WAVERLY, Minn. — Supply chain uncertainties may stretch into the summer months, which means more people may be turning to their local farmer for fresh produce.
"It was incredible, I think that was one of the first times in this country that people had to actually think when they saw all of those empty shelves in the super markets or the shelves that were only a third full. They began to really think 'is there going to be food this summer is there going to be what we like to eat?'" said Jerry Untiedt, who has been farming for more than five decades and is the owner of Untiedt's Vegetable Farm in Waverly, Minnesota.
Jerry says he's never seen anything quite like the start of the supply chain issues stemming from the 2020 pandemic.
"They came out of the woodwork looking for fresh and local and the ability to get closer to their food supply," Jerry said.
That year, Untiedt's Vegetable Farm had more people than ever signing up to join their CSA program, also known as Community Supported Agriculture, where essentially you pay a flat rate up front in the spring and for 17 weeks you get a variety of farm fresh produce.
In this case at Untiedt's, a family share is $540 dollars for 17 weeks. That comes to about $32 a week.
"The local food community is tremendously important and will continue to be more and more important as we continue down that road of supply interruptions," Jerry said.
With more sticker shock on store shelves, more people are looking to buy directly from one of the 80 CSA farms in Minnesota.
Jerry says they are starting to see their CSA numbers grow, since people are looking to have some food security during these uncertain times.
"When you're bringing in food from so many places around the world and you know they are interrupted by climatological conditions," Jerry said. "We're looking at some severe climate change in many parts of the world, we're looking a interruptions due to political upheavings. You look at this situation in Ukraine and we're affected directly by that."
Untiedt's has had many Ukrainian guest workers working on his farm for years.
They are still waiting on a few of their families that are still stuck in Ukraine and in Europe to safely arrive in Minnesota.
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