The board of trustees of the Oberlin Sustainable Agricultural Project (OSAP) ended its farm’s full-time grower position at the end of last month. They also voted to move the farm from the property from its current location on Pyle-South Amherst Road to the College-owned Clark Farm (recently re-named Jones Farm) on Route 51. The farm, which is organic and community-supported, will be located on a much smaller parcel of land. This move comes with intentions to substantially limit farm production next year.

The board sent out a letter to its membership in late October explaining its decision to lay off full-time grower, Gerry Gross, an Elyria resident. The letter cited a large deficit as the board’s primary motivation. On Oct. 31, Iris Hunt, OSAP’s treasurer, predicted a $23,000 deficit at the end of this season. All payments were halted except for Gross’s salary.
According to Oberlin graduate and president of OSAP, Brad Masi, the move to the Jones Farm has been expected for years. “The property has been considered a temporary site all along,” he said.
The seeds of OSAP were first sown by the farm co-op, a student garden cooperative located in the arboretum. For one year a community garden existed there. In August 1995, two Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) members organized a town meeting to discuss the formation of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) endeavor.
CSA farms sell shares to community residents. In exchange, members can expect to reap the benefits of the season’s harvest. Community resident Bob Lodge attended this meeting and offered a portion of his property on Pyle-South Amherst Road.
OSAP originally signed a five-year lease, hoping to find land of its own on which a more permanent infrastructure, including irrigation systems and greenhouses, could be put into place. When the College bought the Jones Farm property, OSAP began to look into moving its farm there permanently.

The move was not, however, expected to be so dramatic. Former OSAP president and city councilman Ken Sloane explained that OSAP had been looking for a $500,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation to fund the move from the Lodge property to the Jones Farm. The grant, which never materialized, would have allowed the organization to continue operation of the farm on Pyle-South Amherst while making preparations at the Jones Farm. Without such a grant and, “given OSAP’s financial situation this year, we would not have been able to survive another year at the Lodge farm while at the same time preparing the Jones Farm for production,” Masi said. OSAP will instead abandon the farm on the Lodge property and begin very modest production at Jones Farm this spring.

Gross, who has been OSAP’s grower of four years, will not be a part of the organization’s future endeavors. He said he has felt frustrated with the board this year, perceiving exhaustion on their part that may have led to poor planning and the availability of fewer grants. Gross was laid off without unemployment benefits.
The board said that most of its deficit stemmed from a gross overestimate of the volume of produce the Campus Dining Service (CDS) would be purchasing this fall. Adriane Dellorco, the only student who sits on the board of OSAP, said that CDS isn’t necessarily to blame for the mistake. The dining service switched companies this year, and a firm commitment was never received from Bon Appetit to purchase the $15,000 in produce budgeted by OSAP.
Masi explained that the organization incurred many other “additional expenses” in order to “expand production to supply CDS.” OSAP “budgeted for a full-time farm assistant for six months out of the year and increased student help,” Masi said. “The additional projected sales would have covered the expenses above Gerry’s salary. However, given the deficit, we were unable to cover these additional expenses.”

Gross expressed sadness at having to leave the farm. “I was really committed and I didn’t want to leave OSAP.”
Despite being paid for 48 hours of work a week, Gross had generally worked from dawn till dusk, six to seven days a week. He said he took the job because it has always been a dream of his to “survive financially by growing vegetables organically.” In a world of industrial-scale commercial agriculture where the price of produce is next to nothing, such a dream is difficult to realize.
When asked what he would miss about working for OSAP, Gross replied, “Number one: the students. They’re free-spirited; that’s good for my morale. And they’re willing to work to learn.”
For next year, OSAP has plans for hiring a part-time grower who would be paid on commission. It also intends to solicit student volunteers and interns. Although nothing has been solidified, the farm plans to cultivate a small market garden, raise chickens for poultry and eggs and grow greenhouse lettuce and herbs. The board expects to see OSAP grow to as large as eight acres at the Jones Farm, projecting that this growth will occur over many years. OSAP will need to devote energy to building topsoil and developing farm infrastructure, a process that is both expensive and time consuming.