The idea of fresh, organic produce is definitely trending in the Bay area right now, Ford said, which helps the appeal of their business.
"Our culture, especially the millennial generation, is kind of rebelling against the unnatural stuff of the previous generation," he said. "They really want to experience the authenticity of life, I think this applies with food."
But beyond providing authentic produce, NanoFarms is also helping tech workers and others in the area to recognize the value of every person in the community, Fr. Goode explained.
"Low-income people provide innumerable services for the other side of town, which they're not being acknowledged or recognized for, so as the cost of living goes up and these people have to leave, nobody's filling in to do those jobs," Fr. Goode said. "So this is partly to make ourselves more visible, so people can see that there's a need here for people to wash their cars, to do their lawns, to cook their food. Then they can see that it's not going to make it a better community to have just tech workers."
Fr. Goode said he is also reading Pope Francis' encyclical, "Evangelii Gaudium," at the moment and believes that NanoFarms is responding to the Holy Father's constant call to the Church to care for the poor.
"It's not optional, it's a required thing," he said. "The Gospel requires that we become a Church of the poor."
Ford also said that NanoFarms USA is a model for how Church social teaching works.
"We have to take care of the poorest among us," he said. "And (one way) to do that is to tackle the issue: Why do people not have money? Why are they not having the jobs that they need? And I think what NanoFarms is doing, it's finding a solution to people without jobs."
Ford said NanoFarms also appeals to people who like to support good causes in their own communities.
"They see that this is actually helping people, this isn't helping some big corporation," he said. "But these are local people that are right here, the farmers are from their parishes, their communities. They like that idea of supporting each other."
There are already plans in the works for another NanoFarms co-op to start in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and Ford said he'd like to see the project spread further.
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"We're hoping other dioceses will catch on to this idea and start their own co-ops."
To learn more about the business, visit: http://nanofarms.com/
This article was originally published on CNA May 31, 2015.
Mary Farrow worked as a staff writer for Catholic News Agency until 2020. She has a degree in journalism and English education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.