Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms



Tim Fuller helps run Erehwon Farm, one of a growing number of community-sponsored farms in the United States. More Photos >

By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: July 10, 2008

CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms.

Farm-Grown Produce On one of the farms, here about 35 miles west of Chicago, Steve Trisko was weeding beets the other day and cutting back a shade tree so baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr. Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the four-acre Erehwon Farm.

“We decided that it’s in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,â€