How does a local produce company handle the need for non-local produce during the winter?

We do it by working directly with farms we trust to grow sustainable, high-quality produce and by building a supply chain that delivers product 2-3 times fresher than what is in stores.

I got to interview our new partner, Brandon, from V+B Farms, a 300-acre sustainable farm in Florida. In our interview, you will learn about their values, growing practices, and efforts to increase access to healthy food for all. Most importantly, you will learn about our shared commitment to integrity and how we are building a regional agricultural model rooted in community.

We know that many people want non-local produce during the winter months. Through relationships with farmers like Brandon, we can bring this produce to you without compromising the quality of our product or the foundation of our values.

Thanks for reading!

-Dylan

Your farm’s tag line is “Where integrity grows.” What does that mean to you?

Integrity is doing what you say you are going to do. It's about caring for your relationships and living by a set of values. A lot of the time, people say one thing, but as soon as the circumstances change, they do something different. Perhaps they agree on a price, but then they can find a better one elsewhere, and they no longer want to do what they initially said they would do. Maybe they said they were going to use certain growing practices or pay a fair wage, and then they realize they can get away with something subpar, and they do it. For us, integrity is “we made a deal, we are going to honor that deal.”

When you have a relationship, you have integrity. When you have strong relationships, there is a community of people who can support each other. We have had farmers that we know of, committing suicide because they have debt problems. They have no community. They are alone. On the flip side, if you can surround yourself with people whom you can trust and who can trust you, then you have a support system, and you will always have the strength/support to figure something out.

In my experience, integrity can be hard to find. We have been screwed over a lot of times. But you know, it feels a lot better being screwed over when you yourself have integrity. We know we will never screw people over, at least intentionally. I mean, you can’t control the weather. But yeah, we have struggled for 20 years because we decided not to screw people over. It's not about our one farm, it's about creating community.

Why did you decide to be a farmer? Why do you care about growing great produce?

I’m the fifth generation of my family to work in agriculture; my business partner is fourth-generation agriculture. It's all we knew. That is how we made money during high school—growing Okra. Going out picking Okra before class, after class. At that time in my life, it was something that came very easily to me.

It evolved into solving a hard problems. I have always enjoyed solving a hard problems. Not everyone can grow their own food. We need to own our food system. When someone is hungry, what they are thinking about is not necessarily frivolities. They are hungry. They need food. The more people have access to nutritional food, the they have the capacity to think about what makes them happy.

We want to make sure everyone has access to good food. We are very involved in rural food deserts. Some people are driving 20 - 30 miles to get groceries. We want to help solve that problem. Being able to grow someone a tomato, whether they are paying me or it's being donated, is a reflection of me as a farmer. If I can provide the same thing to everyone... For me, it fits into treating everyone like how you want to be treated.

Tommy, my farming partner, loves people, and he loves making people happy by growing them good food. Sharing food was the basis of civilization. There was a significant advancement in society when people began sharing food, leading to settlements based on agriculture. Food is universal. It's the basic building block. It's foundational.

Give us an idea of your farm. Where is it? How many acres? What kinds of growing practices are you using?

We started in Homestead, Florida, where we are both from. In the early 2000s, we were doing 600 - 700 acres. We could never compete with 6,000-acre farms. So we made a pivot. We wanted to sell to retailers like Philly Foodworks who care about how the food is grown and where it comes from, and who serve a group of customers who care about the same thing.

We did not want to do what is necessary to compete with 6,000-acre farms. Farming at that scale is a game of debt and exploitation. You can’t get the 6,000 without a bunch of capital. I don’t want to overleverage myself. A lot of farmers do, and then you have no choice but to cut corners, take advantage of people and the land, and then you lose your integrity.

In the last 5 - 10 years, we started getting into tropical fruits. You can’t grow your typical produce items in southern Florida during the summer, it's too hot. So in the summer, we did not have work for our employees, so we got into tropicals so that we could employ people year-round

Right now, we have 70 acres in Homestead that is just produce and an additional 200 acres of tropical fruits.

In the last 10 years, we also started a farm in North Florida because it extends the season and because trucking is less to the northeast.

Can you give us some more details about the types of growing practices you use?

In South Florida, we have easy access to fresh water. You can drill a well 6 - 10 feet down and get water. Typical South Florida farms use a lot of overhead irrigation; however, this wastes a significant amount of water. I think it's something like 98% of the water gets wasted with overhead irrigation. That's not sustainable long term, and it has other ecological impacts. We have a different method in which we use plastic to cover our rows and then drip line irrigation. Our water waste is only 1 - 2%. The plastic acts as a weed suppressant, so we don’t have to spray herbicides or use GMO seeds that are resistant to Roundup and similar products. It's part of why our produce is healthier for you and tastes better. Plastic also allows you to use a lot less fertilizer, such as manure, which can run off into the water systems and pollute those ecological systems.

(Note: This is how the majority of our local produce farmers set up their fields and is the most common practice for farmers using organic growing methods)

We don’t use a ton of pesticides, and we do not use any systemic pesticides (Systemic pesticides are those that are absorbed by plants, so that as insects eat the plant, they die. This is what is used by most conventional farms). We use a biological approach. We get good insects to eat the bad insects.

We don’t have any official certifications, because our customers know our growing practices, so they pay us a fair price for the quality of the product without a sticker. Plus, there are a lot of things that are considered “organic” that are not necessarily good for people or the environment. When I went ot college, I did a minor in entomology (the study of insects), specifically focused on agriculture. I did a prestigious internship at Disney, where I learned all the IPM methods.

Could you tell us a little more about the people who work at your farm?

Most of our employees have been with us 10+ years. Then we will hire in some seasonal workers to help with the harvests, etc. All of our people are making $20+ per hour.

We make every effort possible to avoid using the independent contractor system. The independent contractor system is broken. I see too many workers getting exploited and then I see farmers paying fines because they hired a company to bring workers onto their farm but that company was not following the law, and then the farmer gets fined for it. We have had some of our own bad experiences there,e so we stay away from it.

Run me through the trucking logistics? When is the product harvested, packed and shipped to our warehouse in Philly?

We'll send you guys a list on Monday/Tuesday. Depending on the crop, we are picking on Wednesday/Thursday and sometimes early Friday morning. The truck leaves our farm around midday on Friday and arrives with you on Monday. I’m really proud of that turnaround for your customers, given that we are in Florida. If you guys are delivering Tuesday - Thursday, that is about a 4 - 6 day turnaround from harvest to your customer’s door.

In a normal supermarket, the farmer picks the produce when it's ready, but does not have the sale lined up, so it sits for 2-3 days before being sent to the distributor. Then it's in transit for a couple of days, then it sits with the distributor for a couple of days. It goes to the supermarket’s regional warehouse, where it sits for a couple of days before going out to the supermarket, where it sits for another couple of days. At that point, the customer receives it between 12 and 18 days after it was harvested. So we are talking about a supply chain that is 3 times fresher than what is in typical grocery stores.

Our customers primarily come to us for local produce. You guys are in Florida. What is the difference between your produce and produce that people would find in the grocery stores in Philly? Why should people be excited about it?

We have a relationship with you. Before we even pick your order, we are sending you what's available. We are picking directly for you. Everything is much more controlled. It's not hitting four different distribution hubs. It's a more direct relationship and approach. You are more in control. If we have a problem, we will resolve it. From a food safety perspective, we can track down any produce. If there is a large nationwide recall on lettuce or something, that isn’t going to impact your customers because you can trace your produce.

Through their (your customers) relationship with you and your relationship with us, they are in community with the people growing the food. It's not a CSA, but you are part of a community. You can ask questions. You know where your produce is coming from, and you know it's fresh.

I know your passion for food extends beyond just farming. It's also about increasing access to healthy food for more people. Can you tell me about your work in Afghanistan, as well as the grocery store you are working on?

Afghanistan - At the time, I was doing some consulting in the hemp and medical marijuana space. I was initially contacted by a previous prime minister to help them diversify their agriculture away from all of the opium they were growing. At that time, I wasn't particularly passionate about anything, and this felt like a great opportunity to meet new people and solve a new problem. This was before the US pulled out. Then the US pulled out, and there was massive food insecurity. Hyperinflation. Afghanistan is landlocked and reliant on its surrounding countries to import goods into the country.

Well then, it made sense to look at Hemp grain. It's high protein. High in omega-3, 6, and 9. We trained a large number of farmers and developed a comprehensive value-added system around it. They also liked it because it was a closed ecosystem that did not require imports.

The organization was called HempAid. We started fortofying bread. Now we are in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have had to navigate a lot of variables.

Rural Florida Food Deserts - Here in Florida, the deputy director of health is from Greenville, Florida, which is a small, economically depressed town. She went ot school, got her PHD, and wanted to give back to her community. There is no grocery store, but it's a big ag town. I saw this opportunity to explore different approaches to providing people with access to fresh produce on a small scale. If you can solve the problem on a small scale, then you can amplify the solution. So far, we have emphasized spending time with people in the community. We run a farmers' market twice per month. Our plan is to open the grocery store in 6 months. We have a 3-year contract.

In Phase 2, once we are in the grocery store, we can start doing value-added packaging for farm-to-school programs. We are hoping that through this grocery store, we will build relationships with the community. Then, if we move V+B farms into Greenville, Florida, there are people we can hire and trust. Food is the basis of community. Food is how you build strong networks.