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Emma Jagoz is a first-generation farmer, and the founder of Moon Valley Farm—a community-based farm in Woodsboro, Maryland. Since July, Moon Valley Farm and The Farmlink Project have worked together to bring almost five thousand pounds of fresh cucumbers, beets, watermelons, onions, squash, peppers, and more to the nearby Piscataway Tribe. “It was a no brainer,” Emma says about the collaboration. “It was something that just worked for many reasons—we had extra produce, and I loved the idea of getting it into the hands of the Tribe Members.”
Emma founded Moon Valley Farm in 2011 with the mission of providing bountiful nutritious food to the Mid-Atlantic community. She’s done so while raising two kids, who she hopes find as much purpose and meaning in the process as she does. The farm, which started with twelve Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members and a quarter acre under cultivation, has since grown to serve 500 members and over 50 local restaurants on 25 acres of land.
Through every step of that growth, Emma and the Moon Valley Farm team have stayed true to their commitment to stewarding the land responsibly. “It’s so important for us as humans to treat our soil with respect, and recognize that it’s an integral part of our health in many ways,” she says. “It feels especially crucial around the Chesapeake Bay, as any chemicals we would put into the soil would go directly into that waterway.” All of their crops—from giant purple turnips to fiery red peppers—are grown using organic and regenerative methods.
To Emma, sustainable farming goes beyond the field. “Organic growth also entails supporting local producers, watching our ecological footprint, and making sure the local community is fed,” she says. In March, when grocery store shelves grew barren and local families didn’t feel safe going out to shop, Moon Valley Farm started offering CSA shares—a subscription for weekly produce boxes—several weeks earlier than usual. “Even though there wasn’t all that much fresh food, we still had carrots and sweet potatoes growing,” Emma says. “We also partner with several farms to increase our winter offerings, so we had things like mushrooms and beans to offer to our members.” The farm started selling à la carte shares and home delivery as well for anyone who needed it.
Though the threat of restaurants closing down and losing wholesale customers was present early on, Moon Valley Farm CSA memberships skyrocketed as the area went into lockdown. “We had 250 CSA members last year and in just about a week in March, we doubled to 500,” Emma says. “We’ve continued delivering to restaurants throughout the entire pandemic—some that we sell to commit their business models to feed hospital workers or to make lunches for essential workers, so we continued to provide food to any partners who needed it.”
Emma’s goal for Moon Valley Farm is to be able to provide her community with an abundance of nutrient dense food every day of the year. Though 2020 has posed formidable challenges and plenty of uncertainty, the flexibility and unwavering commitment of the Moon Valley Farm team have taken it as an opportunity to make an even more meaningful impact.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
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The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackEmma Jagoz is a first-generation farmer, and the founder of Moon Valley Farm—a community-based farm in Woodsboro, Maryland. Since July, Moon Valley Farm and The Farmlink Project have worked together to bring almost five thousand pounds of fresh cucumbers, beets, watermelons, onions, squash, peppers, and more to the nearby Piscataway Tribe. “It was a no brainer,” Emma says about the collaboration. “It was something that just worked for many reasons—we had extra produce, and I loved the idea of getting it into the hands of the Tribe Members.”
Emma founded Moon Valley Farm in 2011 with the mission of providing bountiful nutritious food to the Mid-Atlantic community. She’s done so while raising two kids, who she hopes find as much purpose and meaning in the process as she does. The farm, which started with twelve Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members and a quarter acre under cultivation, has since grown to serve 500 members and over 50 local restaurants on 25 acres of land.
Through every step of that growth, Emma and the Moon Valley Farm team have stayed true to their commitment to stewarding the land responsibly. “It’s so important for us as humans to treat our soil with respect, and recognize that it’s an integral part of our health in many ways,” she says. “It feels especially crucial around the Chesapeake Bay, as any chemicals we would put into the soil would go directly into that waterway.” All of their crops—from giant purple turnips to fiery red peppers—are grown using organic and regenerative methods.
To Emma, sustainable farming goes beyond the field. “Organic growth also entails supporting local producers, watching our ecological footprint, and making sure the local community is fed,” she says. In March, when grocery store shelves grew barren and local families didn’t feel safe going out to shop, Moon Valley Farm started offering CSA shares—a subscription for weekly produce boxes—several weeks earlier than usual. “Even though there wasn’t all that much fresh food, we still had carrots and sweet potatoes growing,” Emma says. “We also partner with several farms to increase our winter offerings, so we had things like mushrooms and beans to offer to our members.” The farm started selling à la carte shares and home delivery as well for anyone who needed it.
Though the threat of restaurants closing down and losing wholesale customers was present early on, Moon Valley Farm CSA memberships skyrocketed as the area went into lockdown. “We had 250 CSA members last year and in just about a week in March, we doubled to 500,” Emma says. “We’ve continued delivering to restaurants throughout the entire pandemic—some that we sell to commit their business models to feed hospital workers or to make lunches for essential workers, so we continued to provide food to any partners who needed it.”
Emma’s goal for Moon Valley Farm is to be able to provide her community with an abundance of nutrient dense food every day of the year. Though 2020 has posed formidable challenges and plenty of uncertainty, the flexibility and unwavering commitment of the Moon Valley Farm team have taken it as an opportunity to make an even more meaningful impact.
Emma Jagoz
Founder of Moon Valley Farm
Emma Jagoz is a first-generation farmer, and the founder of Moon Valley Farm—a community-based farm in Woodsboro, Maryland. Since July, Moon Valley Farm and The Farmlink Project have worked together to bring almost five thousand pounds of fresh cucumbers, beets, watermelons, onions, squash, peppers, and more to the nearby Piscataway Tribe. “It was a no brainer,” Emma says about the collaboration. “It was something that just worked for many reasons—we had extra produce, and I loved the idea of getting it into the hands of the Tribe Members.”
Emma founded Moon Valley Farm in 2011 with the mission of providing bountiful nutritious food to the Mid-Atlantic community. She’s done so while raising two kids, who she hopes find as much purpose and meaning in the process as she does. The farm, which started with twelve Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members and a quarter acre under cultivation, has since grown to serve 500 members and over 50 local restaurants on 25 acres of land.
Through every step of that growth, Emma and the Moon Valley Farm team have stayed true to their commitment to stewarding the land responsibly. “It’s so important for us as humans to treat our soil with respect, and recognize that it’s an integral part of our health in many ways,” she says. “It feels especially crucial around the Chesapeake Bay, as any chemicals we would put into the soil would go directly into that waterway.” All of their crops—from giant purple turnips to fiery red peppers—are grown using organic and regenerative methods.
To Emma, sustainable farming goes beyond the field. “Organic growth also entails supporting local producers, watching our ecological footprint, and making sure the local community is fed,” she says. In March, when grocery store shelves grew barren and local families didn’t feel safe going out to shop, Moon Valley Farm started offering CSA shares—a subscription for weekly produce boxes—several weeks earlier than usual. “Even though there wasn’t all that much fresh food, we still had carrots and sweet potatoes growing,” Emma says. “We also partner with several farms to increase our winter offerings, so we had things like mushrooms and beans to offer to our members.” The farm started selling à la carte shares and home delivery as well for anyone who needed it.
Though the threat of restaurants closing down and losing wholesale customers was present early on, Moon Valley Farm CSA memberships skyrocketed as the area went into lockdown. “We had 250 CSA members last year and in just about a week in March, we doubled to 500,” Emma says. “We’ve continued delivering to restaurants throughout the entire pandemic—some that we sell to commit their business models to feed hospital workers or to make lunches for essential workers, so we continued to provide food to any partners who needed it.”
Emma’s goal for Moon Valley Farm is to be able to provide her community with an abundance of nutrient dense food every day of the year. Though 2020 has posed formidable challenges and plenty of uncertainty, the flexibility and unwavering commitment of the Moon Valley Farm team have taken it as an opportunity to make an even more meaningful impact.
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