Testimony of Amy Pyle Crystle
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Manager,
Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative

Before the House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops and Foreign Agriculture
October 21, 2009

Good morning Chairman McIntyre and members of the committee. My name is Amy Crystle, and I am here representing Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, an organic farmers’ cooperative in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I have worked as a manager for Lancaster Farm Fresh since 2006. I am here to tell you one story of a successful rural development grant and encourage you to continue and expand funding for the Rural Cooperative Development Grants program.

The Keystone Development Center (KDC), a non-profit organization devoted to rural cooperative business development in Pennsylvania, has received grants from USDA under the Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) program). The RCDG program is an annual competitive grant program that awards grants to cooperative development centers to provide technical assistance to farmers and others to help create cooperatives and other member-owned businesses. The grants are awarded to between 20 and 25 centers around the country, depending on the year, the applications, and the amount of available funds.

KDC contracted with a local facilitator in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania who understood there was a strong need, and great potential, for an organic farmers’ cooperative to serve the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFFC) evolved from a series of meetings, organized by the KDC facilitator, with Lancaster County farmers and sustainable agricultural professionals from Philadelphia and the surrounding region in the fall of 2005.

The facilitator conducted a feasibility study in early 2006 that found the need and demand for more organically grown food and a member-owned farmer cooperative that could address that need in the Philadelphia area. A group of farmers organized into a board of directors and farmer members assembled in the spring; the first deliveries of organic produce and pastured-animal products were made in May. Two full-time managers for the Cooperative were hired in July of 2006. I am one of those managers.

We are happy to report that the Cooperative has enjoyed growth and success over the past few years. About 12 farmers contributed to the products delivered by LFFC in 2006, serving approximately 30 wholesale customers and 100 CSA shareholders. In 2007 the number of farmers contributing product to the Cooperative rose to 24, with the number of wholesale customers and CSA members increasing to 55 and 300 respectively. The Cooperative employed two full-time managers, three part-time employees and two contracted delivery drivers in 2007.

In 2009 the number of people involved with LFFC increased significantly; currently 50 farmers contribute to the products offered by the Cooperative, over 100 wholesale customers order produce and more than 1200 families collect CSA shares during the growing season. We now have five full-time employees and 15 part-time employees.

In addition to the above described business growth we created a trucking company, Lancaster Farm Fresh Organics, LLC, in the spring of 2008 to support the growing delivery needs for the Cooperative. Lancaster Farm Fresh Organics employs three fulltime and two part-time delivery drivers and a full-time transportation manager. Because of the success of LFFC, the members were able to provide funding support to begin the trucking company.

LFFC is a farmer-owned cooperative. The employees work for the farmers to secure a sale price for produce, meat, dairy and value-added products, which provide a profit for the farmers’ work and allow them to continue to produce. Any profits that are made by the Cooperative are redistributed to the farm members at the end of the fiscal year. In 2009 LFFC farmers received their first dividends check for the fiscal year 2007.

The nature of the business is direct-marketing from the farmers’ cooperative, acting on behalf of the farmers, to individual consumers and wholesale buyers. For wholesale orders the following procedure takes place: the farmers communicate harvest predictions to LFFC staff that then send a pricelist to wholesale customers reflecting the farmers’ prediction. Wholesale customers order products and we communicate their orders to the farmers. The farmers harvest the produce ordered and their harvest is retrieved by a truck that delivers it to the LFFC warehouse. When all of the produce has been delivered to the warehouse, employees assemble each customer’s order. We deliver the orders, usually the next day, to wholesale customers.

LFFC also operates a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In CSA the consumer shares the inherent risk and abundance of agriculture with the farmer. Individuals and families join the Cooperative as CSA shareholders. They purchase a share of the harvest, which entitles them to a weekly delivery of vegetables and fruit for 25 weeks during the growing season, May through November.

The funds collected from CSA members during the application period, November through April, are sent to farmers in the form of CSA advance payments. These cash advances are paid back to the Cooperative when the farmer begins to receive payments for their products during the harvest season. The funds help farmers during a very lean time of the year to purchase supplies for the upcoming growing season. The farmer repays the CSA members with produce when they begin to harvest their crops.

The LFFC CSA and wholesale customers are more connected with their food source and the trials and tribulations of agriculture than if they were purchasing food from a large grocery store or food distributor. The effects on food safety are significant, because the consumer purchases the food from and speaks directly with the producer. The local economy benefits significantly, because 75% of every dollar spent is going directly into the hands of farmers, allowing them to continue to produce agricultural products on their land. Consumer health is positively affected in this system as food is in the hands of consumers usually within 24 hours of being harvested, retaining most of its nutritional value. Air, soil and water quality is positively affected because LFFC farmers build their soil through organic (not synthetic) amendments, use erosion-prevention techniques and hand-harvesting methods.

What began as an idea and growing economic need on behalf of one farm family, grew into Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, a multi-million dollar farmer-owned business. The funding and assistance from Keystone Development Center through a Rural Cooperative Development grant created jobs with livable wages, economic stability for organic farmers and a significant contributor to the local food system. LFFC brings local, fresh organically grown vegetables and fruit and grass-fed animal products to thousands of families, restaurants and grocers in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, New York and the
surrounding areas.

The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), which represents cooperatives across this country, and CooperationWorks!, a network of cooperative development centers, work to make sure the RCDG program is effective and that funding is available to help create cooperatives like ours. On behalf of NCBA, CooperationWorks! and all cooperatives, I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of this subcommittee for making improvements to the RCDG program in last year’s farm bill. It is also my understanding that the RCDG program got an increase in the most recent appropriations bill passed by Congress. Again, thank you. That support will help create more opportunities for rural entrepreneurs.

I encourage you to continue to support this and other programs that help rural businesses develop and grow. The assistance we received with creating a business feasibility study, organizing informational meetings, developing a business plan and writing by-laws was invaluable for the start of LFFC. Without the funding from RCD grants to study and discuss the possibility of an organic farmers’ cooperative, LFFC may never have germinated into the successful business it is today.

I want to thank you for allowing me to share our story with you. I hope it will shed some light on the economic impact of RCD grants in rural America. The impact of this particular RCD grant goes beyond economic benefits in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: it affects the social and cultural fabric of the metropolitan and suburban communities it serves. If you eat at some of the restaurants that feature locally grown food in this metropolitan area or join a local CSA, you are supporting local farmers and maybe LFFC. The more we support local farms, the more we improve our health and well-being and the more we prosper economically. Thank you.