I met Ibti at Rooting DC 2009. Last February, this plucky foodie had quit her job as an English teacher and was learning to ride a bike for the first time. A year later, she’s biked her way from DC to Vermont to Milwaukee to Seattle visiting sustainable farms and urban agriculture projects along the way. I’ve been following her on her blog, A Bikeable Feast, and as she heads towards Phoenix, I asked her to reflect on her experiences one year later and what she might bring back home with her. Here’s what she said:
I’ve been on the road for nearly 10 months now and seen quite a bit of the country’s diverse food systems. I do plan to make my way back to DC this summer and share what I’ve learned with those who might be interested in models for community-based food systems. As a sneak preview, Liz has asked me to offer a few thoughts on exceptional models that I have encountered thus far and how we might learn from them as we move forward with plans to make DC a thriving, community-based, food secure city.
The first example I would offer is The Intervale — the wildly successful farm community and farmer incubation project in Burlington, VT. During the growing season, community members gather at the farms each weekend to pick up their boxes of fresh, organic produce; Friday evenings offer live music, local brews, and flatbread pizzas; young farmers apprentice with experienced ones to learn the trade, share the cost of equipment, and develop plans for their own operation.
The site of the Intervale was actually a former floodplain and later a trash dump. It was cleaned out and cleaned up and now is in many ways the heart of Burlington’s burgeoning food system. Might we not develop a similar grouping of urban farms along the waterfront in, say, Southeast DC? I wonder. It could potentially turn this quadrant of the city from a food desert to a food haven. Just a thought.
The second model that comes to mind is the community food system in Madison, WI — another city of comparable size to DC (I think). There is a thriving local food culture in Madison, with many small farms and CSAs. And yet, instead of being in competition — as a traditional market might dictate — the producers support each other, sharing the idea that the more the collective farms succeed, the more able they are to feed everyone.
Farmers are notoriously independent and isolated. Not so with the young (and not so young) farmers around Madison. There are a few things that might explain this anomaly, but I think it comes down to community support. First, there is MACSAC (Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition), a group that works on everything from building farmer customer bases to subsidizing low-income CSA shares to facilitating internships at CSA farms. There are also groups like REAP (Research, Education, Action, and Policy) Food Group — a coalition that works to build a stronger regional food system and better-educated eaters through programs like Homegrown Lunch and publications such as the Farm Fresh Atlas. And, finally, there are educated consumers — CSA shareholders, restauranteurs, farmers’ market shoppers, co-op members — who support these devoted farmers.
A similar group could evolve in DC, I believe, with the development of an active, supportive food policy council. (And I understand from my ears on the ground in the District that there’s been some discussion recently of forming just such a group. Hey, I may be on the road, but DC is always close to my heart and I’m trying to keep up with the exciting new developments.)
The third notable example of a community truly coming together to improve food security in their area is the Noyo Food Forest, based in the tiny coastal town of Fort Bragg, CA. The NFF has partnered with a growing number of diverse, local programs and businesses to beautify the landscape, educate, and grow fresh fruits and vegetables.
There’s a Head Start garden, where lunch and snacks are grown for the low-income-based preschool education program and an NFF staffmember runs weekly activities for youngsters and their parents. (Unfortunately, the timing of my visit didn’t coincide with a lesson, but it sounds like a great program from what I can tell. Incidentally, improving child nutrition continues to be one of the strongest elements of Head Start programs across the country. It seems fitting that the tots and their parents learn how to grow and eat fresh, healthy veggies here.)
Something that really impressed me during my time learning about the Noyo Food Forest was its amazing success with partnerships. This is partly because the need for pooled resources (money and land) brings NFF to the table with local groups but it is also because there are natural connections between gardening and so many aspects of community development. The Noyo Food Forest is working to empower folks to feed themselves, but the gardens are, in the process, fostering healthy communities as well. It’s the kind of program that could be replicated in many other places, adapted for different communities while maintaining its core philosophy of building healthier communities.
Awareness about food and nutrition is on the rise in our fair city, thanks in part to the unflagging efforts of the First Lady. (Love her! And I’m dying to visit the White House garden!) DC has the potential to really be a model for local food security and community that the rest of the country can look to. Let’s get to it!
Want to talk more about how to make DC a model of community food security? Come to Rooting DC 2010, DC’s very own, still free urban agriculture conference this Saturday at the Historical Society of Washington, 801 K Street NW.
Liz Whitehurst also works on the brand new Field to Fork website.
This is wonderful and an inspiration. I can only hope that food programs like this will manifest themselves in the Atlanta, GA area.
Rahim Samuel
Publisher, Wellnessbymanymeans.com