Will work for food - Local farmers in Washtenaw County grow their passion, cultivate their lives

A lucent sunset provides a stunning backdrop for the Tantré Farm barn in Chelsea.
Photo Credit: Tantré Farm

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Two years ago, Jeff Tenza, life-long resident, would describe a typical day in his life in this manner: each morning he’d punch an alarm clock, pile into a car with his co-workers and commute upwards of 30 minutes to Brighton. Then he’d spend the next ten hours staring into a computer screen, analyzing fast-moving trends and researching start-up corporations for potential investment. At the end of the day, he barely had enough time to cook dinner. He felt drained.

Today, Tenza’s mantra could be: will work for food.

His life is moving in a different direction, at a slower pace. And he’s found a job that fills his days with camaraderie, laughter and fun.

“We do weed and sings. We learn songs, singing in rounds, taking turns,” he said. “It’s very beautiful and it feels amazing to get your hands in the dirt. Clean, healthy dirt. No chemicals.”

“It just feels really good to be out there. It’s what [human beings are] evolved to do.”

Tenza, 24, may be the face of a new generation of young farmers in Michigan. A lot has changed for Tenza in the past two years.

Michigan is changing too. Reeling from the fall-out of the automotive industry and an imploding state government, it’s hard for anyone who has lived in the Great Lakes State for more than a decade to see our state’s economy beyond the shadow cast by the Big Three. But there is light on the horizon.


“Agriculture in Michigan is on the grow,” said Jennifer Holton, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA). “It’s a bright spot in our economy that accounts for $71.3 billion annually and employs 24 percent of our work force.”

Tenza works as an apprentice for the Community Farm of Ann Arbor. He became interested in farming when he attended an event organized by the Ann Arbor District Library that focused on the importance of eating local.

Tenza describes the evening as a pivotal moment in his transition from desk job to farmhand. The panel featured distinguished researchers from the University of Michigan, chairpersons of local nonprofit organizations, even John Hieftje, Ann Arbor’s mayor. Most important that night for Tenza, the panel featured Paul Bantle and Annie Elder of the Community Farm of Ann Arbor.

“The way Paul and Annie would talk about growing food and their love of their community and their vision … just made me think, those are the people I want growing my food,” he said.

“The way they would talk about their strategy for how to feed nutrients to the plants, and how they can make sure [the crops are] the best they can be by maintaining the soil so the planet is heeling, I fell in love right there.”

The Community Farm of Ann Arbor is based on a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. CSAs are unique in the fact that they are in part owned and operated by members of the surrounding community. The ownership extends to every aspect of the farm, even budgeting and growing decisions.

Members purchase “shares” up front at the beginning of a season, usually in late winter or early spring, and then agree to devote service hours over the course of the year to help out with crops and the maintenance of the farm. In exchange they receive weekly shares of fresh produce.

“There’s a difference between a carrot you buy at a grocery store and carrot you get at a local CSA because how they’ve taken care of the soil and also the number of miles its traveled,” Tenza said.

He explained that the carrot someone is likely to find at a grocery store in Michigan is grown on a conventional large-scale farm that uses massive industrialization to achieve results.

Fossil fuels are used to ship the crops—often thousands of miles—to run the large machinery, create synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and in the packaging process. And all of the latter have a detrimental impact on our environment, which in turn negatively impacts public health.

Tenza’s claims have been evidenced by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems and the Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Paul Mercer, 23, apprentice at Tantré Farm CSA in Chelsea, shares Tenza’s apprehension regarding the reach of conventional large-scale farming. He centers his own distrust with the average American’s willingness to blindly eat what is placed before them.

“Growing up I felt a disconnect with the food I was eating, maybe even in a larger sense with the whole food system,” Mercer said.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone is thinking about the security of our food system, having to truck things all the way from the West Coast, having these giant farms growing all the food for so many people.”

Mercer wants to start his own farm in the near future. He is in the process of seeking land in Washtenaw County.

“You are involved with sustaining your own life," he said. "You’re having a direct connection with what you eat and that really appeals to me.”

On small-scale farms like Tantré Farm and the Community Farm of Ann Arbor that practice organic farming, excessive chemicalization and mechanized agriculture are replaced by quality compost and proven farming techniques.

According to Tenza, particular varieties of fruits or vegetables grown on large-scale farms are selected because they are capable of mass production and handling.

“On an local CSA farm you’re more likely to find what are called heirloom varieties of crops that are bred for nutrition and taste, but maybe they don’t ship on planes well, or maybe they’re easily bruised by machines or maybe they don’t look perfect, but they’re much better for you,” Tenza said.

Tenza and Mercer are sold on the merits of local agriculture for mind and body, even the environment, but readers might be surprised by how eating local can be a catalyst for economic revitalization—and that’s something everyone in Michigan is hungry for.

“Most people don’t realize that spending $10 per week on local Michigan agriculture products keeps $40 million circulating in our economy,” said Holton of MDA.

Jeff McCabe, founder of Repasts, Present and Future, a local community-driven organization dedicated to the support of local food access and awareness, will roll-out a campaign to set a 10 percent local goal for all residents of Washtenaw County at the annual Local Food Summit in March.

“We eat probably less than one percent of our food from Washtenaw County,” McCabe said. “Washtenaw County eats roughly a billion dollars worth of food a year, and less than 10 million comes from the county.”

McCabe estimates that increasing the percentage to his goal of 10 percent, would account for an extra $90 million in our economy.

“In one way, 10 percent sounds crazy, impossible,” he said. “It’s 10 times the level where we are now, but I’m not saying one-hundred percent either.”

CSAs in Washtenaw County like the Community Farm of Ann Arbor, Tantré Farm and Brines Farm also sell their produce retail at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.

Repasts, Present and Future runs a breakfast salon for local food out of the home of McCabe and his wife Lisa Gottlieb on Ann Arbor’s Old-West Side Friday mornings.

Roughly 100 people congregate each week for FridayMornings@SELMA. The ingredients are sourced locally, the food preparation and serving assistance are all done by volunteers and the cost of a meal is only a suggested donation.

“We’re celebrating food now in the present for the benefit of all these local farmers and producers we have here,” he said. “The idea is to make sure the people that are doing all this pioneering work and battling against government subsidies for large-scale farms are being rewarded.”

Proceeds from the breakfast are used to fund loans to new farmers for the construction of hoophouses (21st century greenhouses). The loans require no down payment and feature interest rates between 3 and 4 percent.

“They can start growing food in it right away. As they make money, they can start to repay that loan and the money can go back to fund another farm,” McCabe said. “It’s not all that attractive to someone looking to make a profit; we’re just trying to facilitate more local farming.”

It’s in this spirit of community and social innovation that local agriculture continues to grow in Washtenaw County.

For Tenza, perhaps Henry David Thoreau captured it best when he remarked upon his own experience at Walden Pond as a time “to live deliberately.”

“We can’t just have convenience, can’t always have the end result,” Tenza said. “You’ve got to work for it, and that really enriches our lives. Work is necessary for humans. It’s built into us. We’ll never really get away from it.”