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Willow Ridge Organic Farm

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Background on farmer referred to in the complaint:I am not a company or orgaization as such, but a certified organic farmer for forty two yearsI was a volunteer for the State of Wisconsin during the eighties farm crisis and watched hundreds of good Wisconsin farmers loose their farmsSo, when I
discovered the concept of C.S.A(Community Supported Agriculture), I was encouraged by a system of support for agriculture. For the last sixteen years I have lectured and promoted CSA as a way to generally support all small farms and their farmersPlease see my websitewww.willowridgeoranicfarm.com, the video on CSA, and the tab "the history of agriculture"I believe that because CSA is an unusual business arrangement based on customer support of a philosophy, ignorance of the system itself is what generated this complaintThis is a system beyond the usual commercial arrangement, so the following gives some background on the concept of CSA to better understand this situation.Background on the CSA concept:Although it's definitely new to some, CSA has grown substansially throughout the U.S( estimated to be about 4,farms) and grown substantially as well in Chicagolandsixteen years ago, I began as one of twelve CSAs and there are now somewhere between eighty-five to ninety CSAs serving Chicagoland.Contrary to most commercial enterprizes, inherent in this system is the very basic premise of "shared benefits and shared risks". When I lectured about CSA, I often used the book Farms of Tomorrow Revisited "Community Supported Farms--Farm Supported Communities." written by Trauger Groh and Steve McFadden, keynote speaker at the December 2015, Midwest CSA Conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Farmers UnionBelow is an excerpt:As farming becomes more and more remote from the life of the average person, it becomes less and less able to provide us with life giving food or a clean, healthy, life giving environmentA small minority of farmers, laden with debt and overburdened with responsibility, cannot possibly meet the needs of all the peopleMore and more people are coming to recognize this, and they are becoming ready to share agricultural responsibilities with the active farmer. Primarily, this is a special concept allowing for a more direct relationship between a farmer, a farm, and the consumer, or member that prepays for a share in the season's harvestThis unique "business" or support relationship, takes that relationship beyond an ordinary business transaction.For instance, this is from the Local Harvest website under the CSA tab and under the heading SHARED RISKAs they say, they're "in touch with CSA members and farmers all over the country" and this is only one of many sites discussing the CSA conceptBelow are two excerpts from that page:There is an important concept woven into the CSA model that takes the arrangement beyond the usual commercial transactionThat is the notion of shared risk: in most CSAs, members pay up front for the whole season and the farmers do their best to provide an abundant box of produce each weekIf things are slim, members are not typically reimbursedThe result is a feeling of "we're in this together". Again from the Local Harvest website about an inexperienced shareholder's (Mr*** caution:In our experience, if the situation seems regrettable but reasonable, a bad thing that in good faith could have happened to anyone, most CSA members will rally, if they already know and trust the farmerThese people are more likely to take the long view, especially if they have received an abundance of produce in the pastThey are naturally more likely to think, "It'll be better next year," than there are new members who have nothing to which to compare a dismal experience. The take-home message is this: if the potential for "not getting your money's worth" makes you feel anxious, then shared risk may not be for you and you should shop at the farmers market.I beleive Mr*** became a shareholder, had a "dismal experience" also shared by this farmer and the entire group of shareholders this season but wasn't prepared to be"in this together"The relationship is supposed to last through the entire season, but, before the "body was cold" so to speak, and long before the season was even over, he was asking for a refund (8-email).In his compliant letter, he clearly states that: "this is my first CSA experience and I come into it not knowing anything". He is just the kind of "supporter" that is described above, "anxious", afraid of "not getting his money's worth"The advice on that site is good, the system itself, which includes the possibility of not only shared benefit but shared risk "may not be for you".I have reason to question Mr*** claim of total lack of information when he writes that he had: "come into it (the CSA relationship) not knowing anything." .I had six email conversations--starting on June 19th, and a couple of phone conversationsThat was over a period of over two weeks of conversation about signing up before he paid for his Mini share via Paypal on July 3rdIn order to fill out the sign up form for the season he had to have visited my website, on which there is a lot of information regarding this farmer, this farm, and on Community Supported Agriculture.Lastly, before Mr*** paid for his share, I assumed he must have shopped around and compared other CSA offerings, share sizes and pricesHe states he was "straight out of college" and that leads me to think he would, more thatn likely, do some online research on the concept of CSA, before he spent his entire budget for "vegetables for the summer" as he stated he had in an email on 8-21. He characterizes the newsletters I sent to the membership as "excuse after excuse" choosing to view my attempt to respect the membership's situation with ongoing communication as "excuses" instead of explanations and sincere reassurances.When we spoke over the phone, he asked how long the season might run and I told him that, in the past, I have sometimes been able to deliver right up to Thanksgiving--still he chose to ask for a refund on October 2nd, calling the CSA concept fraudulentOn that same date that he emailed and asked for a refund for his membership, he also sent a letter to the Revdex.com and to the Executive Director of my farmer's market, not even waiting for my reply.On receiving that email October 2nd, I put in a phone call to him immediately and explained that I had already said in a newsletter that no refund was possible and that the season's events had left me without money to operate at allI told him that other shareholders had to be considered and I could not refund him without also refunding all the others (an impossibility)I also reminded him that in one of those newsletters I sent out I considered being able to deliver shareboxes early in the season at no cost to make up for this season's problemsIn any event I am due to make a delivery the last weekend in October and as with the deliveries so far, everyone will get the size share that was the upgrade of what they actally paid forIn Mr*** case, his share size has and will be double from the base amount he paid.He says that he received out of the promised deliveriesWhen calculated that the deliveries were doubled to compensate for missed deliveries and adding next week's delivery in--they would total and be two thirds of the "promised" deliveries.In the excerpt from Local Harvest, such a failure is described as this:"In our experience, if the situation seems regrettable but reasonable, a bad thing that in good faith could have happened to anyone, most CSA members will rally, if they already know and trust the farmer ."This rallying has happened, for the most part, with the other over membersNobody likes to think they didn't get what they paid for--but I assure you my best farming efforts did not yield what I invested the shareholder dollars into and I am left, at this point, unable to operate.Mr*** said he bought a share in "good faith" and although I think he should have known more about the concept he was buying into, I believe we both made that attempt--I also have operated in good faithWhen this regrettable unfolding of events happened, we were, in a sense, "in it together".Right now, I am very compromised financiallyMy reputation is damaged although I have done everything possible to make things right with my shareholders that was within reasonIf Mr*** insists on making what he calls a "fraudulent" business suffer anymore "AND PASSING THE WORD AROUND SO THAT NOBODY ELSE FALLS INTO THE SAME TRAP" he will be hurting my attempts to at trying to restore a business that represents my life's work and the CSA concept as wellI am going to try to talk to him about his positions.If I could offer a refund to everyone involved, it would restore at least my overall image and I would gladly do itI am truly sorry that Mr*** experience was what it wasI certainly wanted to impress my shareholders, not engage them in this way.Sincerely,*** ** *** / Willow Ridge Organic Farm#*** *** * *** ** *** ***Please see the following:Background for the growing season:Last year, June 22nd a tornado struck my farm--(please see website)In early September, I had a serious "brush with death" (medflight to hospital and five days in ICU)Still I was able to keep going through that last seasonI left the hospital on a Wednesday and was delivering to my CSA, doing farmers market, and present at FArm Aid as a volunteer for The CSA coalition to do media.Many of the shareholders returned for this season and new sites were added on as wellI expected a great season and a good recovery from the stresses of (and so did my many returning shareholders).Instead this season presented a series of events that brought me to my kneesOne thing after another went haywireI'm seasoned at farming and the many challengesit presents, but this season was beyond what I could make work.First, in March, I fell in the incubating greenhouse and fractured my ribs ( a condition I worked through and never felt I had to share with my customers, but made it more difficult to do my work)The season's weather has been extremely problematicContinual hard rains and storms throughout the beginning.Then, although I had, in good faith, thought my tractor's transmission was fixed after a two thousand dollar mechanics bill in the fall of 2015, instead the transmission gave problems enough to make the tractor dangerous and I had to use and rent a neighbor's.Fixed the big tractor at a substantial cost in time and dollars and then the engine went out in my small tractor which had never been a problem.Then, an almost impossible glitch to find and which defied the refrigeration techs caused my walk in cooler to failThe cost was high in lost produce because the cooler kept failing repeatedly after good efforts to fix it and I thought it safe enough to load againIn an effort to save what I could, I shuffled produce back and forth to another cooler fourteen miles away, gave produce away to the local school and to a church for their free lunch programsI shoveled more produce into ditches and eventually threw out all the first efforts to fix the old system and put fourteen hundred dollars into a new systemI missed farmers markets along with CSA deliveries. Through this time I sent newsletters to the entire membership to update customers on the unfolding eventsWhen I delivered the CSA shares, I doubled or upgraded the share boxes so that each delivery was equivalent to two deliveries.Money became tighter and it became harder to pay the thousand dollars/week in labor and I was doing much more of the literal "heavy lifting" and physically wearing down.Then, mid-summer, on the way to deliver for the CSA and farmers market and two miles from Randall Rdoutside of Elgin, the engine blew in my Isuzu delivery truck. A U-haul had to be rented, the truck towed to Chicago, produce delivered to the doorstep of shareholders, and the revenue from the farmers market lost completely as I did "fire sale" efforts to wholesale out the produce that was going to spoil quickly.An attempt at installing a new engine proved to be unworkableAt first the mechanic thought it could be done for $I raised the money by contracting out the sale of timber in my woodsthen, the mechanic found he had made a mistake, the diesel engine for the truck would got to five to seven thousand to buy beyond the labor costs.I looked for bargain engines and did all the homework to save the Isuzu which was finally sold quickly and for very little to get it out the way of the mechanics limited parking area.I ended up finding a new/ used truck for the $but it took over ten days of hard shopping--heavy duty trucks were not flooding the market for the price I could afford.Because one of my shareholders (as a good faith gesture and meaning well but without notifying me first, scared the executive director of my market by asking if the farmers market itself could refund or give vouchers to cove the members investment) contacted the farmers market I had been at for nine years, helped to build, and depended on for continuing income, the executive director "effective immediately" took away my market privileges, and although I tried to plead with him to let me continue for the overall sake of the CSA and the farm, he did not relentThis left me with no possible way to generate income without a brand new system and no time to create one before the season was done.That was the point, at which, I tried to find other marketsI let my shareholders know that finding other markets would be tough since getting into any market so late in the season is almost not an option--there is really no process for itHowever, I tried and let my shareholders know at every turn what was happeningI also explained my own options--I had no way to refund any shareholders, and had no idea, without income, how I could go onI also pledged to try to find a way to make things up to the shareholders and suggested giving a few months of early produce in the upcoming season to offset their losses at no new cost to them

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