Advocacy calls!

For our second week of advocacy in the LPF Compact, we were to call our congresspeople to urge them to keep moving the 2012 Farm Bill forward. I called my representative, Bobby Scott, and asked specifically that it would reward farmers for their environmental stewardship, link crop insurance to conservation practices, and protect conservation funding.  All these talking points are from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a group of people working for a food system that is better for people and the earth, which I found out about when I went to hear my food-guru crush, Michael Pollan, speak.

The lesson I learned: check out your Congressman's stance on that particular issue before calling!  His representative told me something along the lines of, "As you probably know, the Congressman is one of the sponsors of the bill."  Um, yep.  I usually like what Bobby Scott stands for, but definitely should have done my homework.

I made a video of the call on Facebook - let me know if you'd like to see it so you can see how easy it is to speak your mind to your very own Congressperson!

My Visit to a local Farm

Hey all-

I recently had the opportunity to visit Indy Urban Acres, an amazing example of what collaboration around local food can do for a community.  This partnership between Indiana University Health, Gleaners food bank, and the Indy Parks and Recreation system has resulted in thousands of pounds of fresh produce finding its way onto the shelves of food pantries in Indianapolis.  As of this summer, they were the only farm in the country working with the Parks and Rec system the way they are and they are serving as a model for cities across the nation.  Something unique in the placement of this farm- the land is adjacent to a major interstate cutting through Indianapolis and tucked at the back of a neighborhood.  Quite an example of an urban farm, if you ask me.

One thing that really stuck out to me the first time I spoke with Tyler, the gentleman who coordinates and manages the farm, is that they want to get the youth involved.  So many youth, particularly in cities, think that the food they eat originates in the grocery store.  When I went to visit the farm last week with my friend Jen, there were a handful of kids ranging from 5-15 that were there helping out.  They were on their fall break and wanted to hang out at the farm all day, so Tyler had been putting them to work.  They were clearing out the crops that were done for the season and moving them to the compost piles, and helping to figure out the measurements and placement for the new greenhouse that they just got a large grant to build.  As they were pushing the wheelbarrows by us, they were smiling and telling us how hard they were working to be farmers. It was a really sweet moment to see the kids so excited about their involvement with the farm.

I'm honored to say that one of my students is currently being hosted by Indy Urban Acres as part of his service scholarship.  He spends 4 hours a week working at the farm and had never spent any time gardening or farming before this.  He talks frequently about how much he has learned through his experience.  Indy Urban Acres has become a great community partner of ours and it was wonderful to finally have the opportunity to get out and see the farm.  I would highly recommend seeking out the community gardens and local farms in your area to just explore them and see what great things are happening so close to your home.

Harvest Restaurant in Louisville, KY

I have to say that I had one of my most enjoyable dining experiences recently.  Well, I had it twice actually- the exact same meal, even.  About a month ago Jarod and I drove to Louisville to see Wicked (which is absolutely amazing and a must-see if you haven't seen it!) and received the recommendation to eat at Harvest Restaurant from the owner of the Gift Horse.  He said that it was a farm to table restaurant and we immediately knew that we had to eat there.  Here is a slice of information heaven right off the front page of their website:

"Harvest is all about local – to be precise local and sustainable. We pledge to source at least eighty percent of our food from farmers and growers which are within a 100-mile radius of the city. These are not just ordinary farmers… these are people who we consider custodians of the county side, people who are committed to sustainable farming practices and impeccable standards of animal welfare. Even the lavish design of the restaurant is in line with our local and sustainable vision; much of the wood and other materials used in the decor is reclaimed from buildings around the city."

We had a great conversation with our server and learned that the photographs along the walls were all of the farmers who supplied produce and meat to the restaurant.  Their logo was designed to show the 100-mile radius around the city to demonstrate their commitment to providing local food.  The service was excellent, the atmosphere was lovely, and the food was truly amazing.  I can say with 100% honesty that after every single bite I said "Oh, wow. That's good."  So what did I eat?  Fresh pretzel bread and beer cheese for an appetizer and herbed ricotta gnocchi with vegetables for my main course.  Enjoyed alongside a Schlafly's pumpkin ale brewed in St. Louis, Missouri.  It was such a fresh meal so full of many flavors and goodness that when I returned to Louisville two weeks later, I went back and enjoyed the exact same thing.  It was just as good as I remembered, if not better.

If you'll be in the Louisville area, I would highly recommend checking this place out.  Not in the area?  Check out farm to table restaurants near your area.  They are popping up all over these days and it's so exciting to see the movement toward this type of dining experience- fresh, local food with a wonderful atmosphere.

The Logo for Harvest- the circle represents the 100-mile radius around the city.  To the left are photos and bios for the farmers that supply food to the restaurant.

My delicious meal- herbed ricotta gnocchi with fresh veggies and bread

A Few Good Thank Yous

It is awesome.  Taking time to thank a local farmer, restaurant, brewery/winery, or grocery store that cares about the environment.  I love it.

I've added pictures of a few of the thank you notes that I wrote with Katy to thank people who do this.  It really builds a sense of community.  Honestly, when is the last time that you thanked your farmer?  Or brewer?  You don't get a chance to do that very often.  But, this simple gesture means more than you could know.

I recommend everyone does this at least once a year.  Even it if it just one person.  It builds a connection to someone that you might not have already.  But, it motivates and appreciates the people that, honestly, motivate me and that I appreciate.  To Linda Proffitt at Global Peace Initiatives, Pogue's Run Grocer, Sun King Brewery, Three Sister's Cafe, Trader's Point Creamery, and Butler Winery, THANK YOU for all that you do for the local food movement and the community in tow.  You are amazing.

Where the Heck is This Stuff From?

Hello, friends-

May 12 was when I started this blog post.  Yep, almost 5 whole months ago.  I could feed you a line of excuses about how I forgot or got too busy, but that seems a little boring and, well, frankly I just kept putting it off on purpose.  This is hard.  By the time I got to my fourth blog post in the month, I was sick of calling companies only to be rejected and told that they "had no idea" where my food was from, or they couldn't tell me any more information than the fact that it was probably from America, but it may not be.  They couldn't tell me for sure.

So, to give you some insight to this process, you will find below what I considered to be Phase One of the process.  I wrote down the food I ate all day with as much info as I could get from the label.  I was fortunate that during this time I was able to get a lot of fresh produce from the Farmer's Market on my way to work.  While I have may cities designated, the thing that made this so challenging is that was typically the distribution center.  It took a series of phone calls, transfers, exaggerated stories about this being a school project that I had to have this information for, etc. to get even short answers from these places.  I guess it's better that way- I may have started a riot at the mega farm where my eggs were laid because I had a secret vendetta against chicken farmers.  Hippies.  

Anyway, I'm sorry that I didn't finish this.  I won't make excuses, I'll just accept my shortcomings and hope you won't judge me too harshly.  I will wrap up by saying that I learned a lot from this exercise.  I learned how convoluted and intense our food system can be, and at one point equated it to the mafia.  I was reminded of the power and value behind supporting all things local- particularly our farmers and food producers.  I was challenged to think critically about every bite of food that I put in my mouth.  Months after this activity (supposedly) finished, I find myself reading many labels of the food I eat- not to see the calories or grams of fat, but to see where it originated and to try and discern the path it took to get to me.  I think I will continue to track my food in the future when I start to feel disconnected from what I am eating.  You know, a friendly reminder to be thoughtful and intentional with my eating habits.

To any faithful readers out there, thanks for your patience.  I challenge you to try this for a day- I can promise it will change the way you think about your food.  With no further ado, my food list:

red lettuce- Indy farmer's market - VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

spinach- indy farmer's market-  VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

carrots-green giant (bakersfield, ca)

sugar snap peas- southern selects (pompano beach, fl)

broccoli- no idea... bermuda triangle - target, but no clue where

cucumber- Indy farmer's market

tomato- Indy farmer's market-  VanAntwerp Farms, 11418 E. County Rd, 1100 N. Seymore, IN 47274

string cheese (Lincolnshire, IL) 

raspberries- Driscoll (Oxnard, California)

marshmallows (Grand Rapids, MI 49548

salt and pepper potato chips (White Plains, NY 10604)

Hummus (White Plains, NY 10604)

Feta (Monrovia, CA)

Cucumber- Indianapolis

red pepper- Trader Joe's- Bermuda Triangle

pita- no idea?

Mike & Ike's (bethlehem, pa 18017)

Trying to be intentional in Indianapolis,
Katy

Laziness at it's prime

I'll admit it...I've been lazy.

Ok, I'll go even further, I've been downright lethargic when it comes to doing my food maps for this compact.  After thinking about it a bit, though, I have pinpointed the problem (also know as an excuse).  The food industry doesn't make it easy for us to find out where our food comes from.  In my last food blog post, I told of one day's worth of food that I tracked.  For the 3 meals that I during that day, I spent nearly 9 hours of work to only wind up saying, "It's from Bermuda."

Our food system shouldn't be this convoluted that we can't honestly say that we know 100% where anything that I buy at the grocery store is from.  What frustrates me about this is that the food companies do know this information.  They have to.  If there is a recall because a certain farm has an E.Coli outbreak, you'd better believe that they know exactly where that spinach went.  So why not pass this information to the consumer?  I'm not going to go to the farm and start picketing.  I'm going to be more aware about how far my food has traveled.

I know being part of this compact shouldn't be easy, that's why we do it.  But finding our sources for food shouldn't be hard.  That's why eating local is so nice.  That's why knowing your farmer is great.  Having a garden is even better.  I get so excited when I pick something from the garden and it is in my meal that week.  I get even more excited when the whole meal is based on my garden growing items.  That's pretty incredible.  In today's age, it's hard to completely move to that lifestyle (growing, harvesting, canning, cooking), but the thought of not knowing where my food is (and not having the time, energy, social capital, or resources to find it) makes me want to do this all the time.

I'm going home tonight and eating a freshly picked tomato.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have Taco Bell, but for tonight, I am doing my part to bettering the food system.  And that, my LPF Compact Blog reader friends, is worth it's weight in gold.

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, reviewed by Tia Fay

Deep Economy:  The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

By: Bill McKibben.  2007

This book is about slowing growth, switching to a more localized scale, and changing our values from “more” to “better”  He talks about localizing everything: why we need to, why that’s important, how to do it, and what the benefits are.  This book has many different parts and uses an incredible variety of examples from around the world discussing the necessity and impact of localizing everything from radio, to energy, even currency.  However the start of this local movement is food. 

Growth

Before I get to the local food stuff, here are what he says are the three fundamental challenges to our fixation on growth:

1.    The first is political; growth, at least how we now create it, is producing more inequality than prosperity, and more insecurity than progress.

2.    The second argument draws on physics and chemistry as much as on economics; it is the basic objection that we do not have the energy needed to keep the magic going and we can’t deal with the pollution it creates.

3.    The third argument is both less obvious and even more basic:  growth is no longer making us happy.

Current American Food System

Consolidation

•  Cargill controls 45% of the world’s grain trade

•  Four multi-national companies control over 70% of milk sales in the US

•  Four firms control 85% of global coffee roasting

•  Philip Morris/Nabisco collects nearly 10cents of every American dollar spent on food. 

•  five companies control 75% of the global veggie seed market

•  Wal-mart is the largest seller of food in the world

•  Since the end of WWII, America has lost a farm about every half hour

Illness

76 million Americans fall ill annual from food-borne illness

Resource depletion

We are running out of the two basic ingredients we need to grow crops on an industrial scale:  oil and water.

            Water:  70% of water used by humans is used to irrigate crops.  Water demand has tripled in the last 1/2 century. 

            Oil:  Between 1910 and 1983, U.S. corn yields grew 346%, energy consumption for agriculture increased 810%.

•  The average bite of food an American eats has traveled fifteen hundred miles changing hands an average of six times along the way.

•  A pound of grapes flown in from Chile gives off 6 pounds of carbon dioxide.

•  To package a box of breakfast cereal, requires 7 times as much energy as the cereal contains

•  75% of the apples for sale in NYC come from the west coast or overseas, even though NY state produces 10times as many apples as NYC residents consume.

•  Compared to local and regional food systems, our national and international model releases 5 - 17 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Why?

It makes a certain kind of intuitive sense, that industrialized farming is the most productive farming... however, this simply isn’t true.  Smaller farms produce more food.  According to a recent USDA Census of Agriculture, smaller farms produce far more food per acre- tons, calories, and dollars.  They use land, water, and oil much more efficiently; if they have animals, the manure is a gift, not a threat to public health.

Why does agri-business still exist then?

There are many reasons, including the way farm subsidies have been structured, the big guys’ easier access to bank loans, and the convenience for politically connected food processors of dealing with a few big operations.  But the basic reason is this:  we have substituted oil for people. 

Shift

What does a good system look like?

            Example 1:  Cuba. Cubans have created what may be the world’s largest working model for a semi-sustainable agriculture. 

            Example 2:  The Intervale- just outside of the center of Burlington VT.  Will Rapp helped to found a non-profit to lease about 200 acres surrounding an old dump and began renting it to people who wanted to start farming.  These two hundred acres supply 7-8% of all the fresh food consumed in Burlington. 

            Other ways:

•  In 1970, the US had 340 farmers’ markets. In 2004:  3,700

•  The first CSA was founded in MA in 1985, now there are more than 1,500. 

•  Urban areas already produce about 1/3 of the food they consume.

•  Colleges and universities are an obvious market, since they offer a captive population, and one likely to be receptive to the environmental and community impulses behind local food.  At least 200 universities have made serious commitments to local food. 

Greatest Challenge:

The deepest problem that the local-food efforts face however, is that we’ve gotten used to paying so little for food.  In the 1930’s a family might have spent 1/3 of its income on food, middle-class Americans now spend more like 1/10

 “It may be expensive in terms of how much oil it requires, and how much greenhouse gas it pours into the atmosphere, and how much tax subsidy it receives, and how much damage it does to local communities, and how many migrant workers it maims, and how much sewage piles up, and how many miles of highway it requires- but boy, when you pull your cart up to the register, it’s pretty cheap.”  ouch

Local Food

Eating local food requires you to live with a stronger sense of community in mind. Requires that you reorient your personal compass a little bit.  Requires that you shed a certain amount of your hyper-individualism and replace it with a certain amount of neighborliness. 

After a year of eating locally- In my role as eater, I was part of something larger than myself that made sense to me- a community.  I felt grounded, connected.

Consumers have ten times as many conversations at farmers’ markets as they do at the supermarket..  A simple change in economic life- where you shop- produces an enormous change in your social life.  You go from being a mere consumer to being a participant.

I’m not suggesting an abrupt break with the present, but a patient rebalancing of the scales.  It will not be fast, cheap, or easy- that’s what we have now.  It’s a quiet revolution begun by ordinary people with the stuff of our everyday lives.