Sustainable Local Food Systems:Best Practices

Andrew JametonCollege of Public Health, UNMC

City SproutsDecember 11, 2008

NSLW Conference

Outline: Local Food Systems

• Plusses & Minuses• Climate Change as Reason• Food outlets & distribution• Production models• Starting a community garden• Associated businesses• Misc local information and sources

Annie Greenhouse, Educational Ramifications of Gardening

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Five Domains• Environmental (natural and man-built)• Socio-cultural (history, conditions, and contexts)• Technological (appropriate, sustainable)• Economics (the production of goods and services

within a sustainable context, and the financial resources to support the production, trade, operations, and maintenance)

• Public Policy (government, or public rules/regulations)

Five (Maybe Six) Domains• Environmental (natural and man-built)• Socio-cultural (history, conditions, and contexts)• Technological (appropriate, sustainable)• Economics (the production of goods and services

within a sustainable context, and the financial resources to support the production, trade, operations, and maintenance)

• Public Policy (government, or public rules/regulations)• Health, public health, sustainable health,

intergenerational health, environmental health

Locavore Demand

• There is growing consumer demand for local, healthy, high quality food

• The obesity epidemic has stimulated a wide range of private, public, and individual efforts to improve diet

• Links between diet and exercise are being promoted and explored

Bottom Line• There are many viable inner-city, local, community and

urban agriculture projects all over the United States.• There are many reliable and informed sources available on

starting and managing such projects.• There also exists a wide variety of reports on the

relationships of agriculture to environmental preservation and climate change.

• Preserving health through diet and exercise is a key theme of these enterprises, although sustaining community, justice, and micro-economics are also important themes.

• Although expanding, such projects have so far only displaced a small percentage of more industrial, commercial, food intake.

Plusses• Integrated approach (therefore, efficient)• Freshness (but, frozen can be fresher than stored local)• Energy and material conservation (storage, packaging,

freezing)• Composting harbors atmospheric carbon• Healthiness of food (selection, psychological satisfaction)• Improved control, “Food Security”• Community projects, empowerment, neighborhoods• Small business• Link with exercise• Science, agriculture, cooking, and dietary education

Minuses

• More of the same?• Not necessarily organic• Note necessarily safe: Leaded soil• Grains need wide area• Meat (rabbits, chickens) highly regulated;

have risks• Theft• Instability of community projects

Climate Change as Reason

• General agricultural impacts:– Loss of agricultural land– Changes in water patterns, especially drying,

desertification– Loss of economic prosperity in affected areas

• Migration– Instability, food insecurity– Agricultural, gardening, and food preparation skills

Food Outlets & Distribution• Farmers Markets• Restaurants• Whole Foods• Front yards• Churches• At the garden• “Consignment” shops• Trucks• Food banks• WIC Program, Food Stamps

Production Models

• Personal use• Personal and neighbor use• Schools, Churches, Neighborhoods

– “Every child should have the experience of eating something he or she has grown from seed.”

• CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)• “Truck gardens”• “Victory gardens”• Edge farms (for larger growing areas)

Starting a Community Garden• A champion• Acquiring land (buying, renting, donations, land trust),

sunny, flat, clean, accessible• Water, rainwater, gray water, city water, neighbor water• Soil amendments, mulching, composting• Plowing• Tools, Safe storage area• Fencing, signage• Community events, ceremonies, dinners• Educational program• Insurance, 501c3, incorporation, business plan, naming,

gardening policies, community outreach

Associated Businesses

• Breeding for local growing / seed saving• Greenhousing, sprouting, potting• Composting, mulches

– Organic sources?

• The food truck• Value added projects• Urban animal husbandry

Nebraska

• Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society• Center for Rural Affairs• NCR SARE• Nebraska Food Cooperative• College of Agriculture (& the Extension)• Shadowbrook Farm (CSA, Lincoln)• Bloom’s Organics• Community Crops (Lincoln)

Useful Reports• USDA. The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water : Resources, and biodiversity in the United States, Final Report, Synthesis

and Assessment Product 4.3 • Managing Editor: Margaret Walsh ; Lead Authors: Peter Backlund, Anthony Janetos, and David Schimel • May, 2008• Available at: http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/final-report/default.htm

• Urban Agriculture Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition: Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center To the Urban Fringe

• Principal Author: Katherine H. Brown; Editor: Peter Mann; Contributors: Martin Bailkey, Alison Meares-Cohen, Joe Nasr, Jac Smit, Terri Buchanan• February, 2002• Available at: http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html

• Leopold Instiitute: New Perspectives on Food Security• November 12-14, 2004 Conference Proceedings, Glynwood Center, NY• Leopold Institute Web Site: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/• Available at: www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/other/files/food_security.pdf

• FAO, Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change and the Stockholm Environment Institute: Climate Change and Food Security A Framework Document

• October 2007• Available at: • www.fao.org/clim/docs/CDROM/docs/Food%20Security/key%20mes...20revised%20-%20Zurek.pdf

• Good Search Terms:• +"best practices" +"food security" +sustainability +environment +health +Nebraska

My Contact Information

• Andrew Jameton– UNMC College of Public Health– 402-559-4680– ajameton@unmc.edu

• City Sprouts– www.omahasprouts.org– City Sprouts Director Kate Card, 402-502-5902,

citysprouts@omahasprouts.org– City Sprouts, PO Box 31593, Omaha, NE 68131-0593