5 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

Submitted by Jeremy on July 13, 2009 - 10:41pm
  • Consider food and agricultural recommendations as part of a bioregional system with emphasis on both “bioregional” and “system.”
  • Identify the benefits of organic methods and provide preferential treatment in public policy (tax benefits, fees, grants, etc.) to all elements of the organic food system. 
  • Create a “new and improved” Multnomah County Extension Service that takes advantage of the Web to help create a truly sustainable food system, and provides classes on gardening, animal husbandry, cooking, canning, preserving and other important skills.
  • Develop a system of volunteer mentors to be matched with people who want to learn food-producing and preparing skills.  
  • Link with and support Your Backyard Farmer to develop an expanded food-producing and sharing match-up system that connects people who have land and water with those who have the time, skills and energy to garden.
  • Organize a farmers’ market within a 20-30 minute walk of every household or have at least one farmers’ market for every three neighborhoods. 
  • Lead by example.  Increase the amount of locally-grown food served in schools and City/ County offices and offer vegetarian/vegan options.  Convert the roofs of all publicly-funded buildings to rooftop gardens.  Encourage all schools to have a food garden.
  •  Prioritize locating community gardens near places where people cannot grow food in their yard or are less able to purchase food (e.g., apartment buildings, downtown neighborhoods, large renter populations, low-income neighborhoods).  Develop a community garden at every school.
  • Provide more opportunities for renters and people in high density living situations to grow their own food, possibly by subsidizing tools and equipment like “Earth Boxes.”
  • Create information campaigns to educate people on converting their lawns to gardens, depaving and remediation techniques, and doing container and “earth box” gardening. 
  •  Include the following in a public engagement campaign about lower-carbon food choices: how food choice affects health, how food builds community, the lifecycle of food and its relation to a wider system of inputs and outputs, the relationship of food to the environ-ment, the importance of eating seasonally and the festive/participatory/fun nature of food.
  •  Develop a “200-Mile Diet Challenge” to emphasize the climate-friendliness of regional food.  Require or encourage food stores to identify where food products come from.