Why Donate to Red Tomato?

Who better to answer this question than a Red Tomato farmer? Read this story about a new Red Tomato grower, Alex Tonetta. We think it speaks volumes to the value Red Tomato brings to small and medium sized growers in the Northeast.

Alex Tonetta was at the end of his rope.

He looked with silent distress at his fields of lettuce, greens, squash and herbs - fields his father and grandfather tilled before him, yet for over ten years he'd been stymied in his efforts to get his crops to market.  Time and again he had to plow his crops under. It would have cost him more to pick them than the price he was offered.  Alex loves farming. It's in his blood.  But he couldn't go on losing money every year. He asked himself, "How much longer can I hold out?"

It's not that Alex doesn't grow top-quality vegetables.  His lettuce is gorgeous, and he deeply knows his stuff. And his farm is located only two hours from New York City, with an enormous unmet demand for local, ecological produce. Alex's problem is familiar to many farmers - and it's our problem, too.

Like most of his farm neighbors, he sells his produce wholesale into a food system in which distributors and retailers hold the power. He has little say in whether his vegetables get to market, and no say on price. The only power he holds is whether to harvest and sell, or not, at the going market rate. In the cutthroat world of produce commodities, it's nearly impossible for a small Northeastern farmer to differentiate his or her tomatoes or apples from those from California or Chile or China - and so the lowest price is often the determining factor. 

As a result, we are rapidly losing our mid-size local family farms. Over 32,000 such farms - many just like Alex's - have permanently disappeared in the past five years. Our food system is broken.  It's been called a threat to our nation's security. But a sustainable food system is possible, and it's already being built.

In the winter of 2008, Alex Tonetta met Red Tomato. Red Tomato's aim is a new system that allows local farms to survive. 95% of Americans don't have regular access to farmers' markets or CSAs or farmstands, but they do want and deserve to eat fresh and delicious local food.   Connecting farmers and consumers is what we do. It may not be glamorous, but it's critical to the survival of family farms - and to the availability of fresh, healthy and delicious local food in our grocery stores.

If you ask Alex "What's the most important job on the farm?" his answer might surprise you: "At the top of the list is implementing a marketing strategy that makes my farm and my products stand out.  This is really important."

To change this picture, we need teamwork: hardworking and talented family farmers like Alex partnering with the marketing and logistics expertise of Red Tomato, and the third member of this team - you. We need your support to make our goal of a family-farm, locally-based, ecological, fair trade food system a reality. It's beginning to work: last year we brought over $3 Million of locally-grown fresh produce to consumers, while helping farmers survive and collaborating with them as full partners - as strategists and price-setters as well as providers.

We can't do this without you!  Two-thirds of Red Tomato's nonprofit budget comes from gifts and grants for our research on cutting-edge ecological pest management, food safety, farm labor, packaging design, and our work with other organizations across the country who are trying to build a sustainable local food system in their communities.

Red Tomato's mission is not lost on Alex: "What Red Tomato is doing is key.  If you can make marketing work for this farm, we'll be here for the future."

Please make a gift today, and work with us to bring hope to family farms, and to consumers, throughout the Northeast.  Alex Tonetta's future, and our access to good food, depends on it.

Sincerely,

Michael Rozyne

Co Director