The problem is, it’s hard to make food better without making it at least a little more expensive… but increasing our food budgets by 60% isn’t an option for most of us because our other expenditures have adjusted accordingly. We need a transition back to paying farmers a fair price for good, clean, fair food, but if it’s going to work it’ll probably have to be a gradual one — perhaps even as gradual as the worsening and cheapening of food that got us to our present condition.

and what about other policy approaches to make fresh, healthy foods more affordable? a “junk food tax” ? this revenue could be used to support access for low-income people. how about requiring WIC to provide a certain percent of calories in the form of local, organic produce?

recent farm bill legislation has received more attention and press than in the past (thanks in large part to michael pollan) and a public uproar will help shape that bill into something that will promote healthy, affordable, sustainably-produced foods.

Yet, the goal of good, fresh, accessible, quality, locally-grown food is not impossible.

Project Grow (who I volunteer for) works steadfastly and determinedly to find places for community gardens. By building partnerships throughout the community with the Parks Department, local churches and other organizations, as well as area schools (and even the airport!), the goal is to offer the opportunity to garden to anyone who wants it. Neighbors play a critical role in the creation of these spaces. None of our gardens would be possible without the voices and efforts of interested and concerned neighbors joining the chorus. It would be our greatest delight to have plots in every park and on every bit of unused lawn we could. (Just a little more horn-tooting here: We also offer classes on growing your own food – everything from the absolute basics of gardening and seed-starting to bee-keeping and hoophouse growing – to help the novice and the experienced grower alike.)

Another great example: Avalon Housing, inspired by Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates, installed an experimental garden for tenants at one of its properties. Tentative at first, tenants quickly snapped up the available spaces and filled them with seeds and plants. Not only did the garden provide a place for tenants to interact with each other and staff, but neighbors stopped by to say hello, comment on the vegetables, and talk to the growers. Guided by a volunteer gardener, these tenants enjoyed fresh tomatoes, basil, lettuce, edible flowers, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, greens, watermelon, and more. Stories of gardening with parents and grandparents along with exclamations of wonder at what they accomplished were regular happenings. The sense of accomplishment this garden afforded these tenants and the extra bits frozen for winter use is priceless. This year Project Grow and Avalon are looking to begin a program of Supportive Gardening, too, to continue and expand this project.

Avalon also participated in a Project Grow site last year at Food Gatherer’s. This huge plot tended by one staff person and a cadre of tenants – young and old alike – raised tomatoes, peppers, herbs, greens, and a few flowers. And for a number of years Avalon has purchased shares in the Community Farm CSA, the proceeds of which are distributed to tenants who eat and preserve the food.

These are small beginnings (seeds, if you will) that lay the groundwork for the kind of change the Local Food Summit seeks to implement, and great examples to follow and expand upon.

I live directly in front of Eberwhite Elementary. I have had preliminary conversations with the school regarding the addition of a school food program including a large outdoor garden and a hoop house, similar to the set up at Tappan. The principal – Debi Wagner seems quite receptive to the idea.

I would be willing to raise the money (through our repastspresentandfuture.org efforts, channeled straight to Agrarian Adventure), oversee the “dirt” aspect of the program and work with Agrarian Adventure to model the program on what they have already done.

So far, I have been directed to “talk to the PTO” which has to date been a non-starter (basically that they have other projects/priorities already and that they already have a garden). I think it would take a bigger groundswell of interest from the community to let them know that this is wanted/needed.

I also envision this as not just a project funneled through the PTO but a partnership involving the school, Agrarian Adventure, and the community/neighborhood. SELMA – the Soule-Eberwhite-Liberty-Madison Affiliation is one neighborhood group forming to fill this community role and includes Eberwhite kids as well as kids at other class levels, home-schooled kids, Steiner kids, etc.

Additionally, I know that Eberwhite is seeking “green school” status. I do not know much about this process, but hear it involves energy audits, adopting an endangered species, … I would hope that real, local food, by and for students could figure into this process.

Regarding Agrarian Adventure – I think this is exactly the type of project needed to help them jump from it’s present site, into the entire school district.

If you are willing to commit energy to this process please contact me: panchobush@gmail.com and call the school: (734) 994-1934 to let them know how important this early-start, hands-on experience is for kids.

Jeff

Not only would I like to see local efforts to dramatically increase the use of healthy, locally grown foods for the meals served in our schools, but there should be a vegetable garden at every school plus real kitchens where kids can learn to cook. Children do learn to eat what they grow and prepare themselves. It’s a long road to building habits that lead to health. I agree with those who have stated that knowledge is key. Indeed, knowledge is power.

I agree cheap food is often not wholesome, but for people with lower incomes this is often all that is accessible. It’s this barrier that needs to be a central focus.

As I said previously, local food production must be a viable economic enterprise. This is crucial to our food security. Sometimes this means that we must pay more for locally produced food than for the same type of food (it will seldom be really the “same” food) in the supermarket. Further, it is in our self-interest (each of us) to pay enough for local food production so that we do not become dependent on that very long supply chain to the West Coast and further. It is also usually better quality. I try to buy local in almost all circumstances as far as is practical and expect to pay more than rock-bottom prices.

The question is how we can also extend the availability of this food to those with less ability to pay. As Kim says, food is very cheap in this country – but much of that cheap food is industrially processed, filled with calories from high-fructose corn syrup, for example, and made with industrially grown meat. Often this cheap food is not even wholesome (note the recent peanut food poisoning problem). (I’ll just say “Michael Pollan” and let it go at that.) It would be sad to see us become a society in which access to fresh local food is limited only to the affluent, while a lesser class is condemned to fast food and over-processed or canned items.

A partial solution is to allow people to produce as much of their own food as possible. Another is to subsidize purchase of the food.

I was comfortable with paying $12 for my lunch ticket for the summit (I was not able to attend, so donated it), and it appears that it was a very good value for the meal that was served. I didn’t mean to be critical of the organizers of the summit, who clearly made a wonderful thing happen.