Food initiative being studied
Mon, 08/25/2008
The Seattle City Council passed the Local Food Action Initiative but many people are left wondering what it will actually do.
The truth is not much, at least not right away. The initiative requires several agencies to develop policies for strengthening Seattle's food system and adding emphasis to locally grown food. Agencies are to report back to the council in the fall.
The initiative establishes healthy food goals including advancing the city's environmental sustainability, improving public health and reducing energy use. Included in the plan is a policy to promote use of locally grown food in schools, hospitals, and jails.
Vendors at the Ballard Farmers Market have ideas about what kinds of policies should be included in this package. Adam McCurdy manages Oxbow Organic Farm based in Carnation and regularly has a booth at the Ballard Farmers Market. He said that with the rising cost of food in grocery stores, it will be easier for local farmers to sell produce if processed food starts to cost as much as local produce.
"It feels like the public consciousness is really rising," McCurdy said. "There's a lot of food to be grown and sold. It's not a matter of if we can sell it, but if we can make a living at it."
Nancy Livingston of Redmond-based Pacific Coast Bakery also regularly has a booth at the Ballard market. She says a major obstacle local farmers face when trying to sell produce is that of grocery stores.
"Grocery stores want you to have something that has a long shelf life," Livingston said, adding that her products have minimal ingredients and no preservatives so grocery stores won't take her products.
Livingston says she thinks that offering incentives for grocery stores to do more business with local producers could be effective.
Most local farmers agree that having locally grown food in schools and hospitals would be really helpful to business and also to the local economy. McCurdy says it would be helpful for the city to have some kind of policy or mandate for schools to use locally grown food, but it takes a lot of effort on the schools' part because unlike a service like Sysco, a food distributor that delivers frozen and canned foods to customers as well as fresh produce, the school district would have to deal with each farmer individually for fish, fruits, meat and other products.
Another idea approached in the initiative is expanding farmers markets. Julie Rice of Red Barn Organic Farm, based in Enumclaw, is a new vendor at the Ballard market.
"Farmers markets are the epitome of getting local food to the public," she said.
Rice views the market as a community, and says the city can help by establishing some permanent areas for farmers markets, such as open-air buildings for more yearlong markets.
Livingston said that while she supports the idea of more yearlong farmers markets, she hopes the city doesn't start too many new farmers markets. She added that if there are too many farmers markets the vendors are spread too thin, and customers are likely to only attend one or two markets a week. This would result in loss of quality for customers and loss of business for vendors.
Instead, Livingston pointed out that the University District and Ballard farmers markets both did quite well this past winter. She also said there are licensing obstacles with farmers markets because the city charges for a yearlong license, even if a vendor is only selling for six months.
As for other policies farmers would like the city to consider McCurdy said it would be nice if farmers could get assistance so they could charge less, but he isn't a fan of subsidized food.
McCurdy added that some food is cheaper in grocery stores because it's processed and lacks nutrients. He said it's questionable whether food at most farmers markets is even being sold at production cost.
"We're not used to paying money for our food," he said.
Lydia Sprague is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communications News Laboratory and may be reached via bnteditor@robinsonnews.com