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| <back | home Inspiration, Innovative Information, Inviting Organic Food and Fellowship: Experiencing "Eco-Farm," the Ecological Farming Conference. by Liana Forest For years my food and farm friends have been asking me, "Are you going to Eco-Farm this year?" I'd feel envious when they told me how much fun and fellowship I was missing. So from January 19 to 22, I attended the festivities and amazing banquet of expertise available at the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Ecological Farming Association. True, it's old home week there for folks who've been involved for several years or a quarter of a century, but also true that newcomers are instantly made to feel included. At every gourmet meal I met warm and open people who inquired about my interests and told me theirs. On the farm tour bus, my seatmate and I exchanged experiences, finding much in common despite age, gender, and occupational differences. Among the over 700 people there, it was still easy to feel part of a huge family. Due to a plethora of riches, I can't begin to describe all I gratefully experienced. Instead I will concentrate on what I learned about connecting farms and community members who eat their produce, since I am involved in an organization with this goal. I found that the presenters and audience members not only updated me about aspects of this topic, but gave me tons of new ideas to bring back to our local efforts. (To read about other topics at Eco-Farm I found fascinating, see the Shorts section.) Diverse presenters in the Farm to Cafeteria session taught us that we need to be sensitive to all participants in the connection between farms and schools. We heard representatives from a farmers' collaborative, a California Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) coordinator, a school food service director, a community food system organizer, and someone from a non-profit that trains lower-income persons. Judy Blue, CAFF representative from Ventura, who helped launch our Farm to School Initiative in SLO County last August, gave details on how to make distribution operations a win-win for both farmers and school food services. Gold Coast Growers, a farmers' collaborative, is a vendor for distributing fresh, mostly organic, produce for salad bars from local farms to school districts in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Growers bring their products to a local foodbank cold storage, and a refrigerated truck takes them to schools. Food Service Directors are given one order form each week and pay one invoice to the coordinator. CAFF pays Judy to coordinate, but in the future the position will be paid for by value-added products and expansion of services to more districts. A surprise to many in the audience was that the collaborative's produce is always less expensive than foods schools were buying from other vendors. Exciting news is that Bon Appetit, an organization dedicated to using fresh, organic foods, will be sending chefs to staff school dining halls in the area. A different perspective came from Leah Smith, of Marin Food System Project (MFSP). Their farm to school program arose from a county-wide community collaborative looking at reformation of the school system. First emphasis was on improving education, realizing schools have failed to reflect shifts in rural to urban living, leaving our young people without experience of how food is grown. Did you know that summer vacations were there so children could help with summer crops and harvesting? A grant from the Center on Ecoliteracy in Berkeley provided MFSP with funds for professional development for teachers in local agriculture and environment, a farm field-study program, parental involvement in Nutrition Advisory Councils, and community education meetings on food topics. Food service staff were also taken on farm visits to meet farm families, garnering simple recipes for farm produce. MFSP serves as a resource center for schools wanting to start farm to school programs. Marin uses a variety of food procurement methods: direct contact with farms, gleaning, hiring a forager to go to farms and farmers' markets, and preparation of lunches by a health food store. Miguel Villarreal, Novato Unified School District Food Service, gave insights about the Food Service Director's viewpoint. Working out of a central kitchen, his staff serves19 school districts. Centrality simplifies the problem of retraining food service staff, but Miguel still wants to upgrade his kitchen to better prepare the veggies. Few people realize that schools today seldom have kitchens, and that the food service staffs do not prepare or cook the food, which in some districts is ordered from fast food companies. Farmers may choose to seek funds for a food processing facility (a goal for the Gold Coast Growers collaborative) if kitchens are not available in the districts served. Miguel was brought out of retirement by the allure of a better way to feed kids: "They go crazy over fresh veggies -- especially carrots with the tops still on!" He urged understanding of the constraints and motivations of food service personnel, making farm to school a team effort, and educating parents, teachers, administrators and kids about fresh foods before introducing them. Dina Izzo from the Agricultural Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) in Salinas, CA, started out with a story: It seems Cornell University spent $1 million on research to discover how to get ideas from bright people. The results: "Feed them." ALBA was formed to realize the bright idea of two brothers: a chef and a technician. Why not feed the students and faculty fresh, local organic foods in Stanford's dining halls? Stanford was very receptive, but typically bottom-line oriented. To get administrators and food service people engaged, ALBA arranged a farm tour. Once the Director of Food Services ate corn off the stalk, and students saw farm families allowing their children to eat dirt because it was free of toxic pesticides, they were convinced this was the way to go. The moral of the story: "Get people excited about the food first. Then talk about the price. If you feed them, they'll give you a million dollars!" A farmer's market was established on campus to further educate Stanford people. Two pricing structures were set up, with winter prices higher than summer ones. "Offer a fair price and stick to your guns!" Dina told us. "It's a business proposal. We told Stanford: if it doesn't work for our growers, we can't do it. All workers, growers, and distributors get paid fairly." Audience members added their perspectives. Janet Brown, Center for Ecoliteracy and farmer in Marin, advocated developing a food policy for school districts or counties to support farm to school efforts. Don Burkett, Organic Research Center, asked what would lead to institutionalization of farm to school so the program will continue beyond initial infusions of foundation or government funds. Suggestions were for growers to make long-range business plans, for school districts to stop charging their food services overhead for space and equipment and use the money for nutrition education, and "Hit every PTA meeting. Parents hold the purse strings, and if they say "do it," the district will." To achieve different components for the program in SLO County, we are partnering with local services currently provided by groups or individuals such as the Cooperative Extension's Youth Nutrition Education Program, agricultural educators, private company programs, university students, local farmers' BuyFresh/BuyLocal campaign, and environmental and citizen's groups. A second way to connect farm food and the people is through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). A session on New Ideas in CSA seemed a good way to learn more about this farm-community connection. Last summer I belonged to two local CSA farms. My shares of fresh produce were so generous I attended as many potlucks as possible to clear my fridge for the next week's abundance. I had some idea that all CSAs were not operated in the same way, but the sheer variety of approaches presented was eye-opening. The audience, when polled, turned out to be mainly CSA farmers, or farmers wanting to start a CSA. From Gloria and Stephen Decater of Live Power Farm in Mendocino we learned how a non-fossil-fuel farm, using photovoltaic and draft horses, could partner with other farms for a variety of crops or to have some time off. Beyond providing food, this farm also educates 10 school classes a year with stays on the farm of three nights each, during which kids do actual farmwork. They train 4-6 apprentices a year, and core CSA members have many functions (newsletter, distribution of shares, website, fund-raising). On the other hand, the UC Santa Cruz Farm focuses on training 40 apprentices a year from all over the world. Raising 30 different crops for the 100-member CSA is only a part of that. Coordinator Nancy Vail says their members are seldom involved in activities for or at the farm. This was a contrast to Germany and French CSA farms she recently visited where members were so eager to belong that they had budget meetings to help the farms survive, cleaned barns, and planted and harvested crops. John Peterson, of Angelica Dance Farm northwest of Chicago, was dragged into starting a CSA by urban dwellers hungry for more organic food and farm experiences. These members drove two hours to help with planting, harvesting, and celebrations, even eventually buying an additional 20 acres from a neighbor so that the CSA field could have fallow years. John raised the question of whether it was better to have members choose the produce they wanted or take what they get in a box. Other questions from audience members concerned how share prices were determined (by meeting the farm's budget needs?, by market share prices?, by passing the hat?) and what percentage of the farm's income should be from CSA versus other markets. Although all agreed that every farm's situation was different, it was also the consensus that CSA is about more than the produce in a share. It's about sharing what it means to develop and maintain a farm, and how those of us not in the farming business can live our values by helping to keep our family farms and provide training for future farmers. There are always times when any community organizer feels alone, uninspired, stumped by logistical or communication hurdles, or just plain tired and in need of support. If your work has to do with food, health, a more equitable economy, an improved educational system with motivated students, a more progressive media, or other "bright ideas" for living a sustainable life on this globe, I strongly recommend an immersion in the casual yet ceremonial atmosphere, intellectual stimulation, and warm heartedness of "Eco-Farm!" Liana Forest, Ph.D. is an independent educational consultant specializing in collaborative dialogue and cooperative projects. As a community organizer, she works with the Community Food System Project of SLO County, whose goals are educating the public about access to fresh, locally-raised food and developing farm to school programs to link farmers, students, teachers, parents, and food service personnel in SLO's various school districts. She can be reached at (805) 528-4510 or bearforest@earthlink.net <back | top^ |