My brilliant colleague Wayne Roberts adds some thought-provoking ideas to the New Year. Now I understand how the four systems of food: production, logistics, nature and cities could be the cause (any or all of them) of a serious crisis and a real panic. So once again, how can markets and direct marketing farmers work to ensure a safe (uninterrupted) food supply?
disaster planning
The Case For Eating Ugly Fruits and Vegetables
As a massively populated area with some of the most fertile farmland prepares for some very bad weather, maybe their markets can use this time to help expand the idea of product choices as a way to assist their farmers.
The Case For Eating Ugly Fruits and Vegetables | Care2 Causes.
The link below is an earlier post on extending market shoppers with “kits”:
Market Kits
Isaac#3
Outlying areas update:
Middendorf’s in Manchac, home of the best catfish in the region reopens less than 2 weeks after being submerged in water. The Middendorf story is amazing-owners Horst and Karen relocated there after damage to their French Quarter restaurant from Katrina.
http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/northshore/Although-storm-surge-damaged-Middendorfs-eatery-opens-two-weeks-later-169493016.html
Unfortunately, the news in Braithewaite is not as good for our fellow citizens and citrus center:
more bad news
Oyster bed recovery from Gulf oil spill on advisory committee agenda
The local farmers markets starting losing their oystermen even before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The ecological consequences of being at the mouth of the river that drains 2/3 of the Continental US should have been seen as a crisis by every level of government long ago. Instead, the beds became increasingly polluted with runoff and then without proper levees in place Empire La (the home of oyster harvesting down here) was toppled and little money or energy was offered to rebuild it.
The good news is that there are smart scientists and fishers working on solutions, such as making new beds away from the river and pollution and introducing new types of shellfish, such as triploids quahogs. (Some information on these mollusks here. )
How do I know all of this? Why, because I go to the farmers market where it is discussed and shared regularly. Another way to measure the need for farmers markets is to add up all of the conversations that flow from the market square back to the habitats of the wildlife we want to save.
Oyster bed recovery from Gulf oil spill on advisory committee agenda | NOLA.com.
extreme weather
This may cross farmers and market organizers minds at times, but in my experience few have prepared for the possibility of having interruption in the food system. Being a New Orleanian, I have personally experienced it twice, with the 2005 levee breaks and then the BP oil spill. Even after restarting the food system twice, we still have no master plan for another crisis, although a few organizations like marketumbrella.org have some systems in place.
If we are having such a difficult time, I can imagine what those regions who have not seen a crisis in the past 30 years have done in preparation! Do they have a back up plan for contacting farmers and producers when the internet and main phones are out? Do they know what their community foundations have planned? Is there any emergency funds built for food system people? Who are the state and regional government leaders they need to know?
Watching the informal sisterhood of food NGOs in Vermont recover from Irene has shown me what collaboration can do within a single political entity. However, I have heard little about what the multi-state approach has been to that same disaster.
Extreme weather is happening in more states and in more ways with the global weather instability that our carbon emissions have brought. What then is YOUR plan in YOUR region? Who are your key players? What is the sequence of events that will unfold if (or can I say) WHEN it happens in your food system?
Remember to remember Japan
From Jacqueline Church’s excellent food newsletter, even though its now more like 10 months since the disaster:’As I finish these edits, I am just back from the debrief by the Japanese Disaster Relief Fund team. They had are just back from Tohoku, Japan. Two months after the March 11 triple disaster, 115,000 people are still in living in 2,000 shelters scattered around Tohoku. Volunteers from within Japan and from Boston are on the ground in various towns, helping to clear debris, trying to elicit health status from quiet and stoic citizens in shelters.
Don’t focus on your heavy heart. Be grateful for what you have but don’t forget Japan. Giving feels good. Help in whatever way, small or grand, you can. Just do something. You will be enriched for it and feel less helpful in the face of the horrific news as it continues to unfold, as surely it will.”
And in the months to come. Remember to remember. Japan is counting on us.
Fishermen in crisis
Disasters have a way of leaving spectators’ daily memory bank to make room for new ideas and sometimes, for trials that are closer to home. Unfortunately, those that experienced the issues firsthand stay there once everyone has moved on.
The Gulf Coast oil spill tragedy is really still in its early days. The impact of the water quality on the region is mostly unknown but the Exxon Valdez spill gave some hints as to the potential long term danger to the seafood system.
What’s causing these dramatic shrimp declines is still unknown, government officials say. Some blame the floods last spring for pushing high levels of water into traditional fishing grounds. But many fishermen don’t buy it; they blame the oil. Fish and shrimp can move, and they can survive inflows of fresh water. Fishermen say if they’re out there, they know how to catch them. But so far, most haven’t been able to.
Mississippi fishermen
All of Louisiana declared an agricultural disaster area
Floods, drought and other nasty weather have made all of Louisiana — and 27 adjacent counties in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas — an agricultural disaster area for 2011. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says its declaration is based on combined effects of severe storms, tornadoes, severe spring flooding, Tropical Storm Lee, widespread drought and excessive heat since Jan. 1.
Watch Two Heartbreaking Videos About Upstate Farmers Affected by Irene
Watch Two Heartbreaking Videos About Upstate Farmers Affected by Irene.
Thanks to Kelly Verel of Projects for Public Spaces for sharing this link.
Northeast farmers warn of Irene pumpkin shortage
Northeast farmers warn of Irene pumpkin shortage.
Everywhere I go, I mention some of the shortages we can expect from natural disasters this year. It seems almost every time, people are surprised. How soon we forget…
So, it remains an important piece of work for market organizers to remember to continue to tell the story, long after the farmer may be tired of another shopper saying,”Why no pumpkins?”
Update from Jean at NOFA in Vermont
Since Jean Hamilton from NOFA-VT is scheduled to speak at our first statewide conference in Louisiana, I have been in touch with her during this difficult week up there. She sent me this email:
Our offices were closed yesterday due to the fact that all roads into town were completely flooded. I tried driving in from two of the three directions when I finally got a glimpse of the Winooski river turned sea.
So, I headed into Burlington instead where I spent the day helping farmers at the Intervale cart produce to high ground. A bunch of us filled a cooler with as much as four farms could harvest before the water took their fields, only to realize that the water was definitely going to fill the cooler as well. Luckily, our local school district is very supportive of local farms and invited them to move all their stuff up to a HUGE walk in cooler at the middle school. It was an emotionally confusing day with lots of sunshine, inspiring community cooperation, and oh so much farm food gone bye-bye.
For the most part, people are taking this opportunity to reaffirm the things that matter most, but I know there are some very low spirits among the farmers.Anyway, it was touching to come home, see this email, and realize how many people are thinking of us up here.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 