Archive Food Security in the Shire 03-27-20
The Shire is an alias for Benzie County, taking a page from LOR. A place of wonder and sweetness, with adventure just around the corner. And farms.
As I write this, today is the 3rd day of Michigan's COVID 19 "lockdown". Food security is an essential concern for the community and that's why a gaggle of local farmers gathered on the very first day Governor Witmer's stay at home order. Could Benzie County become more self reliant and resilient foodwise, rather than depending on a constant inflow of semi-trucks from elsewhere?
In attendance were Paul May of May Farms, Jason Sheffield, Emmily Rosa and their daughter (whose name I forgot) of 1801 Farms, Eran Rhodzell and his daughter Linden of Laughing Linden Farm, Joe Cissell, Artist and Mensch, Josh Stoltz of Grow Benzie and myself Dan Kelly of Love Farm.
Still Grinning
The Still Grinning Coop is a buying club open to local families who want to purchase everything that they would normally find at Oryana Coop in Traverse City, but much cheaper. Still Grinning has been going strong for decades under 100% volunteer power... mostly one volunteer, that human swiss army knife, Suz McLaughlin.
Presently Still Grinning is transitioning. Suz is stepping back as sole coordinator and Emily Votruba, Thomas Hirsch and Dan Kelly are stepping up, so there's a learning curve ahead. Our distributor, United Natural Foods, Inc. or UNFI is a little tricky to deal with. Still Grinning's first post COVID 19 order was huge, about $6000, and UNFI postponed delivery. We'll see if it ever comes through.
If SG survives, the plan is to expand and bring in more members. This doesn't fix the semi-truck deliveries from elsewhere issue, but this would enable more folks to afford high quality food. Also SG could get better at connecting member families to local farmers' produce and meat. Paul explained how he pimps May Farm's products on SG's delivery day. Eran dreams of opening a full on storefront for the community eventually. Our last coop-ish experiment closed in 2015, Charlie's Natural Food Market in Frankfort.
Going Around the Circle
We discussed State and Federal regulations applicable to food and some possible strategies, like not using terms like raw milk, setting up Private Membership Associations which supposedly bypass some regulations, and selling shares of livestock for meat or milk. Emmily mentioned Abbotts Farm in Otsego, and Ireland's raw milk club.
Joe brought up Grace of Loving Dove Farm which is no more, and how he had always wanted to go see. I was also excited about Grace because she was growing lemons and ginger and I aspire to grow avocados on Love Farm.
[Looking more deeply into the departure of Grace, the closing of Charlie's and the dissolution of another buying club in Benzonia, the Lakeland Food Coop could improve the longevity of future endeavors.]
Emmily has a brilliant scheme, the lettuce tractor which much like a chicken tractor, would produce yummy greens while shedding fertility. We're looking forward to a detailed power point presentation from Emmily soon and possibly a scale model!
Jason suggested that we should take an inventory of what each of us is already doing and what we need.
Eran talked about how nut and fruit trees don't concentrate heavy metals in the parts we typically eat - nuts and fruits.
Paul was wondering if biochar or compost soak up the heavy metals.
Bemoaning the monoculture that is most commercial orchards.
Business plans!
Cool stuff in Benzie County - there can't be too much.
Food distribution, centralized vs distributed
This group - differences vs commonalities
Paul - empirical data gathered to date is irrelevant, this is a new time, unprecedented.
[thoughts while watching the girls playing, "I want to design a swing set and playground for kids and adults"]
Inventory
Jason and Emmily
5 Things we're already doing
1) teach kids about food
2) sequestered 100 tons of food waste and turned that into hogs and compost
3) 10 families being fed, shares
4) spontaneous work trades, people willing ready to work for food
5) established perpetual seed stock / live stock (occasional genetic expansion)
3 needs
1) labor help
2) capital (batteries, tires)
3) maintenance
4) irrigation
5) stainless - sinks, tubs for processing
Emmily and Jason
5 Things we're already doing
1) 5 years of fertility
2) close to owning the farm (currently lease 5 acres and 15 acres of hay)
3) grant award (portfolio)
4) name recognition
5) animal husbandry (they mostly don't die)
3 needs
1) committed people
2) art - documentation, product design
3) science - soil biology, chemistry, air
Eran and Stephanie
5 Things we're already doing
1) lots of land 63 acres
2) eggs
3) growing most of our own vegetables
4) tree knowledge, orchards
5) herbs and herbal remedies
3 needs
1) tree clearing
2) berries planted
3) money to buy plants
4) labor
5) childcare
repeating needs
housing
hunger
childcare
education
Josh Grow Benzie
5 Things we're already doing
1) connection
2) experience
3) distribution
4) farmers market
5) providing space
3 needs
1) endorsement
2) capital
3) trust
Paul
5 Things we're already doing
1) married well
2) able to identify connection and overlap
3) biochar guru
4) soil fertility
5) Lobb Rd pasture is a visual example - shifted perception and changed minds
6) connection to MSU and Cornell
Sharon - mutual aid
3 needs
1) more time
2) cloning of sexy men
3) capital
4) processing capacity, Honor Market is all we got
[eat bugs]
Dan
5 Things we're already doing
1) several LLCs mostly deployed - liability and taxation armor
2) 2 decades of poop composting tech
3) 60 acres acquired and getting top drawer input
4) have capital
5) amazing circle of friends with mad skills
3 needs
1) more friends with mad skills
2) optimized organizational structure
3) way more fun
Joe
5 Things we're already doing
1) interest and enthusiasm
2) building contruction skills
3) design chops, building and art
4) appreciates excellent food
5) purchases local food
needs
1) direction
2) grow my own food
3) sustainable for the community
Next Steps
Seems like we all enjoyed catching momentum together.
Dan will be exploring a capital reservoir to be managed by farmers for needful things. Business plans / proposals for funds would be presented to members of the reservoir and voted upon, with a schedule for replacing the principle plus interest. The objective would be to expand capital availability for all farmers.
A web site for this group might be preferable to a corporate controlled and data mined social media platform.
Another objective is the encouragement of victory gardens, moving towards a more distributed food network. Perhaps this could be a sort of outreach / consulting thing. I'd also be excited for tours of our different locations when that makes sense.
[…] are gathering to strategize and collaborate on expanding food security in Benzie County ASAP. We met for the first time at the end of March […]
https://waterfallmagazine.com
Howdy! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche.
Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a extraordinary
job!
This all sounds so exciting!
I miss our Grow Benzie learning and gathering events!
Sounds like it went well. Go team!