Local Food Movement

Playa Vista Farmers Market Saturdays photo: ianmalcm

The first step to getting support in your own transition to eat local, as well as to help promote the local food movement, is to join an “eat local” group or “slow food” group. In 2005, a group of San Francisco women named themselves locavores and challenged residents to eat locally for one month. Enthusiasts joined in and the campaign spread nationwide.

Now an accepted word, “locavore” is a person who prefers food locally grown within 100 miles of their home.

Identifying area food producers, finding new cooking strategies, and encouraging more local cuisine in your community may often be challenging or frustrating. Finding a group can change eating local into a celebration. Locavores swap tips and connect within communities or online. There are many benefits to knowing others involved in the local food movement, sharing knowledge and supporting change.

To find those in your area, look for events that involve local food. Watch the local paper for events such as food preservation workshops, area food fairs, film showings about local food systems, or garden tours. Ask the local extension agent or food co-op about local food groups or search the internet for “local food challenge” with the name of your community or state.

Many blogs and websites discuss local food issues. Check out the Resources page for this website. See also the book, “Eat Local” for further tips on finding and joining a local foods group in your area.

Starting a school garden

A school garden project provides a living classroom where students gain valuable skills about working together in a natural setting to produce valuable and essential sustenance. What better place to learn about food than in the schools, where children spend the majority of their youth? The intellectual, physical and sensory stimulation found in the garden engenders lifelong skills and disciplines, including math, science, ecology, English, nutrition and geography.

There are a number of innovative programs already available for schools and many reliable resources to get any school started and progressing in local food education. (See also: School Gardens)

Support a farm to school program

Strengthening the knowledge and connection between agriculture and schools builds a strong base for children to learn about healthy food. For the past decade, many schools have started innovative programs, called Farm to School Programs, that bring farmers, school personnel and students together. Teachers and school food service directors report the excitement that children have in discovering their meal sources. One director recently told me that the children had grown used to the local apple varieties served during lunch and were disappointed when they had to order apples from across the nation. As education about food has declined within the home, schools have become important institutions to fill this gap.

The Farm to School program began in 1996 and grew to a national movement. The programs vary from school to school, often collaborating with area farmers, increasing regional food in the school meal programs, establishing school gardens, introducing cooking classes that incorporate fresh food and teaching healthy eating habits with whole foods.

See www.farmtoschool.org for more information and resources. (See also Farm to School Program)

Helping the hungry

Eating whole foods fresh from the farmers is nourishing for everyone. There are a number of ways to help the hungry by making local food available to people with highest risk. More than 40 percent of food produced in the United States is wasted. Each year, more than 130 pounds of food per person ends up in landfills. We can recover food from the field, from wholesale or retail outlets, after processing in either perishable or nonperishable forms. All along the food chain, food is wasted; yet programs exist to collect and incorporate this food into programs for the hungry. (See also Helping the Hungry.)

Start a community garden

In community gardens, urban people share a plot of land to grow plants. Vacated old lots, for example, converted into productive neighborhood gardens beautify the neighborhood and offer a gathering space for all ages. Typically, there is a formal arrangement for supervision and ownership of the land. The municipal government may own or lease the land if they do not manage the garden; nonprofits or cooperatives may also own or manage leased property. A common feature is the active involvement of the gardeners in leasing and managing the space.

Community gardens offer a vibrant food system and familiarize those passing by with local food knowledge. Gardens also offer safe spaces where knowledge and self-reliance pass from one generation to the next. Youth of all ages can be involved in gardening.

See also, “Eat Local” for further tips on how to start a community garden.

Food policy councils

Consumer action by itself cannot manage the local food system as a whole. We must hold decision-makers accountable for wise management and planning for future challenges. Ask your state and national legislator to support farm preservation; promote food production in urban areas; and incorporate local food stipulations into federal funding of schools, food programs and contracts for food services.

Food Policy Councils, which are either independent groups or municipal councils, monitor food security, enabling communities to produce their own food and provide healthy food for citizens. These Councils work towards holding and plan for the future. Zoning laws affecting food production, transportation routes to stores, contracts for curb-side compost pick up are examples of food system monitoring by Councils. Find out more about food policy councils at North American Food Policy Council.

See also, “Eat Local” for further tips on local food councils, and the part they play in the local food movement.

Joining a local food movement

Food is a fun, group activity and the phrase “it takes a village” applies nowhere else better than the local food movement. Joining a local foods group makes eating locally fun and festive: You’re not only more likely to stick with your newly found healthy eating habits, but you will be improving your local food system as well.