Food for Thought at the Farm to Market roundtable
Do you like to eat? What a question! Eating, cooking, growing food is part of being human, a way we relate to each other and to the earth.
Tuesday night, I gathered a group, including farmers, restaurateurs, food activists and people who like to eat and are concerned about where their food comes from to discuss issues of food security, quality and the future of farming in the Metro region. My goal was to develop a regional agenda to ensure that everyone has access to good quality food and to support family farmers.
Here are some of their thoughts (paraphrasing from my notes):
Deborah Kane of Plate and Pitchfork and Food-Hub: What we have isn’t a food desert, but a food mirage. The good food is here—in farmers markets and on the shelves of stores like New Seasons—but many people don’t have the money or the knowledge of how to use unprocessed food. We need education and ways to lower the cost of good food.
Laura Masterson, farmer, 47th Street Farm: In this country we heavily subsidize commodity crops like corn and soybeans that are used in processed foods. Why can’t we subsidize organic farmers? Our costs are higher because we don’t ask the public to bear the costs of soil depletion, pollution of rivers with pesticides and fertilizers or low wages for farm workers.
David West, owner of Nostrana: When I have family over to eat, I say, “these beets came from Laura, and this lamb is from Bob’s farm” and they say do you know where all your food comes from? And I ask them, don’t you?
Nancy Becker, dietician and healthy food activist: What is really missing is education. Many families have grown up on fast or processed food, which is full of fats and sugars and not healthy, but is easy to prepare. We need to have home economics back in our schools and education through a renewed Extension Service focusing on healthy eating and growing of food.
Tom Maddox, Food Front Co-op: we truly live in a Garden of Eden, with an abundance of fresh foods and farmers and consumers committed to good food. But, this love of food isn’t driving policy. When we talk about urban growth boundary expansions, where are the foodies? They should be fighting to preserve farmland.
The group also talked about supporting farmers markets as community gathering spaces, using small, urban farms as teaching places for our children, the potential for food co-operatives to get affordable, good food in lower income neighborhoods (new co-ops are starting in Montavilla and Lents), having schools buy locally and thinking more about using the food we have more wisely and wasting less, in particular increasing support of the Oregon Food Bank and other organizations that keep food out of the landfill.
Thanks to all who came and shared their great ideas about how we can support our local farms and all become more conscious and healthier eaters. Now, chow down on some fresh veggies!
