Good Food is Everybody's Business
What does farmland protection have to do with what’s on your dinner table? Or maybe it should be put this way: What does what’s on your dinner table have to do with farmland protection? Think about it… Today, the typical American prepared meal contains, on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the US. What if we had to grow our food “back home?”
Kelly Sanderbeck, Annual Fund Manager for PCC Farmland Trust, talks about the Trust and how they work with farms like Jubilee Biodynamic Farm, Carnation WA, to preserve farmland in Washington.
Long acknowledged as “the nation’s salad bowl,” California’s farm belt is facing some thorny challenges from our changing climate: rising temperatures, an uncertain water supply and more abundant pests that threaten multi-billion-dollar crops. The half-hour documentary Heat and Harvest, a co-production of KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting, examines these threats and offers some potential solutions.
Mid-September should be the perfect time for a trip along the North Cascades Highway, through the Methow Valley, up and down the Okanogan River Valley from the Canadian border to the confluence with the Columbia River, and back home. This time the perfect weather and lovely views, were marred with smoke from many recent and active forest fires. However your GoodFood World publishers – that would be Ken and me – drove right through and visited old friends, made new friends, and got in a bit of history.
Take a drive north on Highway 97 and you will pass along the Columbia and Okanogan Rivers between tiers and tiers of orchards growing all kinds of fruit, from stone fruit – apricots, nectarines, and peaches – to apples, pears, and cherries, and the occasional quince. Just a few miles north of Tonasket WA you’ll find River Valley Organics. What’s is it that makes River Valley Organics so special? A unique combination of karma and heart.
Walk into any supermarket and what do you find? Bins of shiny red, yellow, and green apples. What seems like an abundance of apples is an illusion. Just 11 varieties of apples make up 90% of those grown, sold, and eaten in the US. What’s more, 40-plus percent of apples sold are only one variety: Red Delicious. The apple industry has succumbed to the same consolidation and specialization affecting the rest of the food industry. As a result, the number of apple varieties has plummeted.
In recognition – and celebration – the NW Cooperative Development Center, the Alaska Cooperative Development Program, and Mission Mountain Food Enterprise and Cooperative Development Center, are partnering to present “Celebrating Our Food Community,” a conference to consider how cooperative business models will contribute to the future of our local and regional food systems. We spoke with Jan Tusick, Center Director for Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, about her organization’s part in establishing and supporting co-ops in western Montana.
