Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/943494
112 Georgaklis, founder of Farmers to You, has made our food system his life's work. For seven years, he's been linking people directly to the food they buy and the farmers who grow it. Operating out of central Vermont, Farmers to You uses a community-supported agriculture (CSA) model to bring locally and regionally produced dairy, meat, fish, grains, produce, and pantry items, among other foodstuffs, to residents in Vermont and Massachusetts. Georgaklis's idea is to take away the ambi- guity of our food's origins, which often begin Greg thousands of miles away. "I felt that the miss- ing piece was a market for sustainably farmed products. Supermarkets struggled to integrate them into their large-scale food system," he explains, noting that small farmers, in par- ticular, struggle to turn a profit when selling through chain markets; they get 12 to 19 cents on every dollar. rough Farmers to You, they earn 60 cents per dollar. "at's what people don't see about the food system—farmers pay for distribution, handling, and brick-and-mor- tar costs. And they typically get paid only for what gets sold; everything else is thrown away and they get charged back for it." At the start, Georgaklis figured families would Top, A custom order from Farmers to You runs about $40. Opposite, Farmers to You founder Greg Georgaklis and organic whole wheat bread from Red Hen Baking Co. PHOTOGRAPHS BY H.B. WILCOX, JENNIFER BAKOS (OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP LEFT)