Over the past month we’ve expanded our understanding of community-supported agriculture (CSA) through a traumatic but ultimately uplifting experience that finds us today with 25 cattle back on the ground, money in the bank, food on the table, and good health running through our veins. We have known for some time the beauty and security of a CSA solidarity economy, but the past month’s crisis tested the model and found it flourishing. This is a piece about solidarity and gratitude.
The renewed herd…
After arriving home in January to 15 dead and dying cattle, we swung into action, with immediate amazing support from our beautiful community. When I wrote about that less than three weeks ago, we were hopeful our livelihood would be maintained, albeit with a very lean year ahead. My beloved family had already come forward by that stage to help us pay off the now-dead cattle to help put us on the path to be able to buy new ones, a generous show of support very gratefully received.
And then the cascade of kindnesses became a waterfall.
Our friends Nats & Jono at Brooklands Free Range Farms offered us a soon-to-be-born calf to start rebuilding our herd when weaned. Tears.
Our cattle breeder Ian rang to sort out how he could get us some more cattle on the ground as soon as possible, knowing we only slaughter cattle over two years old, and that out of the eight remaining from the original herd, only three would be over two before mid-year. He also knew that we couldn’t afford to simply replace the cattle immediately (Stuart’s truck engine had to be replaced in November to the tune of $15,000, so this crisis came off the back of existing financial stress…), Ian offered us terms, delaying payments until July 2020 for cattle delivered immediately. And he found eight heifers and cows three years and older that he was happy to move on, and then sold them to us at the price we normally pay him for weaners. We remain floored by this generosity and love for what we’re trying to do at Jonai Farms, and just so grateful it’s hard to express in words.
Long-standing CSA members John, Monica, and Alice offered to switch from monthly payments to up front annual payments immediately (one offering five years up front – we accepted two!), and Alice signed up nearly a workshop full of friends, with others answering the call to book in for this year’s workshops as well.
Another very dear friend Tanya made the incredibly generous move to send some of her hard-earned cash to buy more cattle, and many others also signed up for workshops, while one of my dearest old friends Shelley turned up to help tan the hides we saved from the on-farm slaughter.
Yet another farming comrade Nick of Belvedere Farm offered to host a workshop on his farm as a fundraiser for the Jonai and to spread the good word of degrowth and ethical meat literacy.
Others have shared our workshops with their networks and sent messages of care and support. Many hugs, dozens of shared meals, and lots of collaborative problem solving have been enjoyed, giving us much-needed emotional succor in addition to the financial and logistical aid we’ve received.
Unbelievably, all of this adds up to us already back on our feet at the end of just one very stressful month. We have supply to meet our degrowth numbers we moved to over last year for the entirety of 2020. The relief is palpable at the dinner table, as is the neverending feeling of gratitude reverberating through our hearts and all the way to the tips of our calloused fingers. If we hadn’t been a CSA, this would be a different post. If we hadn’t been fortunate enough to be part of an incredible community like this one, where relationships matter more than transactions, this would be a different post.
I firmly believe that gratitude is the enemy of entitlement. I don’t suffer from wondering what we did to deserve the bad things that happen or believing we’ve ‘earned’ our good fortune where others must suffer. I know that Stuart and I were both born into privileged families, and we have not wasted our privilege – living rich and rewarding lives, while endeavouring to use our privilege to help others.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to contribute more than I take, and this recent crisis could have left us in a very different position were it not for others who are similarly committed to community, to food sovereignty, to friendship, to family, and to a future with sufficiency for all. We aren’t entitled to any of this glorious goodness raining down on us – we’re just incredibly grateful for it. Thank you all so very very much.
Together we’ve got this.
