Local Food Pledge

Did you know that in 1864, the Coyote Valley flour mill processed a daily average of four tons of wheat? In 1880, Anderson Valley, a community of less than 1,000 people, raised 20,000 head of cattle and 75,000 head of sheep. By the late 19th century there were 28,000 apple trees, 2,000 acres of barley, 3,000 acres of oats, 375 beehives and 8 operating gristmills in Mendocino County. By contrast agricultural production in Mendocino County today has declined drastically. Most of the food we eat comes from great distances. Analysts report that a single bite of food has traveled, on average, 1,500 miles before it is eaten.

A new group, Local Food Pledge 2018-2019, has gathered in Willits to take some very simple steps to address this situation. The group is organizing a local food pledge drive in 2018 that would create a group of 25, 50 or 100 people (or more!) committed to eating a high percentage of local food in our daily diet (each pledger would determine the precise details of their local food pledge). A major goal of the group is to create a hearty block of buying power that would flow directly toward the support of local farmers, ranchers and food producers.The Local Food Pledge group began our first meeting by going around the room to discuss both the excitement and the fears about taking a local food pledge. Many people were concerned about the impact a local food pledge would have on our social life, (“…oh, sorry, I can’t eat that….”) not being able to eat at restaurants, or have meals with friends and family, or giving up coffee, chocolate, chai tea, and other spices.

There was also great excitement about learning how to face these challenges, getting to know our local farmers better and learning the details of the food landscape of our local area. What is available? Could the group find local rice, butter, spices, citrus? Could we offer our labor to help local farmers plant, harvest or process the food? And maybe get a discount in exchange? Many issues were discussed. Preliminary decisions were made to be as inclusive as possible. Each pledger would design their own local food pledge. Some folks might eat only local food on weekdays, but allow themselves weekends to socialize with family and friends and eat less strictly. Others might want to dedicate 70%, 80%, 90% or more (or less) of their food budget to go only to local food. Some pledgers might just go 100 percent local! Others might pledge to eat local food minus a few specialty items like chocolate, coffee or spices. Deciding exactly how to define “local” food was deferred to a later meeting when more information has been gathered. Definitions such as Mendocino County only, or Mendocino and Lake County, or a 100 mile limit were all discussed.

The local food pledge group will become a support group for each other.  We want to challenge ourselves to build and hone an essential set of practical skills and knowledge to increase local resilience, to network with local farmers and (hopefully) to enlarge the land-base of locally grown food. With pledgers and farmers working together (and some in the group are both pledgers and farmers/gardeners) we will need to focus special attention on honing skills to grow high caloric crops such as potatoes, beans, squash, corn, and other grains. We will also need to hone wild-crafting skills and learn to collect, process and cook with acorns, collect other wild plants, roots and mushrooms. We will need to support local livestock farmers, and build our own skills in raising chickens, ducks, lamb, pigs, cattle and dairy animals. The vegetable and fruit side of things may be a little easier, especially during the warmer growing months, but the group will need to expand and develop skills processing, preserving, fermenting, canning, and drying. Yes, it will be a lot of work, but hopefully a lot of fun, too!

For more information on the Local Food Pledge please contact Sara Grusky and Michael Foley, Green Uprising Farm at 707 216-5549, localfoodpledge@gmail.com