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2-21-2007 By JIM AUSTIN Editor The open-mike style forum, held at the First Presbyterian Church in Oneonta, attracted a crowd of 200 people Saturday afternoon. According to organizers, a key question they wanted to address is, can we increase our supply of fresh and nutritious food, while we protect farmers' livelihood, keep cash within our local economy, preserve open space, and drastically reduce levels of fossil fuels used? Atwell said decades ago, the area was largely self-supporting, but that has mostly disappeared as the production and distribution of food has become more and more centralized. "I think we will find ourselves reliving our past," he said. Bradd Vickers, president of the Chenango County Farm Bureau, cautioned that "if we don't maintain a food industry, no third world country is going to feed us." Vickers said that with this country's unwritten cheap food policy, it's hard to interest young people in taking over the farm. "We all have the power to change our future," said Don Barber, an organic farmer and supervisor of the town of Caroline. Barber said consumers' purchasing power can bring about a change. If people committed to purchasing even 25 percent of their food from local producers, it would make "a huge difference." People, he said, must invest in their community and future by purchasing local products, because the purchasing power stays in the community and also creates jobs. Dollars moving out of the region sap the strength of the local economy. The old rule, he reminded the audience, is that farm dollars would circulate through the local economy seven times. "It's not just local food, but local products of all kinds. We have to choose the future and can do it everyday with our purchases," he said. Other producers spoke of some of the difficulties they face in food production, including labor, capitalization and marketing. Chris Harmon, the Executive Director of the Center for Agricultural Diversification and Entrepreneurship (CADE), said the "800-pound gorilla you have to deal with is labor." Farmers don't have the people to get the crop out of the field, Harmon said. "Labor is probably the biggest issue facing farmers today," he said. Richard Giles, who grows 35-acres of organic vegetables on Lucky Dog Farm in Hamden, said it was important for growers to focus on production and learn to be efficient. Discovering how to leverage some of the institutional food buying in the region may provide market to help build a local food economy, some said. Ed Lentz, a member of Environmental Working Group which sponsored the program along with the Otsego County Conservation Association (OCCA), Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE), Sustainable Otsego, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), and the Town of Franklin Peak Oil Commission, said Monday that he learned a great deal Saturday by getting all the relevant stakeholders together. "Getting all those people in the same room was important. We learned what farmers are facing," he said. One of the biggest issues may be consumers' unwillingness to spend a little more to buy locally, he said, adding that they have to work to build awareness among consumers about the benefits of buying locally. Lentz said organizers will now digest what they heard on Saturday, and will then be faced with figuring out the next step. "Our goal," he said, "is to make this region as food independent as possible." |
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