Eat Locally: Growing A Statewide Localvore Movement

By Robin McDermott

It was two years ago this past August that a small group of women in the Upper Valley (the White River Junction/Hanover NH area) decided they would try eating only local food for the month of August. Inspired by a group who were doing something similar in San Francisco who called themselves Locavores, the Upper Valley Women decided to call themselves Localvores (with an “l” in local) and started a food movement that has changed the way Vermonters are eating in just two short years. Last summer, it is estimated that over 1000 people across the state of Vermont took the EAT LOCAL Challenge. While this year's numbers are not yet in, the Localvore Group in Burlington is predicting 1000 participants in their area alone. New Localvore groups have sprung up across the state and range from large groups in the states biggest towns of Burlington, Montpelier, Rutland and Brattleboro, to small groups of just a handful of participants in towns like Brookfield.

The term "Localvore" no longer needs to be defined when you use it. Articles across the country have reported on Localvore activities, often citing San Francisco and Vermont as the origins of the movement. Personally I get at least one call a week from a TV station, newspaper, or magazine asking about the Localvore project. So, rather than reporting on what the Localvores are, I would like to share some stories about what this fledgling movement has done in its two short years of existence and what needs to be done in the future to maintain the momentum.

Increased Sales for Vermont Farmers

Farmers across the state have reported booming sales this summer. Mad River Valley farmer Dave Hartshorn of Santa Davida Farm says that his sales have exploded this year. Everything he brings to the Waitsfield Farmers Market on Saturdays is sold and savvy shoppers know they need to get to the market early to get the best selection. Another Mad River Valley farmer, Hadley Gaylord, who is a diversified farmer and has a herd of 250 beef cattle, reports that he is selling all of the beef that he has. While the problem for farmers always used to be selling their products, the problem now has become keeping up with the growing demand for the local food that they provide. This is great news for young people who are interested in farming. It gives them hope that they are getting into a career with a real future!

The Return of Forgotten Crops

In the 1800s the Champlain Valley was the bread basket of New England yet today very little wheat is being grown in Vermont. The UVM Ag Extension along with some Vermont farmers are exploring ways to bring wheat back to Vermont. A fascinating article about the project appeared in the Times-Argus in mid-August. It turns out that the “father of wheat breeding”, one Cyrus Pringle, born in 1838, hailed from East Charlotte. Three of the wheat varieties he developed were named Champlain, Surprise, and, my favorite name, Defiance. According to Heather Darby, UVM coordinator for the project, “Defiance was the most famous of all three and the most widely adapted across the United States." The article reported that Defiance was the variety most widely grown in Washington State where most of the country's wheat is grown, from the late 1800s into the early 1900s, and is a parent of many varieties used today. Large scale wheat production could be returning soon to Vermont. Several test crops have been grown throughout the state this summer and area bakers are eagerly awaiting the results.

Local Food Shortages

Dried beans, popping corn, and sunflower oil are ingredients that many Localvores will have to do without during the September challenges this year. While these items were available this time last year, they are now highly sought after and when they hit the grocery store shelves they move fast. While the food shortages are a disappointment to Localvores, they encourage farmers to expand their crops. Just about every farmer I have met in Vermont says the same thing, “prove to us that you want something and we will grow it for you.” When a farmer runs out of something that used to last the entire year, it sends a strong message, “We want more!”

Increased Awareness of Food Rights

This year's agriculture viability omnibus bill that was signed by the governor in late May got a lot of people talking about their right to good, local food. The bill became known as the “chicken bill” because one part of the bill made a significant change to the existing poultry processing regulations. After George Schenk of American Flatbread bucked the system and threatened to serve “uninspected” chicken from a neighboring farm in his restaurant in June of 2006, people who previously knew nothing about the poultry processing regulations were talking like experts arguing for or against the change in the law. I know that I never really wondered where chicken I was served in a restaurant was from or how it was raised until I got involved in supporting the bill through Rural Vermont. The big message with the passage of the “chicken bill” is that consumers have a RIGHT to decide what they eat. Providing they have the facts, let the eaters decide what is good for them and what isn't. Over 400 people showed up at American Flatbread in Waitsfield for “Chicken Event 2” in June to eat the now legal chicken topped flatbreads and to celebrate the passage of the new law.

Spotlight on Vermont

Vermont is quickly becoming a model for other communities across the country. Articles about Vermont's Eat Local scene have appeared in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and most recently The Nation. Personally there is not a week that goes by that I don't get a call from someone outside of the state wanting to do an article on the success of our local food movement. But, more important than the spotlight, is that other communities are being inspired by what we are doing and are taking up their own Eat Local efforts. As much fun as it is with Vermont being the leader in the Eat Local Movement, if other, bigger states don't follow, we will never break the hold that the industrial food system has on what we eat nationwide.

Broadening the Localvore Community

Even with the great participation we have had in the Eat Local Challenges this year, it accounts for a small number of residents in the state. As a truly grassroots effort with no budget and no full time staff, the Localvore leaders in the state have had to get creative with how we get the message out. In mid July several state leaders including Governor Jim Douglas, Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee, House Speaker Gaye Symington took the Eat Local Leadership Challenge. Speaker Symington took the challenge very seriously and baked bread using all local flour to share with the colleagues. Others ate vegetables they had grown or meat from wild animals they had hunted last season.

By getting high profile people to participate in the challenges and getting creative with other events, the Localvores are getting their message out and at the same time hopefully educating influential people who can spread the Eat Local message to a broader audience.

So, what's next for Local Food?

Localvore groups throughout the state will continue holding the Eat Local Challenges as they have been for the past two years. The Challenges are a fun way to help people learn about our state's ability to feed itself. Most people have become very complacent eaters giving little thought to the food that they are being served. As long as it is fast, cheap, and tastes reasonably good (often thanks to lots of fat, sugar and salt) most people seem to be happy. But, the transformation from a mostly all local diet of 100 years ago to one where virtually nothing local ends up in most peoples grocery carts these days has been a slow boil. As a result, most people don't see what has happened. In a sense, the challenge can shock people into the reality of how dependent we have become on food from far beyond the boarder of our state. But once the awareness is there and the demand for local food is growing, there is a lot more that needs to happen in order for the state to be able to meet the growing demand for more local food.

We Need Farmers and Farmers Need Land

Pete Johnson of Pete's Greens in Craftsbury says that Vermont “Can feed itself,” but in order to do that we are going to need more farmers and those farmers need land. In the Mad River Valley where I live it is impossible for a young family interested in farming to purchase land. Only two of the six farmers who come to our farmer's market have farms in the Mad River Valley. We are very lucky that farmers are willing to travel to our market because all of them sell just about everything they bring to the market each week. The demand is clearly there. Without these out-of-town farmers, all of the people in our town who want local food would not be able to buy it. What happens when our out-of-town farmers get more demand for their food in their home towns of Peacham or Tunbridge? Pete's Johnson's vision of the local food system in Vermont is that towns and villages become more self-sufficient in feeding themselves. Pete imagines that someday his market area will shrink just to his town of Craftsbury area and that other towns will have their own farmers providing diversified crops, meat, eggs, and dairy products so that consumers and farmers don't have to travel great distances to sell and buy their local food. But, to get to that point, we need more people farming and more land for farming.

In the Mad River Valley a consortium of not-for-profit organizations is in the process of buying a 20 acre farm that is ideal for vegetable production and perhaps raising small animals. The Rutland Food and Farm Link (RAFFL) has developed a plan for an incubator farm similar to the Intervale model. Schools like the University of Vermont and Sterling College are teaching kids that farming is a cool and noble profession and more young college graduates are looking for ways to start their own businesses raising and growing food. Organizations like the Vermont Land Trust and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board are working to conserve land for farming use and to link farmers to those lands through various programs that they offer. A lot is going on to support farming in Vermont and hopefully these activities can serve as models for communities throughout the state to encourage and support more local food production.

Infrastructure

If Vermont is going to be able to feed itself year round, we need to build an infrastructure that will support that. Some farmers are able to store their own produce for the winter, but most cannot. Perhaps instead of thinking of winter storage as a responsibility of the farmer some enterprising people or organizations will see a business opportunity and add another important piece to the local food puzzle. Ariel Zevon did just that and after more than a year of planning and fundraising opened LACE (Local Agricultural Community Exchange). LACE, located in Barre, sells local produce, vegetables, meats, cheeses, eggs and other local foods and also has a café and a community kitchen where food is put up for the winter and people can go to learn about food preservation.

As with the greater need for farmers and land, we also need a complimentary infrastructure to support a more local food system. The Vermont Department of Agriculture encourages Vermonters to substitute 10% of the food we “import” into Vermont with local products. It has been estimated that this would result in $376 million in new economic output including $69 million in personal earnings from 3,616 jobs. There is a lot of opportunity out there for people who want to help rebuild an infrastructure for local food.

Changing Our Way of Thinking

We need to retrain ourselves to eat more seasonally. Rather than pressuring farmers to consider costly greenhouses or worse yet running farms in warmer climates in the winter to ship food back home to Vermont, we need to change our way of thinking. Being a Localvore means more than participating in an Eat Local Challenge more than once or twice a year, it means changing the way we think about the food that we eat. While last year I considered giving up salad greens in the winter a sacrifice, this year it will simply be a way of life.