I've Signed the Letter--Will You Join Me?

There is amazing momentum gathering for the local foods movement here in Central New York.  This letter, penned by Marty Butts, will help spur us on.  Give it a read and if you want to sign it with me, click on Marty's email address at the bottom of the letter. 

February 28, 2011

An Open Letter To Central New York-

Food is being shipped into Central New York everyday from Mexico and China, while jobs are being shipped out. Despite living in a country obsessed with health and nutrition, for the first time in our nation’s history, children being born today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Products masquerading as food clog up pantries and plates.



We believe that a healthy and vibrant food system is the key to improving our economy, our environment, our health, and our culture. We believe that everyone deserves access to fresh whole food, including our children when they are in school, and everyone in all of our neighborhoods. We believe that the answers we seek as citizens don’t come from outside of Central New York, but grow right here at home.

We are chefs, advocates, artisans, and entrepreneurs. We are food system professionals and enthusiasts, farmers and gardeners. We come from all corners of the political spectrum and live in every neighborhood in every town and city in our region. We are your friends and neighbors. We grow food, eat food, and share food.

We pledge to collaborate with each other to improve our food system and our community. We pledge to share our experiences, promote each others work, hire each other when we can, and lend a hand when need be. We ask you, Central New York, to pledge to do the same; to improve our community and to become a model for communities everywhere. We control our own destiny, but only if we work together. We will support you. Please support us.



In Collaboration-


Martin H Butts
Local Foods Advocate
Small Potatoes

Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Cookin' in the 'Cuse


To find out how you can sign in support please email Marty Butts at [email protected].

Comments

[Susan]

Is there work being done to reverse the flow in the first paragraph? How can our passion for local food and for the place we live translate into jobs that will sustain the people living here? Could Central New York be a site for agriculture on a large enough scale to feed people who have no direct access to local farms? Central New York right now is so vulnerable to the lure of quick money from things like fracking because we are economically depressed. Is there some way we can turn that around?

[Tristan Phillips]

"for the first time in our nation’s history, children being born today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents"

I would LOVE to see citations backing that up. I call major BS on that line right there.

As for buying locally, sure. I do that now. So when do I get my locally grown citrus? Locally grown out of season veggies? How about something as simple as locally made mass produced pasta? Beginning to see where the concept of "buy local" starts to fall apart?

And until I see organizations such as this start working towards rolling back government regulation and taxes I'll take their requests as not being serious.

Buy local when it makes sense. Not when it's just a method to prop up local businesses that don't make sense or want to keep out competition.

[SmallPotatoes42]

@Tristan- Here's a report from 5 years ago in the New York Times that says it "may" happen: http://tiny.cc/0vuvt. The more recent report is from the National Research Council, saying that time has come. I personally heard that report referenced by Kathy Lawrence, founder of Just Food.

And I'm not saying anywhere that people should only ever eat locally produced food. That's clearly unattainable. I'm saying we can work harder to do a better job of supporting our food system, both as professionals or as eaters. When I talk to consumers (and professionals for that matter) I ask them simply to make 1 better decision. Buy only locally produced eggs. Already do that? Locally roasted coffee. Locally made potato chips. Pasta sauce. Any dairy or meat. Buying extra veggies in the summer and freezing them.

As far as taxes go, I'll let someone else work on that. I'm focused on the fact that 70% of our economy is consumer driven (New York Times again), and that we can divert some of that into buying in our local food system and dramatically improve the quality of life in our community.

[SmallPotatoes42]

@Susan- There is a lot of work being done to reverse that flow. One of the intentions of this letter is to get the hundreds of people working on these issues on our community to spend more time collaborating and driving each others success. As entrepreneurs and business owners we often get so stuck in our own work we miss the work going on around us that supports what we do.

It's about much more than agriculture, but yes, CNY farms can feed more people. We are blessed with a unique a fertile collection of soils unlike anything found elsewhere. The Finger Lakes Regions, the Black Dirt Region near the Catskills, the climates created by being south of Lake Ontario. We can fight the lure of quick cash by building a stronger economy, producing more, and better jobs, and a strong food system is a foundation for that.

[gold party]

You should find out the current market rate for gold and how items are evaluated.