Fresh Ideas blog

If you had to pick ten of the most inspiring people in sustainable food, who would that be?  Well, a best-selling author (Michael Pollan), an Oscar-nominated movie director (Robert Kenner) and a celebrity chef (Jamie Oliver) are all obvious choices. But who are you going to pick that has been really working on the ground and closing the loop between food production and consumption?

I'm delighted to say that two fellows are included in Fast Company's list of inspiring people. Deborah Kane, vice president of Food and Farms at EcoTrust, spearheaded the creation of FoodHub, an online service that connects food buyers with the bounty of locally grown foods in the Pacific Northwest. And Roger Doiron, director of Kitchen Gardeners International,  was included on the list for his incredible organizing effort to get a kitchen garden on the White House lawn. 

Deborah and Roger are developing on-the-ground systems and inspiring people to eat better, grow their own food, and advocate for better food and agriculture policies. Congratulations to both of them, as well as all of the IATP Food and Society Fellows who are inspiring change!

Following a Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance meeting in Tulum, Mexico titled “Finding the Intersection of Hope and Action” we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour food, health and agriculture systems in Cuba. Several Food and Society Fellows participated in the forum in Tulum, and ten fellows, with IATP’s Abby Rogosheske and myself, continued on for the Cuba trip. The themes of the forum were hope and action, and we found plenty of both in Cuba.

It will take a long time before we can appropriately digest everything we saw and heard during the trip. Cuban society functions so much differently than other Latin American countries, let alone the United States. Some observations of interest:

• A University of Havana professor told us that 78 percent of Cuban food is imported.
• The Cuban government is creating incentives for people to cultivate the more than three million hectares of land that is idle, and has closed several sugar mills because of the low price of sugar and to encourage more food production for domestic use, like milk and vegetables.
• At the successful vegetable farms we visited, farm workers would often earn a better salary than a doctor.
• We saw very few grocery stores in Cuba, and those that we did had an extremely limited number of products. It was the first grocery store that I have ever been to that didn’t have Coca Cola or PepsiCo products!

The trip provided a fascinating glimpse into an economic and political structure foreign to most in the United States. We have already had some interesting discussions about the pluses and minuses of the Cuban approach. And perhaps most usefully, Cuba has created an 11-million-person experiment on how to manage food and health systems. As we prepare for a world with a changing climate, reduced fossil fuels and complex international relations, Cuba provides some examples of both what to do and what not to do.

—Mark Muller

Fellow Lisa Kivirist will be sharing perspectives from the California road this month, as she and her family trade their wintry Wisconsin farm scene for a few weeks of writing on the California coast, working on articles for Hobby Farm Home, Urban Farm and Green Options Media.

Tasty Travel: Seven Tips To Explore Farmers’ Markets While On The Road

By Lisa Kivirist

Talk about the trifecta of travel.  Make farmers’ markets a priority on your travel agenda and you’ll save money (no admission fees), go green (most markets showcase seasonal, sustainable agriculture) and local (slap that cash directly in the farmer’s hand).  

As my husband, John, and I and our eight-year old son, Liam, trade Wisconsin winter on our farm for a few weeks working on writing projects on the California coast, indulging in the farmers’ market scene is the equivalent of a therapist’s couch for our frozen Midwestern souls.  We see shiny happy people holding fresh spinach.  The 20-degree below wind chill back home melts away as a far memory.

You don’t have to escape parkas and snowplows to appreciate a farmer’s market while traveling.  We seek out local markets year round wherever we may roam.  According to USDA statistics, farmers’ markets grew in number by 13 percent between 2008 and 2009.  Tanking economies may just be what folks need to connect back to their food roots, craving a better quality, authentic connection to what’s on one’s plate.

Pack these seven tips the next time you travel to add some farmers’ market flavor and fare to your touring plans:

1.  Determine a destination
Thanks to increasing numbers of market and local food grassroots efforts, it’s usually quite easy to find farmers’ market schedule and logistical information on the web.  LocalHarvest provides a national database of farmers’ markets as a starting point, but we also found lots of localized efforts like the San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project that provide detailed listings specific to their communities.

Another fortunate consequence of the flourishing market scene is expanding out of the Saturday morning schedule box.  You’ll see more markets on weekdays.  The weekday evening markets proffer a particularly jolly scene, as they are a social connection point for many who live in those local communities.

No worries if you’re traveling outside the peak growing season:  the thriving winter farmers’ market scene adds year-round opportunity for you to explore.  Back on our Wisconsin home turf, the vibrant Dane County Farmers’ Market in Madison heads indoors during the winter months.  While smaller in size, it features a tasty selection of “winter fare” such as cheeses, meats and preserved food.

2.  Get there early
Remember farm market stands operate on the opposite principle as a regular retail store:  growers don’t want to end up with inventory at the end of the day.  Tomatoes are not the same as toilet bowl cleaner that can sit on the shelf for years.  Therefore get there early for the best offerings, and you also get to latch on to that fresh, positive energy and exuberance at the beginning of each market: the foodie equivalent of the first moments of Christmas morning.

3.  Go hungry
I confess that going to a farmers’ market hungry contradicts the recommended approach when heading to a supermarket:  don’t shop hungry. You’re on holiday and taking in a new scene.  Justify indulgences.  You’re not stocking up the home kitchen, so let your taste buds be tempted.  Savor the abundance of samples, wedges of freshly picked oranges, tomatoes or whatever and graze on the just-ripened perfection that is shared by farmers who love their livelihood.

We hit the Wednesday evening market at Ocean Beach in San Diego ravenous, and the groovy California food scene filled us with both free samples offered by friendly farmers and tempting fresh offerings we could indulge in on site.  From persimmons to pea pods chased with a bakers dozen of hot mini doughnuts, we satisfied both stomach and soul.

4.  Bring supplies
Realizing this intent to indulge and eat on the spot, come prepared.  We always travel with our trusted “mess kit”:  a set of lightweight plastic plates, bowls, cups and silverware for impromptu picnicking anytime, anyplace.  Also don’t forget your cash, the currency of choice for the market scene.

5.  Linger and people watch
The market scene feels like you’re walking into a movie set, only this isn’t reality TV, it’s real.  Surrounded by a cast of local characters, observe people and how they interact:  the families, the spry senior, the multi-tasking twenty something. The Ocean Beach farmers’ market scene gifted us with a hefty dose of California creative culture at its finest, from street musicians harvesting tunes from a saw to chatty artists.

6.  Connect and compliment
With no need to stock up on the potatoes or parsnips like regular local shoppers, I freely dish out compliments to farmers, which spurs a serendipitous connection.  An easy way to open up dialogue is share a comparison based on where you are from:  “We can never grow beets this big back in Wisconsin.”  This way you not only shoot out a kind word, but also open up the door for dialogue, depending on how busy the market scene is and how much time a farmer has to talk.  Compliment a farmer on their display style.  The folks from Morning Star Ranch at the Ocean Beach market created one of the most stunning displays I’ve ever scene, stringing homespun lanterns crated from upside down bushel baskets.

7.  Bring home (non-perishable, non-liquid) treasures
Keep your eyes peeled for some things you can bring home as gifts or for your own kitchen.  I realize, unfortunately, in today’s airport scene with increased security traditional food gifts like jams and beverages are no longer realistic options.  Think instead about dried foods like popcorn and dehydrated mixes.

Next farmers’ market stop on our California tour:  Santa Cruz.  If the weather gods shine on us next week, hopefully we can savor some of the first strawberries of the season.

Seeing the images of Haiti the past couple of weeks has reminded many of us that, despite the excessive supply of things in our society, much of the world and parts of the U.S. are still lacking for adequate food and other basic necessities. What role can we play to help alleviate these hardships?

Several agribusiness companies brought attention to this issue over the past several months with plans for increasing yields over the next four decades. Research into new seed technologies and other aspects of technology transfer have a role to play in feeding a more populous and more resource-challenged world. But as the extensive agricultural assessment report prepared by over 400 scientists with the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) points out, this type of research focused on increasing production is not sufficient for alleviating hunger and poverty. As is stated in the report summary:

“For many years, agricultural science focused on delivering component technologies to increase farm-level productivity where the market and institutional arrangements put in place by the state were the primary drivers of the adoption of new technologies. The general model has been to continuously innovate, reduce farm gate prices and externalize costs. But, given the new challenges we confront today, there is increasing recognition within formal S&T organizations the current AKST model requires revision. Business as usual is no longer an option.”

(IATP Food and Society Fellows co-sponsored a presentation by IAASTD co-chair Dr. Hans Herren and several other experts on food security issues during last October's World Food Prize week in Des Moines)

How do we diverge from business as usual, and not only provide agricultural development opportunities that ensure an adequate food supply, but also generate an economic return for the hundreds of millions of families that rely on food production as a source of income? Fellow Fred Bahnson’s latest article in the Christian Century describes research that can provide these multiple benefits at the ECHO Global Farm outside of Fort Myers, Florida. ECHO (Educational Concern for Hunger Organization), a nondenominational Christian organization, has spent the past 28 years training missionaries and development workers in small-scale sustainable agriculture for the tropics. Their mission is "to equip people with resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives of the poor." The staff does not consider its role to be as teachers for poor farmers, but rather as providers of information for effectively growing food crops under harsh tropical conditions.

One of Fred’s examples of ECHO’s innovative use of resources is a symbiotic duck/tilapia pond. As the photo shows, the duck cage is situated on top of a pond, which is used to raise tilapia. The ducks have free range during the day and return to the cage at night. Normally, a cage such as that would require regular cleaning to remove the litter. But with this innovation, the litter falls through a wire screen and provides a feast of nutrients for the pond’s algae. The algae are an excellent source of feed for the tilapia, thereby creating an ecologically sound and extremely productive use of resources.

Can we feed the world with innovative duck cages, smoke-reducing cook stoves, rice hull-blowing bicycles, and the other impressive innovations of the ECHO staff and other adherents of small scale, appropriate agricultural technologies? In the decades since the Green Revolution, we’ve hardly given anything else a chance except for corporate-dominated, debt-inducing, monoculture production practices. Given the challenges that the developed countries have faced trying to achieve the hunger and poverty eradication targets of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, perhaps it is time to pay more attention to the work of organizations like ECHO.