‘Good food’
‘Good food’ being redefined
Clay Evans, guest editor
Boulder Daily Camera
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Original article is at:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/oct/07/good-food-being-redefined/
I’m a believer in human ingenuity as much as the next guy. But chances are better than average that there will be no deux ex machina solution to the inevitable plateau and eventual decline in world oil production, and that means we’re not always going to be able to live the way we have for the last 100 years or so.
Virtually everything we touch is loaded with invisible — or often, visible — petro-inputs. The astounding diversification of available products in just the last 50 years is due not just to cheap oil used in production processes, whether on a farm or in a factory, but just as significantly, in transportation.
This seems particularly true when it comes to food. Not so long ago, you couldn’t get a decent head of lettuce at certain times of year, and you sure couldn’t have fresh, exotic seafood on your plate on demand unless you were part of the upper crust. Now, you can sink your teeth into a crisp apple in February or eat Australian-caught roughy simply because (yes, even now) oil is cheap, and someone, somewhere, can make money getting it to you.
Call me a pessimist, but don’t count on that in 50 years or so. But I’m not the only one wondering about our food, where it comes from and how all that might change if or when petroleum prices make production and transport a considerably more expensive proposition. Hence the flurry of books on the subject of agricultural sustainability and mushrooming crop of restaurants featuring seasonal, locally grown menus — “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved,” for example.
It also explains why two idealistic, local capitalists are trying to become Colorado’s most comprehensive resource to hook up conscientious eaters with local sustainable farmers.
“We want to be like the Yellow Pages for sustainable agriculture,” says Tracy Sweely, 41, of Lafayette, co-founder of Colorado Local Sustainability and The Rocky Mountain Growers’ Directory.
Sweely, an office manager, and her business partner Jim Sincock, 41, of Nederland, a graphic designer, got talking about how tricky it can be to find local growers and ranchers who are doing things with an eye toward the future. They spent four months researching to see if they could find enough to make a directory worthwhile, and they were surprised.
“We found almost 600,” Sweely says.
So now, through their growing Web site, the pair are busily building a network, and plan to publish the first-edition of a hard-copy guide in the spring. Currently, about 30 growers have paid the nominal $50 fee to be listed, and they are seeking sponsorships and advertising for the site and the book. But this is an avocation: Both are still working full-time jobs.
But unsurprisingly, considering neither Sweely nor Sincock have training in agriculture, getting the business up and running has taken them to school. For instance, they were puzzled at how many humane, organic and sustainable livestock growers signed up fairly quickly yet fruit and vegetable farmers seemed to be staying away in droves.
“They had a hard row to hoe,” says Phil Haynes, owner of Rocky Plains Quality Meat in Dacono, which raises and sells free-range buffalo, lamb, chicken and pork, who has been a mentor for Sincock and Sweely, “because they were trying to do this in (farmers’) busiest season. I told them to make a push after the farmers’ markets are all ended, and in the meantime, come up with names and addresses and keep moving forward.”
Haynes says other people have attempted to create such a directory, but only Sincock and Sweely have put forth the kind of effort to make it fly. “And it’s long overdue,” he says. “It’s hard for people looking for these types of products to find them. There are lots of Web sites out there, but if you don’t know the names, you can’t find them.”
Sweely says the site already is getting 40 to 50 unique hits a day, and is one of the top sites coming up on searches for Colorado local agriculture.
If all this sounds oh-so-Boulder, keep in mind that most of these farmers and ranchers are anything but fuzzy-wuzzy liberal tree-huggers. They just want agriculture to return to its pre-industrialized, pre-cruelty, local roots.
“This is such a worthwhile endeavor,” Haynes says. “There are a lot of farmers doing (sustainable agriculture), but they don’t understand how to make the marketing happen. These guys do.”
Go to www.localsustainability.net to learn more.
E-mail: claybonnyman@yahoo.com
© 2006 Daily Camera and Boulder Publishing, LLC.
