What I “Gleaned” from the Good Food Conference? Local Food = Community Support

Of all the conferences I have been to, I have never been to a conference with a focus on food.  Not knowing what to expect, I was mostly irrationally excited to see some of my local food heros (Evan Kleinman!) and others who I know nothing about (D’Artangan Scorza).

I arrived about an hour and a half early after inaccurately estimating my travel time on LA Metro. Sooo, after checking out the Levitating Mass (which isn’t as big as I thought it would be), I happened to wander into the museum right when the pre-conference Good Food art tour was making their way to the galleries. Despite what you may assume, the Programs Director did not show us only still life paintings of food.  She showed us a lot of various styles of serving ware and the histories behind these objects.  A German pitcher from the Crusades, highly detailed wine cisterns, British serving tiers from Britain.  As someone who usually breezes through these portions of art galleries, I will try to take a closer look from now on.  I also learned that European art program directors really like Downton Abbey. A lot.

The British used this fancy silver tiered serving contraption to eliminate the need for human servers to attend to guests for all of their food courses.

Although all of the pieces we looked at came from nobility and families of wealth, they showed how food was included in everyday life, and in these cases, one’s social status.  The displaying and serving of food on these fancy, intricate art pieces allowed people to show off their wealth.  This really drives home the point that good food is, and has always been, more accessible to the wealthy. That brings me to what I believe is the take-home message of the conference: real good, local food is food that comes from and supports the local community.

Jim Slama, founder of Familyfarmed.org, which organizes Good Food events throughout the country, addressed this question: Why is there still so little local, organic food?  He answered with five reasons for why we aren’t seeing more local food.

• Processing Plants: most urban centers do not have enough processing plants that support organic processing.
• Need for Farmers: there are not enough local farmers to grow food near large cities (especially young farmers).
• Lack of Aggregation Hubs: there are few places to aggregate and distribute food
• Limited Access: most locally produced food is bought by the more affluent (e.g., at Whole Foods and at restaurants)
• Food Safety: there are a lot of food safety practices and regulations that must be understood by farmers

To these I would add lack of policy promoting and supporting local, organic food, which was also addressed at the conference.  Paula Daniels, the Food Policy Advisor to Mayor Villaraigosa, talked about the advances the L.A. City Council has recently taken by approving a resolution that requires the City to purchase a percentage of its food from local, responsible sources.  The daughter of Will Allen (who was unable to make it due to illness) Skyped to the audience from halfway across the country and ended her discussion by emphasizing the need to promote policy that supports urban agriculture practices. In fact, the four focus areas of her organization, the Community Food Center, in Milwaukee, are grow, bloom, thrive, and food policy.

Although there is still a lack of local food, each one of the speakers at this conference is doing their part in trying to grow, distribute, finance, and promote local food for EVERYONE in a community.  Mel Glasser and the folks at Food Forward glean (my new favorite word) fruit from backyard trees or unused orchards and donate it to pantries and other organizations.  They are also starting to collect other left-over produce from farmers’ markets at the end of the day. D’Artangan Scorza, apart from having the most awesome name ever, returned to his hometown, Inglewood, to start up 100 Seeds of Change, a program of the Social Justice Learning Institute. This school and garden nutrition program has numerous initiatives for food policy, community health events, and school gardens. They recently started a CSA program and helped start a farmers market in Inglewood.

There were so many good things being said at this conference by people who were actually doing things. It was hard not to be motivated.

The day ended with a discussion of GMOs and Proposition 37, which is likely not going to pass.  The overwhelming majority support Prop 37, of course.  (You can read our former posts on Prop 37, if so desired.)  The one lone “opposer” on the panel was not opposed to Prop 37 but said there are a few instances where GMOs can improve livelihood, such as growing modified rice with Vitamin A in areas where deficiencies are prevalent.  I feel like he was added to the panel for the sake of having at least one argument in the discussions.

What can you do to support local food? Volunteer at organizations like Food Forward (which I am now going to start doing!) or a local community garden. Oftentimes, community gardens have “work days” posted on their websites. And, of course, buy local!  One of the farmers from a “local” farm in Kern County (which he jokingly referred to as the Greater L.A. Area) had some good last words: “Shop at farmers’ markets.”  This is the best way you can go straight to the source, buy you food, and interact with the people that grow it.  How much easier can it get than that?

May Garden Update!

If there was any concern about our seedlings not making an appearance in the past, we can safely say that concern has disappeared.  Our ten-by-ten plot is becoming a highly productive green “mini-farm,” minus any sort of livestock, of course.

We’ve been able to harvest lettuce and baby beets from our plot, both of which are tasting really good.  We see signs of peas, beans, and cucumbers flowering and our corn is alreadyabout knee-high. Even Sean’s hops are looking good!

We have both been very busy lately (as shown in our delay in blog posts) but visiting the garden is always an exciting, rewarding trip that we rarely let pushed aside.  Look forward to more interesting blog posts coming soon but here are some photos for the meantime!

The lettuce after we harvested it from the garden. It lasts for a long time in the fridge.

Spring mix and red-headed lettuce.

Beefsteak tomatoes in the foreground with cabbage, peas, and lettuce behind them.

The only squash that sprouted from the seeds really likes it here.

So… how big does this get?

At about three weeks in, our little plot is beginning to look more like a vegetable garden and less like a rock garden (although Sean would probably say otherwise). Little green shoots are becoming leafy shoots and new plants are sprouting, including the Gentleman’s white sweet corn and sugar snap peas, which make this Midwestern girl very happy.  We had a good rain the other day that really helped bring things to life.  It’s good to know that while we struggle with how to put an “under construction” page on our Web site, we can at least say we know how to grow vegetables.

But vegetables are not the only plant we’ve started to grow; yesterday a new crop has been planted.  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s in the Cannabaceae family, it has aromatic buds, and it’s been known to cause a good time.  I’m pretty sure all of you have enjoyed it at least once in your life, and, for most of you, about once a week.  What?  No, it’s not THAT fun little stimulant.  I’m pretty sure Long Beach Organics doesn’t have a permit for that.  It’s the hop plant!  To be more specific, a Cascade hop and a Nugget hop.  For those that don’t know, my boyfriend, Sean, has been learning the artistry of beer brewing and hops add really good flavor to tasty brews.  For his fourth brew, he is hoping to use hops grown by our own hands.  Or, as you see in the photo above, our pink-gloved-hands.

A few interesting tidbits about hops: they have been cultivated since the 16^th Century, can be used as sedatives, and can reach heights of 20 feet.  Yes, 20 feet.  That presents a bit of a problem for a 10-foot by 10-foot garden plot with a space of no more than 1 ½ feet between our neighboring four plots.  But, Sean likes researching and following rules so he put together a couple latticed stakes that will allow the hops to twist and turn their way to the sky.  I was quite impressed.  We also think these structures would make great directional signs, such as “Bavaria = 5,995 miles (9,650 kilometers).”

My first thought was “I think these are too big.”  However, because we were unable to find the garden rules (oops), we hoisted our seven-and-a-half-foot stakes and trekked it to the garden.  I kept envisioning Life of Brian and Michael Palin asking, “Crucifixion? Good.”  Fellow gardeners gave us a couple looks and made the bad jokes.  “So, we think you should set the TV up right here!” Our solemn neighbor gave us a sour look and said, “Aren’t there height limits here?”  As good community gardeners we chopped off a foot on the bottom, dug a good-sized hole in the middle of our plot, and decided we only needed to put ONE pole in the ground, not two.  In the end, it’s not any bigger than the ginormous tomato cages in the plot next to us. We planted one of each of the hop plant rhizomes on each side of the structure and gave them a good drink. No pun intended.

So, hopefully in about three months, we will have harvestable hops.  These suckers grow fast.  We accidentally dug up the string bean seeds when we planted the hops so I hope these guys are worth it.  Trial and error, right?

Parting Thoughts and Links:

Observations:

Leah: “Our ambitious plans require more than 100 square feet.”

Sean: “Thanks for letting me use your garden to develop my skill set.”

Caitlin: “ Technically, ‘Bavaria’ is only about 15 miles away in the Old World Village in Huntington Beach.”

Links:

Northwest Hops: http://www.northwesthops.com