Local Food Summit: Just Desserts?

Local food ethics can be as complex as the overlapping leaves of a (nicely steamed,100-mile) artichoke. Questions of economics and justice, politics and activism, consumption and the environment all come to the table, hungry for attention. Metaphor aside, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor was recently the host of the first Local Food Summit, whose mission strove to make progress toward "a healthy, just and secure local food economy."

Invitees to the event included farmers, people from food organizations and businesses, from health organizations and government. It was organized by the board of the Home Grown Festival. Attendees, of whom there were about 120, included representatives from farms, hospitals, restaurants and caterers, land use organizations, academia and various charitable/outreach/community nonprofits. The press was online; governmental presence was...undercover, at maximum.

The day was composed of large- and small-group activities interspersed with speakers and broken for (organic, local) lunch (served on compostable spudware). Activity began with an exercise in naming community assets and resources under several headings (producers, retail, distribution, policy, communication, education, outreach, promotion, natural resources, consumers-try it yourself!). It was noted that one of the primary assets is timing: to achieve a healthy, just and secure local food economy, it helps to enter the Unprecedented Trifecta of economic gloom, environmental brinkspersonship and political hope and lightness of being. What we can do with this moment hung in the morning air, buoyed by (fair trade, shade-grown, damn fine) caffeine and positive energy.

The first speaker was Patty Cantrell, Program Director of the Michigan Land Use Institute, who has also written a series of articles for the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service (searchable at www.mlui.org). Two points from her talk can be used as illustrations: the first is a slide describing the history of the music industry in dots. Small dots at the beginning of recorded music multiplied and grew before merging into five huge recording company dots - which were "rattled" by Napster and forced to rearrange. The food industry progressed in much the same way, until the huge firm state - they presently exist in tandem with increasing numbers of local food producers, who are increasingly arranging their dots into networks. 

The local food networks are subject to scrutiny -- here from the angle of distribution rather than production -- the example is that Michigan grows high quality fruits, most which are sold through large production companies not located in Michigan. Because the fruit has to travel, and is of higher quality, it suffers more in shipment than does less delicate fruit. And so Michigan produce is sold for  a lesser price to be turned into jellies and fillings. Selling the fruit as fruit, locally, would benefit the farmer financially, the consumer quality-wise, and the planet with a smaller carbon footprint.

Food justice was addressed by the other two speakers .Fran Alexander  detailed  a study of food insecurity, concluding with one of the day's conundra: "poverty is unhealthy; healthy food is expensive."  Chris Bedford (www.center4economicsecurity.org) added political and education dimensions in describing his efforts to build networks between farming and education communities, in order to get organic, healthy food to children in disadvantaged school systems. Unfortunately, "the entire system to feed children set up by the government is against us," as it's run by big agrobusiness intent on indoctrinating children as proto-consumers of branded (cheap, processed) junk food.

Peeling the Onion

Beyond the mission recounted earlier, where will the effects of this summit lead? The only concrete follow-up is the commitment to publish the results from the groups in the coming weeks. What thoughts possibly leading to actions, could b e taken away? To an observer (just call me an 'eater') who had returned to this country mere weeks earlier from a hiatus abroad, the whole thing had a secret-other-worldliness to it. Anthropological remove gave rise to gaps in cultural knowledge: sure I've read Michael Pollan, but why is his name never mentioned above a whisper? Is he that revered or that cliche? What is this shadowy entity called a k-foe (it's CAFO, or concentrated animal feeding operation)? Sure asking 120 people to "identify community assets" is going to be like herding cats, but how can a whole day-long seminar be visited by such unflagging politeness and goodwill? 

Healthy, Just, Secure

In fact, it was just this goodwill which seemed exemplary in its ability to overlook what would seem to be significant philosophical differences, even among the mostly like-minded seekers in the room. Apart from a brief mention that it would not be addressed, there was no discussion about organic versus conventional farming (or consuming) -- it simply wasn't addressed. And although lunch options included carnivorous and vegetarian selections, there was certainly no debate about either the ethical or environmental benefits or vegan- or vegetarianism. Perhaps this showed the collective maturity over, say,  the handful of Michiganders still fighting over what constitutes a 'made in America' car. It was a serious group for the most part, knowledgeable and determined, willing to prioritize the long chain of interlocking issues.

Got Hope?

Not only was local government absent from the summit, it was largely absent from discussion, except when referred to as a group of people in need of education, re-education, grooming, or some other kind of work-around. When it was suggested in a large-group session that people in the room should be running for office, the idea was quashed -- the deck is stacked, big agrobusiness is in charge of the henhouse already and they don't want us running for anything. As this was not a group unfamiliar with the notion of community organizing, it occurred to me that the Obama revolution has a way to go...

Sometimes networking is all it takes: the proverbial Jobs-Wozniak garage and all. Sometimes a revolution is just looking for the right moment. The local food movement could be more like a root  vegetable -- we won't know how big that thing is until we pull it right out.

For more information, there is www.localfoodsummit.org