Summary of Discussion: Brainstorming
-Reach out to local institutions
-Vacant Urban Land (public and private), rooftops, etc. that could be used to grow food.
-Incentives to change that land into food production. Change in urban land use, cost, or zoning?
-building a volunteer base
-remediate
-Backcasting for an energy descent action plan. Where will be five years from now, ten, etc.
-Collect existing plans and plan-like documents
-Community food processing and storage facilities
-Design: Rights to solar access (trees/buildings)
-Building community food production knowledge.
-Identify local neighborhood experts/elders
acorns, nut trees, rabbits, raising fish, education
-Offer low cost/ free workshops for growing food in neighborhood
-A meeting between Co-operative Extension and Transition
-Cultivating allies
-City Compost (rethink)
-Leaves for compost, mulch.
-Composting school food
-Farmer to school connections
-Mini grants for neighborhoods (Jim Dier)
-Research for EDAP. (ASAP)
-Incentives to minimize lawn area (to turn into useful plants)
-Find Philanthropists aligned with Transition to buy up land for community food production use.
-Also network with churches.
Next Steps:
-Set up a meeting for all those interested in next steps in early January.
-Purchase a copy of Rob Hopkins Energy Descent Action Plan book.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Food Open Space Discussion: Collaborating/Combining Efforts With Existing Organizations/Businesses, and Community Food Education in Schools
Part 1: Collaborating and combining efforts to create synergistic outcomes with organizations, individuals, and businesses already doing “transition” work with food
- There is not enough cohesion between the people who are currently doing work in the realm of food security/sovereignty and food re-localization.
- Dangers of this work: wasting time, not being effective, creating things that already exist.
- Too much talk, not enough action.
- We need to network, communicate, and organize for more efficiency and synergy
- “Who is already working in food?”
o Bountiful Cities Project: replicable model, 10 years old, doing good work
o Churches and schools in the area that already have gardens/garden clubs
o Manna Food Bank
o Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)
o Burton Street Community: created a replicable template with the Asheville Design Center. The template designs for neighborhood food security, as well as green-collar jobs.
o Asheville HUB: tackles the “big picture” questions for sustainable community development
o Pisgah View Peace Garden
o Localfood.com (and Jim Gordon)
o Master Gardeners and the Agriculture Extension Office
o Tailgate Markets
o And many, many more organizations
- Thorough mapping of this topic is needed in order to make the best of what is already being done, and what has yet to begin.
- Transition Asheville’s greatest task: Networking and including Everyone.
o Which organizations are willing to collaborate?
o Crowd Sourcing: Creating a mapping project that can be edited/added to by everyone, the way Wikipedia.org can be added to.
Part 2: Community Education and Food in Schools
- School grounds have excess grass and unused land-space which is costly to maintain and serves little purpose to the students and the community.
- The students/teachers leave for the summer, thus no one is present to take advantage of the growing season even in the schools that do have gardens.
- North Carolina State policy prohibits the food grown on school grounds from being served in the cafeteria.
- In New Orleans, virtually every school has a garden, and the students actually eat the food.
- Problem largely results from a lack of vision and holistic, big-picture thinking.
- Many families are on food stamps, and free/reduced lunch is a burdening expense in the education system. So: Why not feed the economically disadvantaged families/students with school gardens?
- Problems often start at the top: State Policy, school boards and school administration don’t want school gardens.
o Question of perspective: Is a garden beautiful, or messy and hard to maintain?
o Strong organization between parents and teachers is needed
o A top-down strategy starting by getting the principle engaged has proven to be very effective in some past cases
o Educating the educators: “What is a 21st century learner? A 21st century learner is technologically savvy and environmentally savvy and possesses food skills and other practical skills.
o We need to organize classes in how to navigate bureaucracy, (although we don’t have much time to do the navigating)
o Where is the money allotted for schools going?
- Using the school to grow food over the summer: children and their families gardening together
- Michelle Obama has a good model, but it can’t be replicated where state policy interferes.
- ASAP’s Farm to Schools Program: A lot of effort from a lot of people, with very little real gain because the existing policy/infrastructure is slow to change
o Cafeterias don’t have pots and pans, are not set up to actually cook anything, only to heat pre-made food.
- Get the kids to say that this is what they want
- Could income and/or free food gained from school gardens offset the cost of free/reduced lunch? Knowing the numbers and potential production would be helpful.
- Asheville could create the locally replicable model and lead the way, doing outreach education and field trips.
- Connecting with health/obesity related organizations (i.e. the American Diabetes Association) to collaborate on efforts
- Most important: Stronger community engagement
o Get the policy-makers to step out of the way and let the community do the work it wants to take care of itself.
o Push for policy allowing kids to eat what they grow.
- Determining individual next steps for members of the discussion:
o Developing Permaculture curriculum for Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools, suitable for NC statewide curriculum.
o Teaching cooking classes
o Teaching Permaculture at Asheville FreeSkool.
o Volunteering at MANNA Food Bank
o Collaborating with others to research the economic potential of school gardens
- There is not enough cohesion between the people who are currently doing work in the realm of food security/sovereignty and food re-localization.
- Dangers of this work: wasting time, not being effective, creating things that already exist.
- Too much talk, not enough action.
- We need to network, communicate, and organize for more efficiency and synergy
- “Who is already working in food?”
o Bountiful Cities Project: replicable model, 10 years old, doing good work
o Churches and schools in the area that already have gardens/garden clubs
o Manna Food Bank
o Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)
o Burton Street Community: created a replicable template with the Asheville Design Center. The template designs for neighborhood food security, as well as green-collar jobs.
o Asheville HUB: tackles the “big picture” questions for sustainable community development
o Pisgah View Peace Garden
o Localfood.com (and Jim Gordon)
o Master Gardeners and the Agriculture Extension Office
o Tailgate Markets
o And many, many more organizations
- Thorough mapping of this topic is needed in order to make the best of what is already being done, and what has yet to begin.
- Transition Asheville’s greatest task: Networking and including Everyone.
o Which organizations are willing to collaborate?
o Crowd Sourcing: Creating a mapping project that can be edited/added to by everyone, the way Wikipedia.org can be added to.
Part 2: Community Education and Food in Schools
- School grounds have excess grass and unused land-space which is costly to maintain and serves little purpose to the students and the community.
- The students/teachers leave for the summer, thus no one is present to take advantage of the growing season even in the schools that do have gardens.
- North Carolina State policy prohibits the food grown on school grounds from being served in the cafeteria.
- In New Orleans, virtually every school has a garden, and the students actually eat the food.
- Problem largely results from a lack of vision and holistic, big-picture thinking.
- Many families are on food stamps, and free/reduced lunch is a burdening expense in the education system. So: Why not feed the economically disadvantaged families/students with school gardens?
- Problems often start at the top: State Policy, school boards and school administration don’t want school gardens.
o Question of perspective: Is a garden beautiful, or messy and hard to maintain?
o Strong organization between parents and teachers is needed
o A top-down strategy starting by getting the principle engaged has proven to be very effective in some past cases
o Educating the educators: “What is a 21st century learner? A 21st century learner is technologically savvy and environmentally savvy and possesses food skills and other practical skills.
o We need to organize classes in how to navigate bureaucracy, (although we don’t have much time to do the navigating)
o Where is the money allotted for schools going?
- Using the school to grow food over the summer: children and their families gardening together
- Michelle Obama has a good model, but it can’t be replicated where state policy interferes.
- ASAP’s Farm to Schools Program: A lot of effort from a lot of people, with very little real gain because the existing policy/infrastructure is slow to change
o Cafeterias don’t have pots and pans, are not set up to actually cook anything, only to heat pre-made food.
- Get the kids to say that this is what they want
- Could income and/or free food gained from school gardens offset the cost of free/reduced lunch? Knowing the numbers and potential production would be helpful.
- Asheville could create the locally replicable model and lead the way, doing outreach education and field trips.
- Connecting with health/obesity related organizations (i.e. the American Diabetes Association) to collaborate on efforts
- Most important: Stronger community engagement
o Get the policy-makers to step out of the way and let the community do the work it wants to take care of itself.
o Push for policy allowing kids to eat what they grow.
- Determining individual next steps for members of the discussion:
o Developing Permaculture curriculum for Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools, suitable for NC statewide curriculum.
o Teaching cooking classes
o Teaching Permaculture at Asheville FreeSkool.
o Volunteering at MANNA Food Bank
o Collaborating with others to research the economic potential of school gardens
Food Open Space Discussion: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION FOR GROWING AN EDIBLE LANDSCAPE
A. Impassion people
1. Offer some fun, social events to become more of a community
2. Show fun & educational movies – Dirt, The Power of Community, Global Gardener
3. Eat together – have pot lucks
4. Have successful events & projects that are fun, beautiful, creative & experiential
5. Group work party is powerful tool to de-skill and re-skill neighbors
6. Use public spaces & front yards
7. Good examples are powerful
a. Container garden party – plan it, estimate costs, association buy containers, have a planting party
b. Floating styrofoam shipping containers growing hydroponic lettuces on lake
c. Floating gardens on lake
8. Important elements for projects are:
d. Design
e. Organization
f. Tools
g. Material
h. Labor
9. Have seed swaps, bake-offs, competitions, apple bobbing, old time fun to reconnect older folks, tool share
10. Offer Transition Orientation & Handbook Discussion Group
B. Individual Initiative
1. Turn up heat slowly
2. Bring in talent to design an individual garden as a good example
3. Raised beds, small plots, container gardens
4. Start small and build up
5. Change Association Rules to allow for edible landscape
C. Permaculture design for the community
1. What speaks to people – health, fun, economy
2. Have the community support a CSA farmer
3. Have a CSA farmer use our property for growing edibles for us
4. List of statistics –
a. Asheville has two day supply of food
b. only 5% of produce is grown locally
c. 100 sq. ft. of edible landscape = $700.00 of usable retail veggies spending $50.00 for tools, for a $1,600.00 return in food production ?????
5. Economic arguments – save money on lawn & ornamentals maintenance, grow edibles so we don’t have to buy them.
6. Go back to the local way – wholesome
7. Individuals grow specific edibles & everybody shares, barters their crops.
D. Obstacles are opportunities
1. Wake up call on our dependence of oil
2. Develop a mentoring system
3. Plan for succession & maintenance
4. Have a timed adoption agreement when planting
5. Identify your allies – don’t waste huge amounts of time on people not on board
6. Use your energy where it counts
7. Embrace failure on crops – don’t give up
8. Gather elder wisdom
9. Overcome fear of wild animals – fences, cages, share food (bird feeders draw bears)
E. Assistance
1. City, State, Federal funding
a. non-profit association
b. prototype
c. creator of jobs
d. food security
e. tailgate market
2. Veterans across street on Tunnel Road
3. Churches – grass clippings
4. Asheville Green Opportunities
5. Asheville Men’s Club – Jerry Hardesty 828-299-3315
6. Bill Whipple – 828-713-2424
7. Ashevillage Institute Janelle 828-279-1955
8. Food Not Lawns book by Heather Flores
1. Offer some fun, social events to become more of a community
2. Show fun & educational movies – Dirt, The Power of Community, Global Gardener
3. Eat together – have pot lucks
4. Have successful events & projects that are fun, beautiful, creative & experiential
5. Group work party is powerful tool to de-skill and re-skill neighbors
6. Use public spaces & front yards
7. Good examples are powerful
a. Container garden party – plan it, estimate costs, association buy containers, have a planting party
b. Floating styrofoam shipping containers growing hydroponic lettuces on lake
c. Floating gardens on lake
8. Important elements for projects are:
d. Design
e. Organization
f. Tools
g. Material
h. Labor
9. Have seed swaps, bake-offs, competitions, apple bobbing, old time fun to reconnect older folks, tool share
10. Offer Transition Orientation & Handbook Discussion Group
B. Individual Initiative
1. Turn up heat slowly
2. Bring in talent to design an individual garden as a good example
3. Raised beds, small plots, container gardens
4. Start small and build up
5. Change Association Rules to allow for edible landscape
C. Permaculture design for the community
1. What speaks to people – health, fun, economy
2. Have the community support a CSA farmer
3. Have a CSA farmer use our property for growing edibles for us
4. List of statistics –
a. Asheville has two day supply of food
b. only 5% of produce is grown locally
c. 100 sq. ft. of edible landscape = $700.00 of usable retail veggies spending $50.00 for tools, for a $1,600.00 return in food production ?????
5. Economic arguments – save money on lawn & ornamentals maintenance, grow edibles so we don’t have to buy them.
6. Go back to the local way – wholesome
7. Individuals grow specific edibles & everybody shares, barters their crops.
D. Obstacles are opportunities
1. Wake up call on our dependence of oil
2. Develop a mentoring system
3. Plan for succession & maintenance
4. Have a timed adoption agreement when planting
5. Identify your allies – don’t waste huge amounts of time on people not on board
6. Use your energy where it counts
7. Embrace failure on crops – don’t give up
8. Gather elder wisdom
9. Overcome fear of wild animals – fences, cages, share food (bird feeders draw bears)
E. Assistance
1. City, State, Federal funding
a. non-profit association
b. prototype
c. creator of jobs
d. food security
e. tailgate market
2. Veterans across street on Tunnel Road
3. Churches – grass clippings
4. Asheville Green Opportunities
5. Asheville Men’s Club – Jerry Hardesty 828-299-3315
6. Bill Whipple – 828-713-2424
7. Ashevillage Institute Janelle 828-279-1955
8. Food Not Lawns book by Heather Flores
Open Space Discussion: Economically Growing Perennial and Forest Crops, Propagation and Access/Distribution, Bio-shelters
Host: Justin and Susan
Participants: Monica, Beth, Justin, Susan, Anne, Ron, a few others
Summary of discussion:
Discussed concept of perennial foods replacing unsustainable food system:
regenerative, lower labor input,
Create groups of people interested/invested in perennial foods and sharing seeds, etc.
“Forest culture” term is intimidating because it feels inaccessible and foreign
need to reacquaint ourselves with native plants and how to use them
Bio-shelters: large greenhouse-like, cultivated ecosystem
Communities adopting edible landscapes like adopt-a-highway
Community nursery and neighborhood plant swaps - easy when the community already exists
If you build it, they will come - but development needs to be planned, controlled
-Create permaculture plan for a neighborhood, then present it to neighbors?
Next steps:
Propagation club and perennial research for sharing
Identify community space and support (grants?)
Buncombe fruit nuts club - googlegroups.com
Generate a model for creating neighborhood design and propagation clubs
Share lists of perennial plants and plant information
Learn about/develop sources for plant material
Participants: Monica, Beth, Justin, Susan, Anne, Ron, a few others
Summary of discussion:
Discussed concept of perennial foods replacing unsustainable food system:
regenerative, lower labor input,
Create groups of people interested/invested in perennial foods and sharing seeds, etc.
“Forest culture” term is intimidating because it feels inaccessible and foreign
need to reacquaint ourselves with native plants and how to use them
Bio-shelters: large greenhouse-like, cultivated ecosystem
Communities adopting edible landscapes like adopt-a-highway
Community nursery and neighborhood plant swaps - easy when the community already exists
If you build it, they will come - but development needs to be planned, controlled
-Create permaculture plan for a neighborhood, then present it to neighbors?
Next steps:
Propagation club and perennial research for sharing
Identify community space and support (grants?)
Buncombe fruit nuts club - googlegroups.com
Generate a model for creating neighborhood design and propagation clubs
Share lists of perennial plants and plant information
Learn about/develop sources for plant material
Food Open Space Event
On Saturday, Dec. 11th a group of 25-30 Asheville area residents came together to self-organize a discussion answering the question: How will Asheville feed itself in a future of post peak fossil fuel? The energy was high, with a lot of passion, concern, and inspiration in the room. Individuals from the group nominated several important topics for conversation in the realm of local food security, and formed break-out discussion groups around each topic. Topics included were:
1)Economically Growing Perennial and Forest Crops, Propagation and Access/Distribution, and Bio-shelters;
2)Community Organization for Growing an Edible Landscape - Neighborhood Organizing Strategy;
3)Collaboration with Existing Organizations Working with Food, Community Food Education, and Growing Food in Schools/School Gardens;
and perhaps the most ambitious topic:
4)Creating a Food Energy Descent Plan for Asheville.
The discussions were juicy, lively and engaged, with a great show of group participation. Each discussion group had a note taker recording the session. Some time was left at the very end for the larger group to reconvene. Each break-out group had a representative share a summary of the ideas discussed, so that everyone attending was able to benefit and learn from each discussion. At the very end of the event the attendees decided that it would be wise to meet again in January (exact date to be announced) to form a Transition Asheville Food Action Group, in order to begin actualizing the solutions to relocalizing our food system. The notes taken by each group will follow, each with it's own blog post. The hope is that these notes are the beginning of a much larger conversation on each of these topics. Please feel free to question, comment, and add to any and all discussions by commenting on the appropriate blog post. Much thanks to Chuck Marsh for facilitating the event, and to every person who attended and participated. We hope see you in January!
1)Economically Growing Perennial and Forest Crops, Propagation and Access/Distribution, and Bio-shelters;
2)Community Organization for Growing an Edible Landscape - Neighborhood Organizing Strategy;
3)Collaboration with Existing Organizations Working with Food, Community Food Education, and Growing Food in Schools/School Gardens;
and perhaps the most ambitious topic:
4)Creating a Food Energy Descent Plan for Asheville.
The discussions were juicy, lively and engaged, with a great show of group participation. Each discussion group had a note taker recording the session. Some time was left at the very end for the larger group to reconvene. Each break-out group had a representative share a summary of the ideas discussed, so that everyone attending was able to benefit and learn from each discussion. At the very end of the event the attendees decided that it would be wise to meet again in January (exact date to be announced) to form a Transition Asheville Food Action Group, in order to begin actualizing the solutions to relocalizing our food system. The notes taken by each group will follow, each with it's own blog post. The hope is that these notes are the beginning of a much larger conversation on each of these topics. Please feel free to question, comment, and add to any and all discussions by commenting on the appropriate blog post. Much thanks to Chuck Marsh for facilitating the event, and to every person who attended and participated. We hope see you in January!
Asheville Town Hall Food Panel
On December 7th approximately 70 people braved the coldest night of the year to hear six panelists discuss the present state of local food, food economics and future food security post peak oil. Speakers included Tom Elmore a local rural farmer, Mike Fortune an urban farmer, Curtis Benjamin from Bountiful Cities Project and My Brother’s Keeper, Charlie Jackson from Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, Laura Lengnick a professor at Warren Wilson College and Chuck Marsh, permaculture teacher and nurseryman.
We learned that Asheville may be ahead of the curve in local food production when considering the rest of the nation, but we are still food insecure given that we have two days worth of food in our grocery stores that rely upon a fragile supply chain that is dependent on cheap fossil fuel to keep their shelves stocked. Less than 10 percent of the food consumed locally comes from local sources which is grown by aging farmers. Land prices prohibit access to land for younger farmers and many citizens have forgotten the basic skills of gardening to help feed their families.
So how do we begin to become more resilient in feeding the people of WNC? How do we weave together local farms, community gardens and residential landscapes to create food security and abundance? There is not one answer. Several of the panelists stated that everyone can be educated to grow food and the place to start is outside your kitchen door. Permaculture design principles can be taught that maximize the amount of food grown in both private and public landscapes. More reliance on perennial crops such a nut trees and berry bushes, working with the city and county to improve soil to garden in the commons and planting community gardens in low income neighborhoods can all create better access to local food. Looking at what crops can be grown in the city could provide the space for farmers to grow crops that need more room and expertise such as corn and grains.
Predictions were made that post peak oil, many more people will be involved with food produc-tion, harkening back to the beginnings of this country which was founded by farmers. The lack of fossil fuel based pesticides and fertilizers will require more knowledge of plants that grow well here without those inputs. A more intimate relationship with the soil and pollinators that reside here will be necessary to take full advantage of the long growing season were are fortunate to have here. Each panelist was able to share what brings them hope. These include:
youth that are interested in learning how to grow food
a community that values and supports local food now
good growing conditions
talented farmers
Transition Asheville which is willing to serve as a catalyst that brings all of the dedicated people and organizations working in the local food arena together to draft a plan that moves our community away from fossil fuel dependent food and towards resilience that comes with a healthy local food supply.
We learned that Asheville may be ahead of the curve in local food production when considering the rest of the nation, but we are still food insecure given that we have two days worth of food in our grocery stores that rely upon a fragile supply chain that is dependent on cheap fossil fuel to keep their shelves stocked. Less than 10 percent of the food consumed locally comes from local sources which is grown by aging farmers. Land prices prohibit access to land for younger farmers and many citizens have forgotten the basic skills of gardening to help feed their families.
So how do we begin to become more resilient in feeding the people of WNC? How do we weave together local farms, community gardens and residential landscapes to create food security and abundance? There is not one answer. Several of the panelists stated that everyone can be educated to grow food and the place to start is outside your kitchen door. Permaculture design principles can be taught that maximize the amount of food grown in both private and public landscapes. More reliance on perennial crops such a nut trees and berry bushes, working with the city and county to improve soil to garden in the commons and planting community gardens in low income neighborhoods can all create better access to local food. Looking at what crops can be grown in the city could provide the space for farmers to grow crops that need more room and expertise such as corn and grains.
Predictions were made that post peak oil, many more people will be involved with food produc-tion, harkening back to the beginnings of this country which was founded by farmers. The lack of fossil fuel based pesticides and fertilizers will require more knowledge of plants that grow well here without those inputs. A more intimate relationship with the soil and pollinators that reside here will be necessary to take full advantage of the long growing season were are fortunate to have here. Each panelist was able to share what brings them hope. These include:
youth that are interested in learning how to grow food
a community that values and supports local food now
good growing conditions
talented farmers
Transition Asheville which is willing to serve as a catalyst that brings all of the dedicated people and organizations working in the local food arena together to draft a plan that moves our community away from fossil fuel dependent food and towards resilience that comes with a healthy local food supply.
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