“The hope that in a sustainable future we can continue to live isolated from each other is the social side of the illusion of a sustainable future in the technosphere… The belief that human nature demands that we live segregated and uncooperative lives is arguably a greater impediment to a sustainable future than the belief that technology and human brilliance can solve environmental problems.” —David Holmgren, “Permaculture Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability”
The Need for a Local Food System
In the summer of 2009, the passionate public debate surrounding the GM Sugar Beet applications brought an important truth to light: Our community needs a long range vision for our food system, and we need a plan to achieve that vision. Nearly every aspect of sustainability is affected by our food system, from energy consumption to economic viability to health care. It is therefore imperative that we begin food system planning in a way that is inclusive and forward looking.
It is now widely acknowledged that our global food system has a larger climate impact than all other human activity. The city of Cincinnati recently adopted several “food related emission reduction measures” as part of their Climate Protection Action Plan. The measures include reducing meat consumption, eating local, using less food packaging, using no-till agriculture, and organic production methods. Here in Boulder, we should adopt a “Food Smart” program analogous to our Climate Smart program that recognizes, as Cincinnati does, that food has a huge impact on our transition towards a more sustainable and resilient community.
Similarly, we now know that the current industrial food system has created an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease that will surely cripple our society in years to come. The antithesis of unhealthy processed industrial food is locally grown whole foods—legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables delivered fresh to our community without chemicals or extreme processing. As we debate our healthcare system on a national level, we can begin to promote true health within our community by eating more locally produced food.
Economically, every dollar spent with local business creates three to five times more local economic activity than a dollar spent with non-locally owned business. Therefore, growing and distributing food locally can be a sustainable economic engine for our community. Investment and reinvestment of these local food dollars will create new business and job opportunities within our community.
Fortunately, Boulder is well positioned to make significant changes towards a more sustainable food system. We have an educated and affluent demographic willing to support healthy changes, we have significant public ownership of some of the county’s best agricultural land, we have passionate promotion of a vibrant local business community.
There are also challenges we must overcome. The current zoning and land use codes still do not proactively encourage food production. Policies must be updated to reflect our current desire to transition towards a more sustainable and resilient community. The trends towards relocalization will force us to rethink incentives conceived around big business needs – small local business, especially food production, requires new kinds of incentives and support from our community.
Food System Planning Process: Boulder County Food Summit
Undertaking the change of something as deep rooted as a community food system will require a careful and analytical planning process to insure success and efficiency. Ultimately, the end result of the planning process will be to develop a set of comprehensive, sustainable, and fair food and farming policies, and then to implement policy objectives via a strategic plan that is inclusive of diverse voices in our community.
Achieving these goals can only be accomplished via a coordinated and thoughtful effort. Everybody Eats! has developed the concept of a “Food Summit” for Boulder County. The Boulder County Food Summit will be a coalition of governmental and non-governmental agencies, business and individuals brought together to represent our diverse population in this planning process.
In order to understand our current food system strengths and weaknesses, we should begin by preparing a baseline community food assessment (reference work in Seattle Sound Food Report: Enhancing Seattle’s Food System). Then, we will benchmark the work of other communities (e.g. New Mexico, Peonia) to learn established best practices, and finally, we will utilize a community visioning process to develop goals for our future local food system.
Once we know where we are today, and where want to be tomorrow, we can map the present reality to the future vision via tangible and measurable projects. Projects will most likely include things that are already being worked on such as Everybody Eats’ Farmer Cultivation Center.
Transitioning our local food system is a long term process that must engage all elements of our community for the long haul. We must honor and respect the many great ideas that already exist among local food activists while embracing the diverse needs within our community.
Community Roles
There are obvious roles that existing governmental and non-governmental organizations can assume in planning and executing a local food system transformation. Combining the efforts and strengths of both governmental and non-governmental groups will allow us to have the deepest reach into the community and the broadest perspective on what our food system needs to be to best serve our population. The most important consideration is that we initially seek widespread and diverse participation in the planning effort, and then reach out to the community to become more deeply involved in implementing our plan and sustaining our vision.
County and Municipal Governmental Leaders
Our local government leaders are in the unique position to assimilate community food needs and then direct their various departments to find solutions that enable the transition of our local food system. County and municipal leaders must come together to agree on broad objectives that translate into a common and harmonious set of policies within the county.
Open Space Departments
The 17,000 acres of county owned agricultural open space should serve as the centerpiece of our food system. Municipal open space within the County also offers extensive ag land opportunities. The overarching goal for open space ag land utilization should be to most effectively and sustainably use our land to feed the people of Boulder County. To be successful, we will consider the following issues:
- Land Inventory with Soils Analysis – This information will assist in determining what crops will grow best on various county lands.
- Water Flow Analysis – A full understanding of water flows and schedules is necessary for crop planning
- Building/Land Use Restrictions – Current restrictions on open space use must be reconsidered in light of growing pressure to optimize local food production and distribution.
- Lease Flexibility – Leases should be structured in ways that encourage small farm operations.
- Incentives – The use of incentives is encouraged to help transition local farmers towards vegetable production.
- Specific Policies – Targeted polices will be necessary to foster sustainable farming. Polices should address issues like GM crops, agricultural buildings, holding ponds, etc.
FAPC
The Food and Ag Policy Council must begin to focus on two distinct areas: performing a community food assessment and recommending policy changes that favor local food production.
A community food assessment will provide us with a benchmark of where we are today, including our strengths and weaknesses. This data will be a resource for our entire community as we begin to prioritize efforts and goals. It will also serve as a contrast to our long range vision.
Policy recommendations will often come from outside sources such as local NGOs. The FAPC must act to assess recommended policies, integrate them into the broader food system objectives, and finally to promote them within the appropriate agencies. This will create a unified approach to local food policy within the many county departments and agencies.
Non-Governmental Organizations
Ultimately, our local community will be the driving force behind relocalization of our food. Farmers, restaurants, markets, consumers, advocacy groups, and non-profits will work together to create a vision for our future food system and disseminate that vision to the rest of the community. Projects like a distribution coop, a farmer incubator, developing institutional CSA’s and of course outreach and education will all be performed by community members and within our community. The guiding principles will include:
- local food access for everyone
- diversity of voices
- sustainability
- human and environmental health
- animal welfare
- fair labor
Everybody Eats! Vision
Everybody Eats! has been preparing to launch a community food system planning project for several years. Our extensive and inclusive research about county farming and food issues has allowed us to develop a vision for our future food system. It contains the following elements:
- Community Centric and Inclusive
- Places Highest Priority on Feeding Our Community
- Creates Access to Local Food For All Community Members
- Utilizes The Best Organic and Permaculture Practices
- Improves and Sustains Our Health
- Supports Farmers
- Allows Our Environment and Biodiversity to Thrive
For more information on how you can get involved in creating a local, sustainable, healthy and accessible food system in Boulder County, contact:
Dave Georgis
Everybody Eats!
boulderfood@gmail.com
303-499-2175
