grants for staple foods collaborative press

AppStaple's picture

Hi to all-

Since most of you are around the state or even in other states, we wanted to post our press release about grants we received to study public land use and staple food system needs in our region. I've pasted in the release as it went out to local papers yesterday...

 

New project to assess local food opportunities
ATHENS, Ohio – What started with two friends investigating how staple food crops can perform in our region’s soils and climate, (see Athens News story July 14, 2008), has grown into a multifaceted project that is bringing state and federal funding for farming, food policy, and economic development under the Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative, a loosely formed group started by Brandon Jaeger and Michelle Ajamian this year.

“Brandon and Michelle have done an amazing job.  I am very impressed with the community involvement and the wide range of supporters they’ve developed,” said Joan Benjamin, Associate Regional Coordinator for the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture, Research and Education Program (NCR-SARE), which funded the first leg of their work with a two-year grant that started spring of 2008.

Jaeger said that his interest in staple crops started when he looked at all of the locally produced fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, and dairy that he could purchase at the regional farmers’ markets and other food outlets that support local farmers and food producers. He felt like the bounty also pointed to a missing piece.

“The bulk of the calories and protein of a healthy human society comes from what I call ‘staple seed crops,’” he said, explaining that these crops include grains, beans, oils, nuts, seeds and pseudo-cereals. Pseudo-cereals are seeds that we use like grains, such as buckwheat or amaranth.

“I noticed that I had to bring all of this fine local produce home to accompany a jar of dry beans, a loaf of bread, or a bag of pasta, the raw material of which was grown on the other side of the continent-or the world. I’d like to see that change.”

Last year, Ajamian and Jaeger grew a test plot of an heirloom variety of meal corn, which was served by the Village Bakery for several months, in the form of their famous tortillas. They are gearing up for a second season, in which meal corn, along with several other staple seed crops, will be grown on commercial-scale plots with the help of several local farmers.

A factor in making these crops locally available is their processing and storage requirements. Before last year’s test plots were maturing, the pair had already realized that growing is just a piece of the food system needed to truly make these crops local.

Most recently, Ajamian and Jaeger teamed up with Rural Action to apply for funding to study the system needs for staple foods in our region. Their proposal to form a food policy council and study publicly owned and managed agricultural land both in Athens City and County was among four projects statewide that were awarded grants through the Farmland Protection Partnership Program (FPPP) and the Center for Farmland Protection and Innovation. A second study, funded through the Boston-based Sociological Initiatives Foundation, will identify what’s needed to build a staple food system for our region. The outcomes from both grants are expected to be relevant to other parts of Ohio and Appalachia.

“Solid community planning and organizing can enhance the viability of local agriculture and the health of area farms,” said Jill Clark, the center's director. “By considering agriculture to be part of local economic development strategies, communities can benefit by keeping more dollars circulating in the local economy and protecting local farmland resources.”

Athens City and Athens County Commissioners are providing matching funds to launch an alliance to examine how publicly owned and managed farmland can be used to grow food crops, particularly high-nutrition staple food crops. “In addition to matching funds, both the City and County have committed the expertise of City Planner Paul Logue and County Planner Bob Eichenberg,” said Ajamian, who will direct the project.

“The whole point of this program is to support innovative, creative ways to boost local agriculture,” said Clark who went on to explain that the Ohio Department of Agriculture is a partner on funding the Athens project. “I think the ODA coming to the table shows that there's a lot of support throughout Ohio for helping new ideas get off the ground."

Other counties to receive funding are Wayne, Lake, and Lucas counties.

“Our aim is to look at how we can boost sustainable farming practices, redirect crops away from commodity feed to human food crops, and impact the ever-growing population of the food insecure in our region. The question is simple: ‘Can local government, water boards, and farmers partner to use precious agricultural land to grow high-nutrition food for the region and boost the farming economy at the same time?’” said Jaeger.

The project proposes to bring policy-makers and community members to the table to assess the policy opportunities and obstacles for growing food for local human consumption–boosting the local economy and at the same time increasing local food security.

According to Jaeger, hundreds of acres of our county’s best farmland are owned and managed by Athens County, the City of Athens and various water districts, and are not in production.

“This is particularly critical in the Appalachian Ohio region, where our hilly and densely forested topography means a lot of small, irregular plot farms with marginal soils,” he said.

Of particular interest are wellhead protection areas that are not being farmed in order to keep chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides out of the water table we use for drinking water.

“We want to assess what farming methods can meet the recommendations of the EPA’s guides for aquifer protection,” said Ajamian.  “If this study can promote chemical-free growing techniques, which are not only better for soil and water but generate more income for farmers, it’s going to be a win-win for everyone,” she said.

The second grant, awarded to the Collaborative and Rural Action by the Sociological Initiatives Foundation, will map the network of people and resources that can help create a staple foods system for our region.
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 “There’s more to this study than knowing who is growing what, where it’s being processed, sold, and distributed,” said Ajamian who will be working with Policy and Research Associate Robin Stewart from the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University and June Holley of Networkweaving to conduct the research.

“Any community’s assets come down to relationships, so our methodology will focus both on the nuts and bolts needed for this food system and how people work together,” she said. “You can have all the best facilities and ground but without good working relationships, nothing happens. That’s why our primary research is about how those stakeholders work together and where the gaps are,” she said.

Jaeger stressed the importance of developing a system that addresses food security. “One of our objectives is to examine what it would take to develop a high nutrition cereal from local farming that could replace the highly processed and long distance products that dominate food pantries and food banks,” he said.
 
“I just think it’s critical to work on a regional system that addresses how we might produce more of what we need right here, and that we measure the emerging local food system by its inclusion of those who are the most food insecure,” he said.

Both projects are administered through Rural Action, a community-based member organization with more than 15 years experience in sustainable agriculture programming in Appalachian Ohio. Their other project areas include energy, forestry, youth leadership, and watershed restoration. They are based in Trimble, Ohio.

“At Rural Action we like to support the growth of smart projects that make a difference,” said Executive Director of Rural Action, Michelle Decker. “This project reinforces everything we know about how to build an on-the-ground project that serves communities, economies, and the environments of our region. That’s why we decided to support this effort.”

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Comments

Congratulations!

Ross MacDonald's picture

Brandon and Michelle,

Congratulations!  Your efforts demonstrate not only the value of collaborating across the production consumption continuum in local foods but the processes for achieving it. i would hope that this process gets documented. As a template or model, and given that it has space for adaptations for each unique setting, it has tremendous value for others in various stages of similar efforts.

i imagine that i am one of many who are looking forward to hearing more about how this develops, what you are learning from it, and what the many participants are accomplishing because of it. Keep up the inspired work!

(temporarily unpublished the

webadmin's picture

<p>(temporarily unpublished the last comment, as it looks like it was manually inserted spam. I will restore after I&nbsp;verify from user that they are a real person)</p>
<p>Update: talked with Brandon and Michelle, and we want to look at some way to replicate resources that we are deploying for others that will make it simple for them to document on an ongoing basis, and share their processes. </p>
<p>This set of resources can easily integrate with Local Food Systems, too.</p>

local foods policy

bjseckler's picture

Michelle and Brandon,

It was great to meet you on Saturday. We share an interest in moving local food policy forward. While Columbus lacks larger areas for small urban farms and community gardens (with an exception or two), our Land Bank is an active partner in scanning a portfolio of vacant areas. We are also talking about vacant housing as a great alternative for gardens/small urban farms. I share your comment that having ODA's involvement is of great value.