Keeping our communities' food secure.

Thinking about food these days can be overwhelming In a world of food overproduction, people across the globe, the nation, and across town do not have enough food to feed their families. On the flip side of the same coin, malnutrition comes in the form of an obesity epidemic. The most affordable food on grocery store shelves is often the least nutritious, and it is proving to be the most costly for our health. We see farm and trade policies that threaten traditional cultures around the world and likewise threaten the viability of family farms in our own country. On average, U.S. farmers today receive less than ten cents for every dollar spent by the consumer. America loses two acres of farmland every day and the nation converted more than six million acres of agricultural land to developed use between 1992 and 1997. Food travels on average 1,500 miles to get to our dinner tables, and it typically changes hands 33 times before we ever see it. Un-sustainability seems to be the hallmark of our food system. There are a lot of things about it that are downright unpalatable. How are we to understand the relationships between these issues, and how can we address them in our own communities? A concept that can help us is community food security.

Community food security is a condition in which all residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice. It gives us a way to envision our home as the place to begin addressing those overwhelming challenges and concerns presented by our food system. It ties together the issues of farmland preservation, economic viability of local farms, public health and nutrition, and equitable food access into one bundle, and lays it right here at our own doorstep. Community food security is about health in the broadest sense, and it's about creating a truly sustainable food system that begins locally. It can help us understand the unending connections between our personal health, the health of our neighbors, and the health of our communities and landscapes. We all want to retain our region's farmland so we can produce food and enjoy the working landscape that distinguishes our communities and filters our air and water. We all want our farms to remain economically viable so they can stay in business. And we all want access to the most nutritious food available to our families and our neighbors. But it's up to us to figure out how to take action appropriate to our place.

Congress recently passed a tobacco buy-out bill that could dramatically impact agricultural production in western North Carolina, and in turn, our potential for community food security. To make a long story short, the tobacco buy-out will effectively eliminate the federal tobacco program that has regulated tobacco production and marketing since the Great Depression era. It will open tobacco up to an unregulated, free market system in which many farmers, particularly small-scale farmers like those in western North Carolina, will not be able to compete. In 2002, the 23 counties that make up western North Carolina grew over 7,000 acres of tobacco. That's almost fifteen percent of the region's harvested cropland excluding pasture. Some estimate that between fifty to eighty percent of tobacco farmers will exit farming altogether as a result of the buy-out. As many farmers exit tobacco production, we have an opportunity to increase food production to feed people locally. Tobacco farmers who transition to food production will need markets for their products, and we can support them by purchasing local food and encouraging our restaurants, groceries, and schools to purchase local food. This opens up new markets for local farmers.

Purchasing food directly from a farmer eliminates those 33 changes-of-hand our food typically makes before it gets to us (each hand taking a portion of the profit), so farmers retain a significantly greater portion of the consumer's food dollar. This means farmers can often charge a price that's less than or comparable to the cost of food in retail outlets, creating a win-win situation. Moving toward community food security requires that we address the needs of local farmers at the same time that we address the needs of those without access to an adequate amount and quality of food. The hope is that eventually these two strands will merge together as we learn to take care of our landscapes and human communities and put together all the pieces of the sustainability puzzle.

So where do we start? Even at this time of year, a number of local farm products are available, such as greenhouse vegetables, apples, winter squash, fresh artisan cheeses, eggs, and pasture-raised meats. Some local farmers produce vegetables in greenhouses hydroponically, making fresh produce available year-round. One such farmer provides fresh locally-grown lettuce to school children in Asheville and Madison County through the efforts of ASAP's Farm to School Initiative, building healthy minds and bodies for our children. Do what you can to support local farmers--it helps farm families stay on the land, and that keeps our communities and landscapes healthier. Talk about it with your friends and co-workers. Community food security depends, after all, on all segments of the community getting involved in a discussion about food and envisioning a future in which we all have access to the fresh, nutritious food that we deserve. To get a taste of Appalachian flavor every month of the year, consult the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project's Local Food Guide, available for no cost at businesses that support local farms and online at www.BuyAppalachian.org.

Libby Hinsley is the Local Food Campaign Coordinator for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. Contact her at 828-236-1282 or [e-mail]