CAMDEN, N.J. (AFX) - It's hard to find enough green space here for a soccer field, let alone a farm.
So why is Farm Aid coming to this concrete-covered city known for crime, poverty and political corruption rather than a place known for corn, beans and hogs?
Camden, recently named the nation's poorest and most crime-ridden city, is at the center of a region full of small, family owned farms, strong farmland preservation efforts and people who care deeply about where the stuff they eat comes from.
'Our campaign is for farmers, whether they're living on a 500-acre corn farm in Iowa or a 1/2-acre sustainable farm in the heart of Philadelphia,' said Ted Quaday, Farm Aid's program director.
In 1985, when Willie Nelson and other musicians organized the first Farm Aid concert, farm values were plummeting, interest rates were skyrocketing and it was hard for many family farmers to keep their land. That crisis has passed and Farm Aid has turned its attention to less immediate, more esoteric causes such as enhancing food safety, preserving the environment and connecting consumers with farmers.
This year's Farm Aid concert is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 30 at the Tweeter Center, an amphitheater on the Camden waterfront. The concerts have helped the organization raise more than $29 million. They've been held in the Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh areas before, but never this deep into the Northeast.
The region has diverse crops. Hammonton, N.J. is billed as the 'Blueberry Capital of the World' and Kennett Square, Pa., claims to be the 'Mushroom Capital of the World.'
The region's farms are mostly relatively small, family run operations. Years ago, farmers in the Philadelphia area lost some of their big corporate buyers such as Campbell Soup, which still has its headquarters in Camden but no longer makes soup there -- and, thus, no longer buys so many New Jersey tomatoes by the ton. As a result, more farmers started selling directly to consumers.
'The more they can sell directly to consumers, the more of the food dollar they get to retain,' said Mark Smith, campaign director for Somerville, Mass.-based Farm Aid.
He said that when farmers sell their crops as a wholesale commodity, they end up getting an average of 9 cents out of every dollar, while stores, transportation companies, processors and others get the rest.
When farmers sell their own stuff to consumers, he said, they get 70 percent to 80 percent of the food dollar.
Shortening the supply chain from farmers to consumers is the main goal of New Jersey's Agriculture Department, which promotes a 'Jersey Fresh' brand for produce grown in the Garden State.
Marc Johnson's parents bought a farm in then-rural Medford, N.J. in 1953. When they began, they focused on raising sweet corn to sell wholesale. Eventually, the family owned about 100 acres and rented another 200 acres.
By the early 1980s, Johnson and his brother were getting out of college and it became clear that the commodity-based corn sales were not going to be enough to support their growing families.
So the business shifted. The little farm stand became a big center for what they call 'agritainment.'
They now have a carnival atmosphere and offer pick-your-own strawberries, pumpkins and apples. They sell everything they grow on site, have a bakery and even host children's' birthday parties.
While suburbanites are known to complain about their farming neighbors, whose jobs are often noisy and smelly, you won't hear Eric Johnson grumbling about the housing that now surrounds the farm -- even the 500 new homes planned for the area. Those newcomers will be customers, he said.
'It's changing the scenery pretty dramatically. On a personal level, we'd rather not see it,' he said. 'On a business level, I'm sure it will be a positive thing.'
Johnson's Corner Market does enough business to support 13 family members, including college tuition for two, Johnson said.
Farm markets and community-supported agriculture farms, which sell a season's worth of produce on a subscription basis, have become staples of life in the Philadelphia area.
The city's Reading Terminal Market is among the best-known farm markets in the nation. Plenty of suburbs have their own smaller markets one day a week. Two farmers markets have even popped up over the last decade across the Delaware River in Camden.
Even the growing of food is getting closer to the people.
Mary Seton Corboy, a former chef, started a farm eight years ago on a former Superfund contaminated site in Philadelphia.
She uses soil brought from New Jersey and hydroponic systems which to grow heirloom tomatoes, peppers and lettuce on the 3/4-acre farm situated among row houses, neighborhood bars and a steel galvanizing plant in the rough-and-tumble Kensington neighborhood.
A portion of the crops are taken to some of Center City Philadelphia's fanciest restaurants, which are only about three miles away. Others are sold by subscription or on the two-day-a-week market there to neighbors.
Corboy said her formerly skeptical neighbors have come to like having so much of their produce grown nearby. The outbreak of E. coli in bagged spinach found in supermarkets around the country this month is a good illustration of why.
'If you buy your food locally,' Corboy said, 'there's someone to point your finger at.'
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