April 26, 2011:
A Renaissance of Local: What’s It Going to Take?
Concluding remarks for “Designing a Local Food Economy: One-Day Conference & Expo,” April 23, 2011
As most of you know, yesterday was Earth Day, and while researching the history of the Earth Day movement I stumbled across an old NBC News video clip from the very first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. What struck me most about this clip was how much has changed in terms of the perception of the environmental movement in the last 41 years.
In one particularly telling statement, NBC News anchor Frank Blair, reported that: “In Washington, the House and Senate adjourned for the day. Practically every Senator and Congressman was off to make speeches on the year’s most popular and least-risky election issue.”
So how is it then that have we come to this point, where environmental issues are on the backburner of American politics, even as the effects of peak oil, climate change, industrial agriculture, and environmental degredation threaten the stability of our economy and even our civilization?
As former campaign strategist for President Bill Clinton, James Carville famously said: “It’s the economy, stupid.” While many environmentalists, including myself, would prefer to have people do the right thing out of the goodness of their hearts, let it be known that we ignore this political wisdom at our own peril.
Fortunately, there is a new wave of environmentalism cresting today that links economic and social issues with environmental ones in a way that has the power to cut across traditional partisan divides. One clear manifestation of this is the international Transition Movement from oil dependence to local resilience, of which my organization is a part. Another is the movement for local, sustainable agriculture that has been our subject here today.
There are so many good reasons to support local food and farming – health and sustainability are the ones most often discussed – and this has led in recent years to a resurgence of farmers’ markets, the rise of Community Supported Agriculture, and a revival of interest in farming by young people everywhere.
This local food revolution can also be witnessed here in the Greater Sarasota area, marked by the introduction of Permaculture education, the birth of organizations such as Slow Food Greater Sarasota and the Suncoast Food Alliance, publications like Edible Sarasota magazine, the Phillippi Farmhouse Market, Orange Blossom and Culverhouse Community Gardens, and new sustainable farms including Passion for Produce, I Grow My Own Veggies, King Family Farm, Geraldson Community Farm, and Gamble Creek Farm. As far as I can tell, none of these existed even five short years ago.
Taken together, all of this comprises what could be called a renaissance of local food and farming here in the Greater Sarasota area, and we should not forget to celebrate this. However, the truth is unavoidable that there is still much more to be done.
Out of the one billion dollars Sarasota County residents spend each and every year on food, less than one percent goes to local farmers. This means hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars are draining unnecessarily out of our community each and every day.
However, this also means that there are tremendous opportunities for economic growth and job creation in the agricultural sector. While our elected officials cast about for new ideas to stimulate our local economy, we can simply pick the low-hanging fruit of local food as economic development.
The growth in tourism and home building that we have seen in the past may not return. Currently, 23% of Sarasota County’s existing housing stock stands vacant. Instead of lowering impact fees on developers to encourage more suburban sprawl, why don’t we invest in permanent green jobs in local food and farming?
Could we implement community composting of food waste or a community kitchen? How about providing edible landscaping services? Nobody that I know is currently selling local grains or edible mushrooms or dry beans directly to consumers or producing cage-free eggs or humanely-raised meat on a commercial scale. There are dozens of these kinds of opportunities. Why not?
The problem is that while there is still double-digit unemployment in Florida, most people don’t know how to grow food or run a farm business and those who do are often hesitant to go into debt to purchase land and equipment. Given the many benefits small farms and businesses provide for our community, we should make it as easy as possible for new farmers to acquire land and for entrepreneurs to gain access to the capital they need.
The potential economic benefits of local food and farming can perhaps be best demonstrated by our 10% Local Food Shift Challenge. Transition Sarasota is currently asking each and every one of you to pledge to shift your food purchases at least 10% towards food grown as locally and sustainably as possible. According to a 2006 study of the Sarasota County foodshed by Ken Meter of the Crossroads Resource Center, this would result in $80 million dollars of additional farm income annually.
To put it another way, the living wage for a single adult in Sarasota County is currently estimated at about $20,000 a year. If you divide that number into $80 million, you end up with 4,000 new jobs for every 10% of food relocalization we make as a community.
Most people don’t yet take local food seriously as a strategy for economic development, but maybe they should think again. 10% is only a modest first step. If we really tried, couldn’t we do 20%? 30%? 40%? 50%?
There are many ways to accelerate this movement, including incentives from local government, community land trusts, and micro-loan programs, but what will it take us to finally shift our priorities away from business-as-usual and start looking seriously at other options? After all, our industrial system of agriculture is completely dependent upon a steady supply of cheap fossil fuels that are growing more expensive and unreliable.
This transition to a more local, sustainable agriculture is not optional, nor is it something that we can delay until a full-blown crisis is upon us. It can take years to turn sand into productive soil and decades to train thousands of new farmers. Building local food security is a long process and we must begin it now.
While I have no doubt that we can do this, especially here with such a long growing season, I am still left with a nagging question: what will it take to truly bring about the changes that are needed? And what responsibility do I have for effecting this transformation?
I hope this conference is only the beginning of a rapidly expanding conversation in the coming weeks and months about local food and farming for the future of our community.
I take solace in knowing that while no one of us can figure this all out by ourselves, by holding this question and working together, we will unleash our collective genius.
