CEFS workshop focuses on local foods
The August workshop laid the groundwork for future meetings — including a statewide summit in March to create a state action plan for building a local food economy.
Photo by Marc Hall
With North Carolina leading the nation in farm loss, people are looking for ways to revitalize agriculture. From many different perspectives — consumers, growers, educators and community leaders — North Carolinians are looking inward for answers to the question, “How can we feed ourselves while helping renew our communities?” The answer: sustainable and local foods.
In August, more than 130 people attended a one-day workshop on “Community-Based Food Systems,” sponsored by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in Goldsboro. Numerous speakers from across the nation and from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University addressed issues of how to bring local foods to consumers, incubate new farms and revitalize local communities.
Dr. Nancy Creamer, CEFS director and CALS professor of horticultural science, opened the conference by describing the impact that local food systems can have on a community’s economy. If a community of 150,000 would spend just 5 percent of its food dollars locally, it would generate $13.5 million in local sales, she said. And with escalating fuel prices, reducing the use of fossil fuels to transport food is another important reason to build local food systems.
The workshop laid the groundwork for a series of regional meetings on community-based food systems that will take place this fall. In March 2009, CEFS and partners will reconvene a statewide summit on local food systems.
Keynote speaker Kamyar Enshayan, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, described how his own state, though rich in farms, imports most of its food from elsewhere. He is involved with a program that works to develop community-based food systems in regions across Iowa.
The seven-county region where he works includes 8,451 farms, averaging 326 acres in size. Yet with crop and livestock sales of $1.1 billion annually, the region still imports $550 million in food. His program has helped cultivate local food systems through consumer education and visibility campaigns, food sales to institutions like schools and hospitals, and local government involvement.
Randy Lait of N.C. State’s University Dining described his efforts working with CEFS to bring more local foods to campus.
University Dining has offered two special local foods events: The Earth Feast, offered on Earth Day, featured local pastured pork, eggs, beef and produce. The popular All Carolinas Meal, held in the fall, is a cultural event that features North Carolina favorites, including turkey and sweet potatoes.
In working with institutional buyers, like universities, Enshayan suggested that groups help make ordering and distribution easy. His seven-county program distributes a weekly list of what’s in season on local farms and offers farm tours for institutional buyers. To help institutions market their local foods efforts to clients, Enshayan’s group provides posters of local producers who sell to institutions. He said a coffee shop purchased $16,000 each year in local cream.
Other speakers addressed the need for programs to develop new farmers on “incubator farms” that allow new growers to rent land and equipment at a reasonable rate as they learn to farm. Bryan Green of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a fifth-generation farmer, described his efforts to match landowners with available land to new growers who need affordable land.
Noah Ranells, agricultural coordinator of the Orange County Economic Development Commission, described an incubator program offered this season by the county’s Breeze Farm. Seven farmers participated in the program, leasing pieces of a 4.5-acre site. In addition, this year the farm offered a training program for new farmers.
Dr. Blake Brown, Hugh Kiger Professor of agricultural and resource economics at N.C. State and head of the value-added program at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, described the issues that a farm family must consider when deciding whether to scale up an operation, including land, skills, available funds, equipment, time and labor.
On the issue of infrastructure, waste management specialist Rhonda Sherman of the CALS Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department reminded participants of the need to consider the end product of any food system: waste. The United States produces 31 million tons of food waste annually, she said. Methods of curbing food waste include source reduction, feeding hungry people, feeding hungry animals, composting and, as a last resort, the landfill.
Debbie Bost, Cabarrus County Extension director, was a member of a panel that described regional efforts to develop community-based food systems. Cabarrus is now working to support and develop agricultural enterprises by establishing a voluntary agricultural district, a community kitchen and an incubator farm park, complete with two cabins where aspiring farmers can live. The county also has obtained grants to expand a local meat processing plant to provide livestock producers with access to full-service processing.
— Natalie Hampton
In August, more than 130 people attended a one-day workshop on “Community-Based Food Systems,” sponsored by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in Goldsboro. Numerous speakers from across the nation and from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University addressed issues of how to bring local foods to consumers, incubate new farms and revitalize local communities.
Dr. Nancy Creamer, CEFS director and CALS professor of horticultural science, opened the conference by describing the impact that local food systems can have on a community’s economy. If a community of 150,000 would spend just 5 percent of its food dollars locally, it would generate $13.5 million in local sales, she said. And with escalating fuel prices, reducing the use of fossil fuels to transport food is another important reason to build local food systems.
The workshop laid the groundwork for a series of regional meetings on community-based food systems that will take place this fall. In March 2009, CEFS and partners will reconvene a statewide summit on local food systems.
Keynote speaker Kamyar Enshayan, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, described how his own state, though rich in farms, imports most of its food from elsewhere. He is involved with a program that works to develop community-based food systems in regions across Iowa.
More than 130 People attended the August workshop.
Photo by Marc Hall
Photo by Marc Hall
Randy Lait of N.C. State’s University Dining described his efforts working with CEFS to bring more local foods to campus.
University Dining has offered two special local foods events: The Earth Feast, offered on Earth Day, featured local pastured pork, eggs, beef and produce. The popular All Carolinas Meal, held in the fall, is a cultural event that features North Carolina favorites, including turkey and sweet potatoes.
In working with institutional buyers, like universities, Enshayan suggested that groups help make ordering and distribution easy. His seven-county program distributes a weekly list of what’s in season on local farms and offers farm tours for institutional buyers. To help institutions market their local foods efforts to clients, Enshayan’s group provides posters of local producers who sell to institutions. He said a coffee shop purchased $16,000 each year in local cream.
Other speakers addressed the need for programs to develop new farmers on “incubator farms” that allow new growers to rent land and equipment at a reasonable rate as they learn to farm. Bryan Green of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a fifth-generation farmer, described his efforts to match landowners with available land to new growers who need affordable land.
Noah Ranells, agricultural coordinator of the Orange County Economic Development Commission, described an incubator program offered this season by the county’s Breeze Farm. Seven farmers participated in the program, leasing pieces of a 4.5-acre site. In addition, this year the farm offered a training program for new farmers.
Dr. Blake Brown, Hugh Kiger Professor of agricultural and resource economics at N.C. State and head of the value-added program at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, described the issues that a farm family must consider when deciding whether to scale up an operation, including land, skills, available funds, equipment, time and labor.
On the issue of infrastructure, waste management specialist Rhonda Sherman of the CALS Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department reminded participants of the need to consider the end product of any food system: waste. The United States produces 31 million tons of food waste annually, she said. Methods of curbing food waste include source reduction, feeding hungry people, feeding hungry animals, composting and, as a last resort, the landfill.
Debbie Bost, Cabarrus County Extension director, was a member of a panel that described regional efforts to develop community-based food systems. Cabarrus is now working to support and develop agricultural enterprises by establishing a voluntary agricultural district, a community kitchen and an incubator farm park, complete with two cabins where aspiring farmers can live. The county also has obtained grants to expand a local meat processing plant to provide livestock producers with access to full-service processing.
— Natalie Hampton