Farming and the Environment is embarking on creating a new food delivery system that will honor and financially reward farm families that are providing positive stewardship of the land, water, air, and native habitat in their farm environments. In this model system, F&E will help to create Communities of Stewardship Farms (CSFs) within a region and then connect these communities of farmers directly to urban markets including locally-based retail grocery chains, newly created stewardship farmers markets, and culinary professionals that desire local, sustainably grown products.

The Cooperative Communities Model

The purpose behind establishing communities of family stewardship farms is to create an effective delivery system that will accommodate the volume needs of retail and institutional buyers, provide for new stewardship-oriented farmers markets, and develop an infrastructure that creates opportunities for family farms to expand into value-added products. This system will also work to ensure a fair price for farmers, by working with communities and businesses that care about sustainable farms and rural communities.

Executive Director, Jeff Voltz, is working with an enthusiastic group of interested farm families to organize a CSF in the Okanogan, where farms are facing the greatest economic challenges.  Program staffer, Wendie Dyson, is working with the City of Des Moines to launch a Des Moines Farmers Market On the Waterfront this summer, 2006.  With Jeff's extensive grocery experience as former CEO of PCC Natural Markets, he continues to met with locally-based retail chains, including Penhollow Markets, PCC Natural Markets, Small Potatoes Urban Delivery, and Town and Country Markets to develop markets for Washington grown stewardship products.