The Town that Food Saved
Mar/100
So today I began reading The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt, the recently published book that promises to profile the efforts in the small rural town of Hardwick, VT to build economic vitality and food security through local food system development. Hewitt, who first wrote about Hardwick in the pages of Gourmet, now farms there. The drive-by description of the town’s diversity of new ag enterprises, and the young entrepreneurs driving them, is stirring — from seed companies to shared use kitchens to locally-owned food manufacturers to local retailers to composting operations. I am intrigued to read on because this snapshot makes Hardwick look like a test case for the power of local food systems to improve rural quality of life.
As a member of NC’s Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council, I’m really interested to learn from Hardwick’s example. At the Council’s first meeting back in February, long-time organic farmer John Vollmer of Bunn, NC, www.vollmerfarm.com/, spoke movingly of our capacity here in the Carolinas to exceed Vermont’s achievements in increasing access to healthy local food and in growing jobs through sustainable agriculture.
I am also worried at the threat posed in pending federal legislation like S. 510 to the ability of local foodsheds to survive and expand. Look for an update on S.510 in our e-News next week. What, you’re not on our e-News list? Don’t waste a minute, sign up here (scroll down, it’s on the lower left): www.carolinafarmstewards.org. There’s more info on S.510 here: http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/alert_foodsafety_mar10.shtml.
Roland
Roland McReynolds is Executive Director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and serves on the North Carolina Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council. There is a new CFSA-powered iPhone app at helps foodies find sustainable farms in the Carolinas, check it out here.
24th Sustainable Agriculture Conference
Aug/090
This year, our annual SAC will take place at the YWCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina. From December 4-6, 2009, this event will include workshops for beginner gardeners to advanced organic growers. Some things to look forwards to: Workshops on Biochar, Organic Strawberries, Cooking Locally, Organic Weed Control, Pollinators, Pastured Poultry, Soils 101, Crop Mobs, Organic Grains, Food Preservation, Renewable Energy on the Farm…and of course, really good food.
I visited the conference venue just this week. The Blue Ridge Assembly is not your average conference site… it’s a retreat center. Acres of Carolina mountains, nice accommodations, hiking trails and lots of places to relax. As always, we’ll source food from area farms to provide conference attendees with organic food.
The Sustainable Agriculture Conference draws foodies and farmers from all over the South to focus on our sustainable food future. It’s an important networking and educational opportunity, so make sure to register early to join us. Hope to see you there!
Got a Voice?
Mar/082
Last week the North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture and the North Carolina Farm Bureau teamed up to announce an initiative to save the state’s dairy industry. The program, Dairy Advantage, comes in the form of a 28-page report on options and strategies for small dairies to compete in the modern milk marketplace. Search the entire document and you know how many times the word “organic†comes up? Zero.
That’s right, zero. There are at least seven dairies in NC that have been certified organic in the last year, all of them small conventional family dairies that converted to organic with the help of the Organic Valley Family of Farms and the CROPP Cooperative. Here are seven success stories, living proof that organic milk can be produced in our region, and that our dairy farms can take advantage of the growing market for this healthy, wholesome milk. These dairies are role models for other family farms, especially in the mountains and foothills of the Carolinas where farm and herd sizes naturally tend to the optimal size for organic operations.
And yet the Dept. of Ag. and the Farm Bureau don’t even mention organic dairying as an alternative for saving our dwindling supply of family dairies. Not to mention raw milk options, which are verboten under the state’s antiquated public health dogma.
Why the disconnect? It’s tempting to assume a conspiracy, and yet it’s really more likely that the reason is somewhat less sinister, if no less disturbing. The agriculture establishment in the Carolinas is just not used to thinking in terms of sustainability. The (mostly) men and women who run that establishment have been trained in a conventional system, based on conventional agribusiness wisdom, for a generation. That wisdom predicts that only a food system modeled on industrial processes can survive. They’re not used to thinking about an agriculture that isn’t dependent on massive subsidies, synthetic controls, concentration and monoculture.
When I met Larry Wooten, President of the NC Farm Bureau Federation, for the first time, he said to me that he wasn’t opposed to organics: “Consumers should have a choice,†he said. The leap that hasn’t been made in the Carolinas’ ag establishment is that farmers should have a choice, too; that there’s hope for sustaining, and renewing, our dwindling supply of farmers and farmland in the new sustainable ag paradigm.
That’s why CFSA is dedicated to being a Voice for Sustainable Ag, and we are putting more of our resources into the effort. When policy-makers hear the stories of sustainable ag success in our communities first-hand, when they learn about the income that local food systems can provide Carolina farmers, they want to get involved. There’s no stigma attached to organics anymore—the market ($17 billion in the US) and the consumer participation (52% of Americans bought organic food last year) and the buzz (“locavore†was Oxford’s “words of the year†in 2007, http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/) are impossible to ignore. So that’s why CFSA and its members are working on policy at the local level, to help more officials and opinion-shapers understand how to bring the benefits of sustainable local food systems to their communities.
Our website redesign, this blog, and even the new online food guide are all ultimately geared toward bringing more consumers, farmers and business into the sustainable food movement, and activating them to press for change. So spread the word about this site and CFSA, and help our collective voice grow louder.
To learn more about NCDA’s “Dairy Advantage†plan, visit http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/commodit/dairy/dairy_advantage.pdf.
For an interesting exchange on the prices paid to organic milk producers, check out this recent series of posts over at Grist, http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/10/6475/66460
For the latest update on Monsanto’s efforts to upend the market for hormone-free milk, see http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=84227&m=1FNU326&c=mdxcfimlghpcovs. (This is actually a case of sinister motives!)
And if you are interested in the raw milk issue in North Carolina, keep tuned to these pages for an announcement of a bill to overrule NCDA’s requirement that raw milk sold for pet food be dyed gray.
Roland