My share of Robert Pierce’s farm began last week. It’s our annual Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share, which we buy in advance.

Mr. Pierce is a small-scale farmer at various plots along the southern tier of Madison, Wisconsin, and his produce is affordable and really good. What buying from him does that’s significant for the purposes of this blog, is to combine various food-ethical issues, yet stripped of even a whiff of elitism.

After all, you can’t really be an elitist when you’re buying collard greens from a stand in a parking lot. Maybe you can, but this isn’t it.

Mr. Pierce is a native of Madison’s largely black south side. During the Vietnam War he was exposed to some chemicals that gave him allergies to processed food upon his return. He picked up gardening instead, which eventually grew into a career.

As the food movement has grown around us, from the organic food, the local food, the slow food, and other movements, each has picked up upper-class adherents, commensurate with the relative cost of the food (as compared with high-fructose corn syrup-drenched processed foods).

Over the years, as quality produce has become harder to come by on a budget, the providing of such food to inner cities has become a bit of a justice issue.

But for now, during Wisconsin’s short and intense growing season, I will enjoy Mr. Pierce’s bounty.