Program Areas
Interactive Area
Site Information
a community farming cooperative
GROWN Locally - Our Farming Cooperative
GROWN
Locally
History
GROWN Locally started at a field day in April of 1998 when a group of northeast Iowa farmers came together to explore ways of diversifying their farms, growing crops which could be marketed locally and to find a way to do all this in a manner that would allow cooperation instead of competition. The first meeting was at Sunflower Fields; the mosquitoes were thicker than hair on a dog, but they could not deter the interest which began to develop among the attendees. It was decided to set a regular meeting time and continue to develop the common threads which were discovered that evening.
The first year was a time of meetings, planning, forming a legal structure - a limited membership farming cooperative - and developing a method to begin to achieve the goal of marketing fresh, locally grown produce to area insititutions such as nursing homes, hospitals, schools and restaurants.
During the first three years, the group of 9 original producers were intent on growing and marketing locally - with some success - but the most important development was the realization of how important the idea of cooperation really was. As the work progressed toward a fairly stable list of buyers and enough product worthy of sales, the group grew stronger and began to rely on the contributions of each member and not just on their own individual eforts.
Today, GROWN Locally is 14 grower/members strong and through successful SARE and Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship grants have instituted an online ordering system, a processing facility for light processing of vegetables as well as processed product development and has now included Sunflower Fields Farm Shares - formerly Sunflower Fields CSA - within the cooperative. In addition, GROWN Locally now includes the GROWN Locally Food Basket, a new online system for area families to be able to order what they need, when they need it and in the amounts in which the products are needed directly from GROWN Locally.
Through hard work, diligence and progress via "baby steps," GROWN Locally has begun to develop into a viable business within the local northeast Iowa region. The goals of diversity, fair prices for farmers, localized markets, cooperation, success for small and medium sized farms and the opportunity for more local farms to have access to regional markets has begun to be addressed. There is a long way to go, but the grower/producers of GROWN Locally are proud of the success they have had and look forward to a future of deepening markets and many more participating farmers.