The answer to the question of whom or what is Whole Farm Coop is “a cooperative that sells naturally grown food to religious organizations”. A small group of farm families, eighty of them, has turned to an unlikely duo, churches and the internet, to help them preserve the life and land they love. It is a solution that combines old fashion farming and dot-com. Churches social justice missions often include support for the environment and family preservation. So who better to care about prudent stewardship of the Earth, healthy food, and hopes of farm families to survive?
 | Rick Miller
Whole Farm Coop |
Their mission statement reads “Whole Farm Coop is a market organization whose function is to sell and deliver locally grown, healthy, nutritious foods and other farm products that are produced as free from chemicals as possible, using environmentally friendly methods.”
“It is flavor to die for and economic justice rolled up into one,” said one of their first customers, Judson Memorial Baptist church. The farming is called “sustainable farming”, it is virtually chemical-free, and the cows, pigs and chickens are free to roam and graze the way the farmers believe God meant for them to live. It is also called “sustainable” because its Earth-friendly ways are meant to help farmers pass their land on to their children, sustaining the family for generations to come.
Cows on conventional farms today spend most of their lives in barns. Farmers have to grow their feed in cultivated fields, bring it to the cows, and haul away manure to fertilize those fields-not to mention heating the barn. Sustainable farming means the cows spend most of each year grazing in pastures. That means they help themselves to their own meals and conveniently fertilize the fields by leaving behind their manure. They produce only about half as much milk as barned cows, but they live two to three times longer. And they are not routinely treated with antibiotics and growth hormones.
Sunday June 9 will be a Kick-Off for Whole Farm Coop. Outside mass Whole Farms will be set up to show some of their products, including tasting.
You can check out all products at their web site; www.wholefarmcoop.com. Ordering is either by phone or e-mail. It will be delivered to church where you can pick it up on Sunday. Food will be bagged separately, frozen from fresh. Inside your bags will be the invoice; you then send a check. They work on the honor system!
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 |  | | Nancy Lynch says, "Joy is being a wife, Mom of fourteen, eight with varying disabilities and living at home, Grandma of thirteen, and Great Grandma of three. Serenity is listening and watching the ocean, alone, at our home on Maui. Passion is friends, photography, reading, swimming and children." Nancy can be reached at nalynch@aol.com. |
Depending on the response, a decision will be made as to how often they deliver. Check out the web site and plan to come and taste on June 9.
 | | David McCloskey at SJA |
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