Trip to Movement Ground Farm

On a cold spring morning, I went on a volunteer trip to the Movement Ground Farm in Rhode Island, to learn more about organic farming, and do some volunteering work on the farm. I was fortunate enough to meet with Kohei Ishihara, a second-generation Japanese immigrant, and the founder and executive director of Movement Ground Farm. I asked him if he would mind if I conducted a short interview with him about how the farm worked, the reasons he started a farm, and his opinions on Fair Trade, and luckily for me, he gladly obliged.

What made you decide to start and work on a farm?

Well, I’ve always been passionate about the environment, even as a child. My family name, Ishihara, actually means rocky plains, so my family jokes with me that I was born with a closer connection to the earth than most. As I grew older, I started seeing and understanding the true extent to which we were hurting the world, and I decided to do my part. For a lot of my teenage years and my twenties, I was heavily involved in many climate change protests, and I was a heavily involved and active environmental activist. However, I soon grew disillusioned, the longer time went on. I realized that too many people didn’t care about the environment, and just supported our cause to benefit themselves and not because they cared. Soon, I distanced myself from them, and for a while, I was drifting around aimlessly. During that time, I helped out on a farm to help pay the bills and to find a place to stay, and before I knew it, I had fallen in love with farming. The raw connection that I felt with the earth when farming is something that just clicked for me, and I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Soon after, I met with Ms. Budnick, and we started Movement Ground Farms.

Your farm runs on the framework of CSA. Could you explain the concept a bit more?

CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a model of food distribution popularized in the 1960s by Dr. Booker T. Whatley, a Black farmer and agricultural professor at Tuskegee University. Consumers can get direct access to high-quality, locally sourced produce through CSAs. When you join a CSA, you are purchasing a "share" of vegetables from the farmer. Your farmer will deliver your produce share to a convenient drop-off place in your neighborhood every week. In exchange, CSA members pay in advance for a complete season's worth of produce, or in installments if necessary. This early bulk payment enables the farmer to plan for the season, purchase new seeds, make equipment repairs, pay staff members, and more. Members of a CSA share in the benefits and hazards of farming. Your shares may be reduced during times of scarcity (due to crop failure, sickness, hurricanes, etc.) and unusually large during times of abundance (due to special offerings). The CSA is open to anyone who wants access to our produce, believes in our vision, and wishes to contribute to building our farm with us.

Do you think that CSAs should be more widely adopted?

I definitely think that it should be more widely adopted, especially in first-world countries. CSAs allow the community to have access to fresh produce weekly that is better for the farmers, better for the Earth, and better for them. It’s better for us because we don’t have to go through middlemen like grocery stores, who would otherwise take a large cut of our profits. It’s better for the Earth because the higher payments let us grow organically and naturally, and make sure that we treat the soil well. There are also almost no carbon emissions from having to ship our produce around the world, or even just around the country. Also, because we know exactly how much we should be growing, we never let any food go to waste. Lastly, it’s better for our consumers because our produce is fresh, healthier, and tastier than any store-bought food. The only downside to CSAs is that they’re quite pricey, thus, they work best in wealthy countries like America. The weekly cost of produce is roughly equivalent to the cost of buying at Whole Foods.

What’s your opinion on Fair trade?

I think Fair Trade is incredibly important. It’s terrible to see how companies take advantage of poor farmers, undercutting them and forcing them to sell and rock bottom prices. There's a monopoly in the agriculture business, so the farmers have no choice but to sell at a price that nets them little profit, and sometimes not even enough to prepare for next year, while large chains sell their hard-earned work for massive profits.