20 people attended the first session. 14 people attended the second session.

Food is a “hot” issue today. The constituency of citizens concerned about food issues is growing (e.g.,  more people are attending the Food Policy Council).  Overall, these plans lack specificity and, because most are not measurable, there is little accountability for achieving them.  They are safe and conservative.

See the report for Group 4, Urban Forestry, for several recommendations regarding urban orchards of fruit and nut trees

2030 Objective 12.  Significantly increase the consumption of local food.

2012 Action 1.  Establish joint City-County institutional capacity to support the development of a strong local food system. Provide policy direction and resources to significantly increase the percentage of home-grown and locally-sourced food.

Although the CAP provides directives for the City/County, food and agricultural recommendations need to be considered as part of a bioregional system with emphasis on both “bioregional” (partnerships with other counties and Metro) and “system” (production and consumption as well as the financial dynamics of the local food system). The food needs of Portland cannot be satisfied without considering the surrounding counties.

Except for Action 6, this objective is lacking in quantitative commitments and measures that would insure accountability for achieving them.

• Develop a measure and estimate the amount of City/County food (of various types) that is/could be supplied within the City/County as a proportion of total consumption; set a local production target; and track progress toward increasing this proportion over time.
• Develop a method to identify local food-producing land (including portions of back/front yards as well as small and large farms) that would qualify for property tax credits as an incentive to achieve this objective.  Activities that preserve and enrich the soil of potential local food-producing land should also be supported in this way.
• Develop a system of disincentives and penalties for corporations and organizations that engage in actions that create barriers to the achievement of this objective.  Historically, citizens had power over corporations by periodically reviewing their charters to ensure that they were serving the public good and revoking them where this was not the case. Corporations today, especially large ones, have more rights and power than citizens and often work to sabotage citizen efforts to improve the local food system (e.g., resisting the labeling of foods, contamination of land by genetically-modified organism, pushing the use of pesticides and other toxics as well as fossil fuel-based fertilizer, etc.).
• Identify the benefits of organic methods and provide preferential treatment in public policy and resources (tax benefits, fees, grants, etc.) to all elements of the organic food system.  A climate-friendly lifestyle requires a transition to an organic food and agricultural system.  An organic approach has many benefits. One is that the amount of organic material in arable soil enhances the sequestration of carbon by as much as ten percent.  Emphasize organic methods rather than organic certification as the cost of certification is often too much for small farmers.
• Support the development of a biodiesel production system to reliably and cheaply supply the fuel and fertilizer needs of current and projected farmers that serve the local market. Provide the fuel and fertilizer produced from this system at cost as a first priority to local farmers. Develop the resources, facilities, services, and incentives to encourage a sufficient supply of fuel crops and waste cooking oil.

Diesel fuel for farm equipment and fertilizer for crops are significant costs in agriculture. Using biodiesel and fertilizer by-products produced from a combination of sources of raw oil (waste cooking oil along with reliable, low cost fuel crops like White Mustard) could significantly reduce these costs.

• As public funding becomes scarcer, review and modify all government structures, policies and procedures to support citizen volunteer efforts to increase food education and production. Increasingly redirect funding to support these efforts.

• Change regulations to allow fruit trees on parking strips. Link with and support Portland ReCode and the Fruit Tree Project.

Action 2.  Work to reestablish funding to the Multnomah County Extension Service.

• This action needs commitment -- remove “work to”.  This action needs numbers -- there should be a specific date and funding goal. Perhaps reestablish half of the funding in the first two years with more to come later.

• Create a “new and improved” Multnomah County Extension Service that takes advantage of the online power of the Web and other technological innovations for disseminating up-to-date information on all aspects of food production, preservation and consumption efficiently and effectively.  It would also be a “permaculture” extension service with emphasis on values, designs and techniques that create a truly sustainable food system.
• Provide extension service classes on gardening, soil management, animal husbandry, cooking, canning, preserving and other important skills related to the production and use of local food.

Action 3.  Increase the viability of farmers’ markets, community gardens, community-supported agriculture farms and home-grown food through qualitative goals. Integrate these goals into all planning processes.

• Replace “qualitative” with “quantitative”.  We need the ability to measure success.  Cost is one way to look at the viability of different ways to produce and distribute food – e.g., some small farmers can’t afford the fee to participate in the Beaverton Farmer’s Market.  
• Reduce the price of participation in farmers’ markets by smaller farmers, perhaps using a sliding scale system or tying fees to the gross amount of food brought to market for sale.
• Wherever possible, eliminate the “middlemen” and their “profit-taking” in the farmers’ market system.
• Organize a farmers’ market within a 20-30 minute walk of every household or have at least one farmers’ market for every three neighborhoods.  Make parking lots and other public property available for farmers’ markets.  Organize a farmers’ market at every elementary school.  (Most schools are not used on weekends and they tend to be spaced evenly around the city.)
• Develop a measure and estimate the amount of regional food (of various types) that is being used or could be supplied to food services in local schools, hospitals and other institutions.  Increase the amount of locally-grown food into schools through the Farms to Schools and other programs.
• Review ordinances and regulations about raising poultry and other animals in the City/County and remove all unnecessary restrictions.  (The plan does not mention chickens and other animals. They are also part of the local food system.)

Action 4.  Provide educational opportunities for residents that will enable them to grow fruit and vegetables at their place of residence and in cooperation with their neighbors.

This action relies heavily on developing a sense of community and bringing people together around food.  An emphasis on the health and well-being of a community of people should be central to all educational efforts about producing food in one’s own neighborhood.  Neighbors can work together and develop creative ways to use space/land perhaps by taking down fences. Growing one’s own food can take a lot of energy, which may be difficult for some people but relaxing to others.  This is why neighbors helping neighbors is important.  Neighborhood associations and their sustainability committees can facilitate this kind of networking.

• Make City/County-owned buildings available for free and low-cost classes that teach residents how to produce and prepare more of their own food.
• Emphasize health benefits as a major motivator in encouraging residents to grow their own food.
• Develop a system of volunteer mentors, especially experienced seniors, to be matched with people who want to learn food-producing and preparing skills. Volunteers who have been mentored can then mentor others.
• Sponsor a contest for youth and adults to create public service announcements (PSAs) about growing food and being more food sufficient.
• Require that all city and county officials take a permaculture course.

·      Create a special information campaign to educate people on converting their lawns to gardens (“Food Not Lawns”); depaving and remediation techniques and doing container and “earth box” gardening.  Link to and support the “Vote with Your Fork” Campaign and Food Not Lawns.

• Provide information kiosks on as many blocks as possible to disseminate information about growing food.

Action 5.  Encourage the use of public and private urban land and rooftops for growing food and remove obstacles to local food production.

• Replace the word “encourage” with “allow.”
• Eliminate obstacles that are a barrier to local food production by modifying all structures, policies and procedures that might inhibit the achievement of this goal (e.g., three chicken rule; height of vegetation regulations). Create obstacles to any practice that inhibits the achievement of this goal (e.g., banning toxic chemicals that poison soil; not using pesticides in public parks).
• Provide more opportunities for people in high density living situations to grow their own food.  One way would be to subsidize tools and equipment like “Earth Boxes” (self-contained growing systems for small places like balconies, etc.) – similarly to what Metro has done with compost bins.  Link with and support a local course called “Permaculture for Renters.”
• Allow and encourage public and private asphalt parking lots to be used for local food production and distribution, perhaps by offering incentives to private land-owners. Link with and support ReCode Oregon and other relevant organizations to implement this recommendation.
• Change building codes so that roofs in the future will be strong enough to support a rooftop garden.
• Convert the roofs of all public and publicly-funded buildings to rooftop gardens.
• 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.  Develop or fund online sharing and networking like Bright Neighbor to help forge these connections.

Action 6.  Create 1,300 new community garden plots.

This goal seems quite low.  We prefer 1,300 new community gardens, not simply individual plots.

• Add a time element (e.g., create “X” new community gardens each year for the next “X” years) and/or a per capita element (e.g., create “X” new community gardens for every “X” households – e.g., Seattle’s comprehensive plan provides one community garden for every 2,550 households) to the goal.

• Identify the factors that currently prevent assigning garden plots to people on the long waiting list.  Develop solutions to speed up the assignment process.
• Develop a community garden at every school, perhaps targeting a ten percent annual increase in the number of schools that have one. Establish community partnerships to manage these gardens, especially during the summer when school is not in session (e.g., one local school has partnered with a private senior housing facility) but also encourage students to commit to helping year round (like farm kids did in earlier days). Link with and support relevant local organizations that encourage school gardens.

• As a high priority, locate community gardens near places where people cannot grow food in their own yard or are less able to purchase food (e.g., apartment buildings, downtown neighborhoods, large renter populations, low-income neighborhoods).
• Create and manage a pool of volunteers who are trained to create fertile community gardens.  Perhaps a plot could be assigned to a volunteer for contributing a certain number of hours to this effort (using a model like Habitat for Humanity).

2030 Objective 13.  Reduce consumption of carbon intensive foods.

·      As stated, this objective lacks the commitment of specific, measurable targets/outcomes. Quantitative goals for a specific time period should be established.  Reduce consumption by how much, by when?

·      Define “carbon-intensive foods.”   The definition should consider type of food (meat and dairy) as well as how the food was produced (whether from deforested land , organic or industrial techniques, chemicals and pesticides used, etc.), packaged, transported (local or not, how shipped, etc.) stored, and where the waste goes. Defining the carbon intensity of foods inevitably requires looking at the entire lifecycle of food. This means looking beyond the physical boundaries of the City/ County.

2012 Action 1.  Create a public engagement campaign highlighting food choice as a key action to live a climate-friendly lifestyle.

• Include the following elements in a public engagement campaign about food choice: how food choice affects health, how food builds community, the lifecycle of food and how it is part of a wider system of inputs and outputs, the relationship of food to the environment, the importance of eating seasonally and the festive/participatory/fun nature of food.
• Quantify this action with measurable targets – for example, increase in various indicators like awareness of food choice as a key behavior in a climate-friendly lifestyle, percentage of citizens who have made changes in their food choices, change in the number of times residents eat meat each week, etc.

·      Develop a scorecard with a point system to help people make better food choices; (e.g., points for buying local, for buying food not produced with petroleum).  Provide awards (sign for their yard, etc.) when they do. Use signage and icons at the point-of-purchase to help consumers make better food choices. Perhaps develop a Willamette Valley and/or Oregon label to distinguish foods that are grown/produced locally.

• Include elements from the “slow food” and “vote with your fork” movements in the campaign: consciously rejecting the fast-food culture, people socializing and eating together, cooking with local ingredients, eating healthy food, desiring the food in your own back-yard, creating a feeling of caring and abundance around food.
• Create an alternative festival event like “The Bite” that is fun and accomplishes the educational intent of this objective.  Feature vegetarian/vegan options that show how nutritious and delicious plant-based eating can be.
• Consider using potlucks and other ways to personalize the campaign.
• While emphasizing the many benefits to people and the planet of a plant-based diet, avoid identifying or framing climate-friendly food choice with vegetarianism.  (People often adopt a vegetarian/vegan diet for reasons other than effect on climate.)

·      Offer or facilitate the offering of cooking classes that teach people how to cook delicious and nutritious meals without meat.

·      Develop something like a “200-Mile Diet Challenge” to emphasize the climate-friendliness of eating food produced in our local region. At the same time require or encourage food stores to identify where food products come from.

Action 2.  Create City and County partnerships with healthcare, schools and other organizations to promote healthy, low-carbon diets.

• Require that all City/County offices and public facilities that serve food offer a vegetarian/vegan option. It is essential that the City/County provide a model and set an example wherever possible of what it is asking the public to do.
• Encourage all schools to have a food garden with student participation and to incorporate the garden into the curriculum and cafeteria so that young people develop a greater appreciation for where food comes from, how it is grown and prepared, etc.
• Encourage school systems to offer vegetarian/vegan alternatives in the cafeteria and all meal programs.  Set a measurable target that increases over time for the number/proportion of students who opt for these alternatives.
• Include students at every level in the discussion of how best to promote healthy, low-carbon diets. Seek their opinions about this City/County Climate Action Plan. Ensure that their views are heard by decision-makers so they feel empowered and optimistic about their future.
• Facilitate the partnering of the Portland Brownfield Program with the Community Garden Program in order to encourage the use of remediated sites for community gardens.
• Link with and support food and nutrition groups that work with schools and hospitals that are running “eat healthy” campaigns.
• Develop a local ordinance requiring the labeling of GMO foods.