just aware that they had to adapt.”

mckenna summed it up. “in an odd way, i think covid-19 has helped this program with student awareness. i can talk about reducing waste all day long, but it really has to be something that the students buy into. they wanted to be able to eat out of the dining hall, and how could we do that successfully? the clamshells were the answer.”

now that bringing green2go containers back and forth from the dining halls has become the social norm, mckenna has high hopes for future sustainability projects. her ideas include reusable to-go silverware, small containers for sides at sayles, weitz, and schultze cafés, or a revamp of the reusable cup program. the rest of the team is right behind her. “i think this is a great example that with community participation, student participation, we can accomplish these sustainability efforts on campus,” cashman said. “so it just opens the door to make more improvements down the road in all of our other areas that we’re using disposables.”

there’s also the possibility for the green2go program to spread beyond the carleton bubble. some institutions, such as macalester college and bemidji state university, have their own reusable programs, and others are in the process of developing them for the covid-19 crisis. carleton’s unique success story can provide an example of how to do it well. farias is currently writing a case study about the project for the post landfill action network, a resource for colleges that are working to reduce their waste. chen has written about the program in the bon appétit magazine, bravo, and the two of them are also presenting to a cross-campus sustainability group of student environmental organization leaders. 

“i think we’re an example of an institution that is doing something right and is taking advantage of the special opportunity that the covid-19 situation has presented,” said chen. “our model could be used as an example for other institutions to follow in step, and that would be a really awesome way to expand our impact and promote sustainability outside of just this campus.”

meanwhile, the green2gos are getting an evaluation back on campus. in economics professor mark kanazawa’s environmental studies research methods class, one student research project is focused exclusively on the containers. karah haug ’21 and alle brown-law ’21 are conducting a survey of students, faculty, and staff about how the program has been going. they developed their questions, both about perceptions and usage of the green2gos, with help from miller and mckenna. in an instance of truly reciprocal research, they’ll report their findings back to them to be used in adjusting the program for terms to come. 

“i chose this project (and alle would echo this),” said haug, “because i am interested in waste habits on campus and i wanted to find out if the green2go program implementation has been successful. if it has and people have relatively positive responses to it, we will be one important step closer to reducing waste and the carbon footprint of the campus.”

from farias’ perspective, the program has indeed been successful. he’s on campus but off-board this term, so he hasn’t used a single green2go container himself, he said with a laugh. but he’s been asking his friends, and they’ve had positive reactions. and just looking around is enough to show why. 

“around campus during new student week, i would see trash cans piled high with all of the bon appétit to-go containers,” farias said. “i can’t imagine what that would look like every single day, for the rest of the term and maybe even the year. i think that was a helpful visual representation for me to think, oh, maybe i am doing some good here.”

“one of them shut down completely and then opened as a drive-through market and that was a complete disaster,” she said. “we would get two or three orders a week, not even making $20. it was just a real dead experience.”

it took markets shifting back to something resembling a traditional experience for behrmann and her small goat herd to see sales recover. this is a bumpy ride that many farmers market vendors in the d.c. area have experienced since the early months of the year.

deemed essential services, d.c. farmers markets remained open since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic – but in order to keep vendors, staff, and customers safe, markets had to make sudden changes.

m.farmers markets across the country provide the unique opportunity for customers to purchase food directly from producers and, likewise, for farmers to connect with customers face-to-face. this can boost local economies and reduce the amount of energy needed to transport food across long distances.

in d.c., farmers markets also provide additional incentives for low-income families. most d.c. farmers markets accept snap and wic benefits, as well as benefits for senior citizens. many farmers markets in d.c. also “match” customers’ snap benefits so that each dollar can purchase more fresh produce.

since march, the d.c. government has required farmers markets to comply with public health regulations by promoting social distancing and mask wearing. markets must provide hand washing stations and vendor stalls may not offer samples. customers also must be encouraged not to touch products before purchasing.

these practices are in place at the d.c. farmers markets currently run by freshfarm, a nonprofit that operates more than 20 markets in the washington, d.c., metro area. derel farmer, freshfarm’s community outreach manager, said that the pandemic has forced market operators “to pretty much reinvent how we do business.”

“we understand that the farmer’s market is one of the few large, open venues left at this time,” he said. “there are very few other opportunities where large amounts of people can come interact and do so safely, so we are committed to making sure we keep this space open for people.”

this means offering pre-orders from many vendors for market pick-up or delivery. market vendors must assign staff to manage either money or product but not both, and they are encouraged to prioritize contactless payment options.

it also means deciding not to open several markets this year, such as the white house and foggy bottom markets, which have lost customers due to the pandemic.

freshfarm vendors said that although they are pleased with the safety practices in place, it is not business as usual. dana garner boyle, owner of garners produce in virginia, said that she has had to hire additional staff to manage her farmers market stall amidst health restrictions.

“we have stuck to the routine of gathering the items for the customer,” she said. “that’s extra work because it ties up our time when we could be chatting with the customer or refilling and restocking. so we have to hire extra staff to help get all that done and manage our lines so that everybody can maintain distance at the market better.”

boyle added that it breaks her heart that customers are not allowed to choose their own products, which is “so much a personal choice.”

“i really can’t pick out tomatoes that would suit everybody because that’s something different,” she said. “so we just kind of make a joke of that, like, ‘i will be so glad when y’all are able to pick your own tomatoes!’”

behrmann of shepherd’s whey creamery misses selling samples of her varieties of goat’s cheese, which she said “is a huge part of our selling strategy.”

“because artisan goat cheese is not a necessarily familiar product to many of our customers – it makes so much variation, depending on the individual producer of the cheese – it’s really difficult for people to know what they’re buying and to be willing to invest in something that they don’t have any idea about,” she said.

sustainability is also a concern. zach vandezande, the head of pr and publishing for number 1 sons, a small business that sells pickles, kimchi, and kombucha at d.c. farmers markets, said the business previously encouraged customers to take purchased products home in their own containers. due to sanitation concerns, the business has switched to packaging the products beforehand.

vandezande said number 1 sons is trying to balance how they can “stay as environmentally conscious and as environmentally responsible as possible while keeping people safe,” and added that this shift has been a “big touchstone” for the business’s customers.

nevertheless, markets like freshfarm’s have taken this opportunity to innovate rather than crumble. while leaving several markets unopened this season, freshfarm also opened a new market in virginia. farmer added that freshfarm also plans to extend several of its markets further into the winter to provide more time for vendors to sell their products.

freshfarm has also extended its snap matching program to all its markets. this comes at an important time, as recent data reveals that the number of american adults who reported that members of their households “sometimes or often did not have enough to eat” surged to more than 26 million americans in 2020, increasing the need for programs like snap.

farmer said that customer feedback to the market’s effort to balance safety and accessibility has been largely positive.

“the one thing that we hear over and over again is ‘thank you,’” he said. “‘thank you for doing this. thank you for being here.’”

boyle of garners produce said that she has seen steady business at her farm stand since the start of the pandemic.

“i think between our roadside market and the farmers market we’ve consistently stayed busy because people feel like their food has been handled less – it’s picked one day, it’s brought and sold the next – and it’s outdoor shopping,” she said. “so i think they feel a lot safer buying food at a market than they do in the grocery stores right now.”

vandezande of number 1 sons said he thinks customers are still attracted to farmers markets because there are “human stories” behind the products, and “those human stories matter.”

“one of the reasons people go to farmers markets is because they want to return to the idea that the land is connected, the product is connected to a human being who is making their living,” he said and contrasted the markets to grocery stores, where “food just appears as if by magic.”

at the end of the day, farmers markets remain essential to behrmann and her goat herd. she said that farmers markets are the only venues she has found that give small farmers access to the marketplace, and where she can receive immediate, direct feedback from her customers.

“i can’t imagine being a farmer where i just send it off to a distributor and never got to get any direct feedback of what the customer thought i was doing,” she said.