On a sunny and pleasant spring afternoon, while my husband and I were sowing greens and transplanting heads of lettuce, a local reporter showed up at our farm. He was a young man, working for a suburban newspaper and researching an article about the rising cost of fuel and its effects on the small enclaves of agriculture still left in our area of Northern Virginia. His main question: How are rising fuel prices affecting our farm business?

We both paused in thought and struggled to come up with a clear answer.

True, gas prices are higher, and some of our annual supplies, like quart containers and five-gallon buckets now cost a bit more, but these are not our main expenses. In our gardens, the human-scale, hand-intensive system is not very gas consumptive. The little machinery we own, like a weed whacker, lawn mower and tractor, are used on a limited basis, each about once a week. We use well-built hand tools for the majority of the tilling and planting in our gardens; and with animals grazing the large fields of pasture on the farm, we can minimize the mowing.

Still, we can not claim that we are fossil fuel free. Local food systems have the potential to use even less fossil fuel. Probably the biggest amount of fuel is consumed when our members drive here to pick up their veggies. Carpooling to pick up the shares can really save on gas. If members cluster, cooperate, and share pick up duties (or take a nice bike ride), they are helping to create the foundation for a less fuel-dependent CSA system.

Our CSA share cost has become competitive with grocery store food prices

Contrary to conventional big agriculture where fossil fuel is a prerequisite for doing business, fuel costs are not front-and-center in our operation. So, while higher fuel prices lead to more expensive food everywhere, our CSA share cost has become competitive with grocery store food prices for veggies and fruits trucked in from far away-places.  Plus, with people less inclined to take expensive vacations, a beautiful local experience adds tremendously to the value of any CSA share.