Sustainable Agriculture - and Energy What it will look like; what government can do

1. Sustainable Agriculture - and EnergyWhat it will look like; what government can do For ECSC Land Use and Transportation Subcommittee – June 10, 2008 David Reed www.wafsa.com 352-222-0651

2. Converging Problems • Escalating fuel costs • Escalating biofuels production • Climate crises • Resource Degradation - Richard Heinberg, Dec. 2007

3. Converging Opportunities • Protracted war and global instability – energy implicated • Global warming - panic • Fuel prices drives consumer action • Crises in the food industry • Public awareness of interconnection between energy, food, transportation, climate • Growing demand for local, sustainable food • Solutions WANTED NOW= receptive audience • Election year in USA

4. 2008 Farm Bill • Specialty Crop Research -- $30M • Organic certification - $22M over 5 yrs • Organic Agriculture Research and Extension - $78M over 4 yrs • Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program - $5M • Beginning farmers and ranchers - $75M over 4 yrs • Farmers market promotion - $33M over 5 yrs • State-inspected meat can now be shipped for interstate commerce (helps local meat processing facilities) • RMA Community Outreach Program – 70% reduction

5. Land Use / Transportation: Priorities • Coordinate Land Use and Transportation to reduce energy use in agriculture, commerce, education, and other sectors. • Coordinate across agencies, across communities, and between public/private sectors. • Use planning to avoid urban sprawl, raise urban densities, find best use of land in every location. • Better implement existing comp plans and other policies to reduce energy use. • Raise awareness of links between energy, transportation and land use.

6. Assumptions Enormous changes to come in global foods systems. We need to: • Redesign, re-structure, and reform local food systems • Rebuild the cultural basis of food production • De-centralize, un-concentrate. Move to integrated, dispersed, stable systems.

7. Assumptions (cont) Minimize energy costs – fuel, chemicals, tillage, cultivation, transport, etc. • Minimize transportation distances and costs • Build food production in and around urban areas • Move food to people efficiently, rather than people to food inefficiently

8. Assumptions (cont) Minimize inputs: fertilizer, chemicals, water, and energy inputs -- labor?? • Anticipate peak oil, peak phosphorous, peak water, etc. • Cumulative impact assessments

9. Assumptions (cont) • Maximize use of organic inputs – composts, manures, recyclables • Increase nutritive values of foods (and energy efficiency in the process) • Increase vegetable, reduce animal component in diets. • Re-build an agricultural society to be sustainable

10. Basic Goals for agriculture • Build a regional food system • Build a regional food community • Build a regional food marketplace

11. Sustainable Agriculture • environmental health • human health • economic profitability • social and economic equity

12. Consumer Preferences • Local, Small • Quality - safety, flavor and freshness, appearance, nutrition • Organic, or ‘natural’ • Documented • Profitable • Environmental Quality • Farmland and habitat preservation • Convenient

13. Food System Basic Components Production >> Marketing >> Transport

14. Resources • Land, Water, Labor, Energy • Infrastructure • Social and Cultural Assets • Information • Organization • *Demand *

15. Participants • Producers, processors, warehousers • distributors, brokers, marketers • Farmers Markets, cooperatives, CSA’s • restaurants, wineries, breweries • institutions, corporations, NPO’s, agencies • Etc.

16. Participants – Gainesville FL • County and City Planning Offices • Special programs and initiatives, such as: • Energy Conservation Strategies Commission • UF Office of Sustainability • UF Center for Organics, IFAS • Alachua County Agricultural Extension • IFAS Small Farms Program, and IFAS Food and Resource Economics Dept • AC Dept of Environmental Protection (EPD) • AC Natural Resources Conservation (NRCS) • USDA Resource Conservation and Development (see www.Floridafarmlink.org) • Gainesville Chamber of Commerce • Sustainable Alachua County • Florida Organic Growers (FOG), based in Gainesville • High Schools, Churches, and other institutions that have local food connections • Hundreds of local growers, many of whom are expert or innovative in different methods • Increased local sourcing by existing retailers, such as Publix Greenwise products • New cooperatives, restaurants, farmers markets, and other initiatives focused on local foods

17. What will it look like? Foodshed -NOT 25 mi

18. What will it look like? 100 mi

19. Gainesville – 25 and 50 Mile radius General Land Use: Agriculture And Institutional Data Source: FGDL

20. Gainesville – 25 Mile radius General Land Use: Agriculture And Institutional Data Source: FGDL

21. Distribution system • Direct sales, minimal brokerage • Minimal hauling distances • Maximize backhauling • Aggregated pickup points • Aggregated dropoff points • Minimal processing, packaging, storage…. • Use maps, GIS and communications to plan and adjust routes. • Avoid overlap and redundancy in transport • Avoid multiple haulers servicing the same areas

22. Specific Actions –map and analyze the region Maps: • Map the industry – growers, retailers, farmers markets, distributors, warehouses, supplies and services, restaurants, wineries, breweries, processors, slaughterhouses, value-added…………… • See Marketmaker websites for more info about how to do this – www.marketmaker.uiuc.edu. • Map the resources – water, soils, roads, etc. • Distribute maps to the food system – growers, consumers, agencies - online, interactive.

24. Specific Actions –analyze and set goals • Analyze the industry and resources • Clarify objectives, and set quantitative goals for regional food system • Example: Oakland CA - 40% of vegetables to come from within 50 mile radius by 2015. • Hypothetical, Gainesville: • 25% of food to come from within 75 miles by 2015 • 50% of all food to come from within 300 miles by 2015

25. Specific Actions - • Provide coordination, education, information • Maintain a central web portal that will be a: • gateway to ALL food system resources and issues for a given region • Knowledge base • Links to maps, analysis, market tools, distribution system

26. Specific Actions –Land use issues • Preserve Farmland and ‘open space’ • Model best areas for food production, and other food system components • Encourage best use of resources, via permitting, planning, allocation • Help connect farm labor with available farm land (see Floridafarmlink) • Focus on raising profitability of agriculture

27. Specific Actions –regulatory issues • Reform regulatory system to apply to sustainable production • Encourage fair market practices (ie. Avoid monopolies, external controls) • Encourage proper application of subsidies, grants

28. Specific Actions –regulatory issues Protect local interests • Turtles in Lake Orange • Raw milk, grassfed beef, farmers market fees, value-added products • Help farmers meet insurance and food safety requirements for sales to institutions, wholesalers. • Mediate the collision between ‘conventional’ and ‘alternative’ agriculture

29. Specific Actions –Institutional Institutions can play a major role in re-building local food systems • Farming and gardening at schools, prisons, mental health facilities • Local sourcing by institutional food services • Buying clubs at churches, agencies, corporations, and other collection points • Distribution points – dropoff, storage, value-added • Food banks – well-established, existing networks connect growers and retailers to institutions

30. Specific Actions – • Influence market structure • Assist small growers to meet marketing requirements – insurance, safety certification • Participate in a regional online marketplace • Coordinate food systems between regions • Look to emergency response system for government role in interregional coordination • Promote distant markets where advisable