Future of Skagit farming celebration at Lincoln Theatre last Thursday

What do you get when you combine one of the most successful food coops in the state donating $100,000 to probably the most successful farm incubator organizations in the nation? A guaranteed and growing food supply to co-op customers and discerning shoppers throughout the Skagit Valley and beyond.

On Jan. 26 some 400 co-op members and farmers filled Mount Vernon 's Lincoln Theatre to celebrate the partnership between the Skagit Valley Food Co-op and Viva Farms.

The evening started with local foods and beer in the lobby before a 90-minute program ended with members of the co-op board symbolically passing an oversized styrofoam check to a handful of Viva Farms trained farmers. In between there was lots of information shared by Co-op General Manager Tony White, Board President Tom Theisen, Viva Farms Executive Director Mike Frazier, Operations Manager Rob Smith and four program farmers graduates, all successfully growing vegetables and making a living farming.

Theisen explained the Co-op's decided not to buy a farm 23 years ago but has long considered securing its food supply by owning a farm. Investment instead went into buying their building, the next door building and 55 offering spaces, paying the mortgage early and opening a restaurant. In the last two years the board agreed securing a local food supply was critical.

Frazier defined Viva Farms as a bi- lingual farm and training organization and traced its growth from nine farmers on five acres in 2009 to 104 on 33 acres last year. He described Skagit County as one of the last fully agricultural counties in the region, with a local economy supplying equipment, feed, fertilize and seed. Still, he said, 56% of farmland has been lost since 1940 and 76% of farmers are expected to retire in the next 10 years. He asked, "Who is going to grow our food? How are we going to eat?"

Skagit's future was highlighted with farmer interviews with operations manager Smith.

In three questions and answers sessions with farmers Francisco Farias of Farias Farm, Matt and Giana Cioni, The Crows Farm and Jacob Slosberg, Boldly Grown Farm, each shared their challenges and growth, which was more than plants in the ground. Slosberg noted, "What will keep us growing is more demand. It is amazing how much produce the Skagit produce department sells."

A woman farmer in the audience gave a testimonial at the end, saying from her 40 years of growing, "The reason it works is because the produce department staff cares. They have to deal with 30 or 40 of us, not like Hagens, where a semi-trailer pulls in."

At the evening's end, the words on the screen above a farm field were "There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. – Margaret Wheatley."