San Javier Economic Development

Activity: Continued work to improve CSA Jardin Jesuita

Contribution planned: Car maintenance for Foundation staff; staff time at the San Javier farm site and as needed at CSA member gatherings

Jardin Jesuita is a family-run farm located behind the San Javier Mission. The Bastida family has been tilling the fertile soil there for generations, producing robust crops of fruits and vegetables for the community. In May 2019, Jardin Jesuita committed to a community-supported agriculture (CSA) enterprise, agreeing to its part in a system for subscribing consumers to the harvest of a certain farm. During the winter growing season of 2019-2020, the Jardin Jesuita CSA received start-up financial support from Keep Loreto Magical. 

The main reason for giving this support is that farmers in the community of San Javier have been taking their families away from lands traditionally used for agriculture; now mining interests have moved in to buy these lands for purposes that are potentially unhealthy for the water, air or soil. 

To provide economic support so that Jardin Jesuita can remain a provider of fresh fruits and vegetables in our community, thirteen families pre-paid a 24-week membership that yields them a weekly basket of produce on condition that, along with distributing the baskets in Loreto, they volunteer hours at the farm for transplanting, weeding and harvesting. This payment allowed Jardin Jesuita to reimburse the foundation for its CSA start-up funds.

Luis Bastida (owner of the farm), CSA members and Cecilia Fischer met to launch the season, agreeing that both farmer and members would be learning how to communicate and manage expectations during the six months of their relationship. Accordingly, on each weekly produce delivery date and during the week, the farmer and the consumers are in dialogue, coaching one another on what improvements can be made for a better vegetable and fruit basket while the season is still underway.

Cecilia Fischer is the go-between in this dynamic that is referred to as a programa de acompanamiento (program of accompaniment or personal coaching). This year the coaching will continue for the purpose of assuring that Jardin Jesuita can be self-sustaining—that is, have the best chance of solidifying its presence in the local organic market with less reliance on the members and on the Keep Loreto Magical Foundation. Each time a farming family in San Javier creates a new entrepreneurship such as a CSA, they spur other farmers’ interest in going back to the land and strengthen the voices urging protection of water in the San Javier Ejido, which currently is facing the menacing mining interests of Grupo Mexico.