Local Foods: a Global Idea

IATP has always had a strong local dimension to its work. The Institute was founded during the U.S. farm crisis of the 1980s, with a vision toward strengthening local action with an understanding of global pressures. Twenty years later, IATP's work on local food systems has taken on a new level of importance.

It was with real pleasure, then, that I recently learned about something that is local for me, in Adelaide, Australia. Friends of the Earth Adelaide has launched a sustainable food and agriculture campaign, called Reclaim the Food Chain.

Since most of my work is taking place 10,000 miles and more away, in either Geneva, Washington or Minneapolis, events happening locally take on a particularly rosy glow. Mind you, it took a global search to alert me to what was happening in my own backyard - I learned about the campaign in a regular email I have set-up from Google that alerts me to new internet postings related to "trade and agriculture." This time I caught an article by Joel Catchlove that talks about food sovereignty and a conference held last February in Mali, where Joel went as a delegate for Friends of the Earth Australia (scroll down at the link below to find his article on the conference, which was all about food sovereignty).

One dimension of the campaign is called The Urban Orchard, which is a monthly meeting place for people who want to swap and share their garden produce, and to give or take workshops on gardening and post-harvest processing. The inaugural session was held November 3rd and apparently went very well.

Another dimension is the production of some informative factsheets--nanotechnology, genetic engineering, agriculture and climate change are just a few of the topics already addressed, in clear and simple language with references for further reading.

It is the perfect place for a local food campaign, too. Year-round, one can eat excellent food in South Australia and sacrifice little. If Australia as a whole counts as local, there is almost nothing that cannot be grown or raised. But even just within the state the climate allows an enormous variety of foods to be grown. The outstanding question is water use - there is an acute water crisis in Australia, and our state is not exempt. For today, I am just happy to have met some colleagues on my own doorstep that share IATP's commitment to local food, informed by their analysis of global forces as well as an instinctive preference for buying from communities they know and work with. I suggested they try IATP's idea of a chef's local food "pie cook-off". Let's see where the campaign goes next.