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Thursday, March 04, 2010
Latest News
Rob and Julie
Federal stimulus money is available for “shovel-ready” projects, mostly involving bulldozers, steel and concrete. What about stimulus money for projects involving actual shovels?
Lane County produces only 3 to 5 percent of the food consumed locally, and that needs to change radically if we are to cope successfully with peak oil, climate change and an economy that is creating more and more hungry people. That’s the message coming from participants at a town hall forum on food security Feb. 17 at Harris Hall.
Despite the gloomy forecast and lack of federal help in the pipeline, several of the presenters outlined positive steps currently under way locally and talked about meeting the challenges as a “great adventure.”
Jabrila Via
Jason Bradford
Participating were Lane County Commissioners Pete Sorenson and Rob Handy, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Lynne Fessenden of the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition; Mary Wood of the UO Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, Jabrila Via of Winter Green Farm, and Jason Bradford of Vital Farmland LP.
Handy started off the program talking about Oregon being “second only to Mississippi when it comes to food insecurity. A third of our food boxes go to people under 18.” Handy said he finds hope in that “we are an incredibly resilient people and we have the good land and water needed for a locally owned and green economy.”
Piercy said food security and local agriculture are on the city’s list of priorities. She talked about the work of the city’s Sustainability Commission, and touted “urban homesteading” as a concept to build self-sufficiency within neighborhoods. Urban homesteading involves backyard livestock, turning yards into gardens, sharing with neighbors, and more. “We need to use what land we have in our county,” she said, “and farm in spaces we don’t normally farm in.”
Sorenson agreed, saying, “if we are looking for space for farming, sometimes it’s right in the middle of our cities.”
Handy said there are obstacles to urban farming that need to be addressed, such as zoning rules that restrict agriculture inside urban growth boundaries. Handy also called for reclaiming abandoned parking lots and other developed sites that once had agricultural value.
Fessenden said the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition serves as a “matchmaker” between growers and restaurants, school cafeterias and other consumers. “We look at the missing pieces in our food system,” she said. Economically viable farms need healthy soil, food processors, storage and distribution, and enough farmers, she said.
Wood talked about climate change and the need to reduce our CO2 emissions. She said excessive packaging and trucking our food thousands of miles have a huge impact on emissions. “We have to change drastically now,” she said, and making changes will help “build neighborhoods and communities.”
Via is a full-time organic farmer and said, “the farmer’s duty is to keep a healthy soil.” She sees farms as a “living organism” that needs to be nurtured. She also advocates for taking good care of farm workers, providing them a living wage and good working conditions.
Bradford talked about the economics of climate change and soil depletion through conventional agriculture. “We have an ecological debt crisis,” he said, “and nature doesn’t do bailouts.” He would like to see our valley’s grass seed fields converted to diversified farming for local consumption. One example is the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project, http://wkly.ws/d2
“We really have no choice,” said Bradford. “So let’s take it on as a great adventure and become active participants.”
A slideshow on imaginative urban gardening can be found at http://wkly.ws/d4 and see Activist Alert for a local urban gardening workshop. — Ted Taylor
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2010/02/25/news.html#1
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