The Importance of Eating Locally

The choice to eat locally grown food is turning into a movement, as more and more people recognize the importance of eating locally. But if you really want to eat locally grown food, the best way is to grow it yourself. Even if you live in the city. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with an urban farmer in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland and the owner of an urban farm store. Nikki Hill runs Riverhouse Farm, a community-supported agriculture operation on the banks of Crystal Springs in Sellwood. Started in 2007, the RiverHouse Farm CSA  is an 8,000 sq. ft organic farm that believes a sustainable farm functions as a healthy ecosystem. For the 2010 season they have added more growing space at GeerCrest Farm in Silverton and HeartField Farm in Milwaukie, to better serve their growing number of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members. We talk about why it's important to develop urban-rural farm networks like these in order to feed us all.

Our other guest is Naomi Montacre, one of the owners of a new farm store, Naomi's Organic Farm Supply, a few blocks north of Riverhouse Farm in the Sellwood neighborhood. Naomi's sells supplies for the urban homesteader, ranging from baby chicks to berry bushes. We talk with Naomi about why a neighborhood farm store has become a requisite feature in today's urban environment.

Coming events of interest to urban farmers:

Infarmation: http://naomisorganic.blogspot.com/2010/03/infarmation-starts-seeds-and-potatoes.html

Food and Climate Change: Step up the plate: http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?a=294789&c=44851

A City Hall Garden celebration / info fair and climate discussion with author Anna Lappé

Sunday, April 18 at 1 PM

According to author Anna Lappé, "If we are serious about addressing climate change we have to talk about food." Lappé will lead that conversation in Portland on Sunday, April 18 at 2 p.m. in the Portland Building when she participates in a panel discussion, Food and the Climate Challenge: Step Up to the Plate. This free event will also include other area experts discussing how food affects our personal and environmental health and the simple steps we all can take to make a difference.

The panel will follow a celebration of Portland City Hall's Better Together Garden's second year and a food gardening information fair. OSU Master Gardeners, Oregon Tilth, Growing Gardens, The Portland Tree Project and the City of Portland Community Garden program will be present to answer questions in the garden at 1221 S.W. Fourth Avenue, Portland.

Lappé's recently released book, Diet for a Hot Planet, The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It, states that our food system is likely responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, Johns Hopkins University reports that of four thousand articles on climate change published in sixteen leading U.S. newspapers, only 1 percent had a "substantial focus" on food and agriculture.

Just as Diet for a Small Planet, written by Anna's mother, Francis Moore Lappé, revolutionized our food consciousness in 1972, Diet for a Hot Planet will change the way we look at today's most pressing issue. Anna Lappé provides a clear account of our current condition and a road map of seven principles for a climate-friendly diet that can heal the planet.

Much of our urban landscape is paved over or covered with buildings, creating an environment that is the antithesis of nature. Rooftops and asphalt flush rain water into storm sewers, overburdening and polluting our rivers. Portland is fast becoming a leader in promoting vegetated rooftops to capture stormwater. Is it possible to go even further and actually create functional wildlife habitat on buildings that will help birds, bats, bugs and other animals as they traverse our urban landscape?

On this episode of Locus Focus our guests are Dusty Gedge, an international authority on ecoroofs, and the ecoroof expert for Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, Tom Liptan. We talk about how we can transform the rooftops of downtown skyscrapers, industrial warehouses and even our own residences into wildlife habitat. Could thousands of acres of grey industrial warehouse rooftops in the Columbia Corridor be converted to meadows for rapidly disappearing meadowlarks and streaked horned larks? Could the tops of our downtown skyscrapers provide migrating songbirds with a source for insects and a place to rest? What can we do on top of our own houses to support local wildlife?

International authority on ecoroofs, Dusty Gedge has been campaigning to get green roofs installed for biodiversity in London for over 15 years. He currently Director of Livingroofs.org the UK's independent greenroof organization and the current President of the European Federation of Green Roof Associations. He is recognized as a leading authority on green roofs and biodiversity and has written a number of papers and articles on the subject over the years. He also wrote a seminal paper that lead to the introduction of the green roof policy in the Greater London area. In 2005 he won the Andrew Lees Memorial Award at the British Environment and Media Awards.

Climate scientists tell us that even if greenhouse gas emissions were halted tomorrow, the world's climate would not stabilize for decades. So even as we continue to reduce our carbon footprint, we need to start adapting to the inevitable. This morning we look at strategies that communities must begin to adopt to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change while preparing to adapt to its consequences. Guest is Brian Barr, with the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland, talks about a project he is working on, in collaboration with the Climate Leadership Initiative from the University of Oregon, to start developing climate change preparation plans for river basins around the state of Oregon. 

Brian Barr is an aquatic ecologist with over 16 years of experience on trout and salmon restoration in the Pacific and intermountain west. Over the past nine years, Brian has focused his attention on improving fish passage conditions in the Rogue and Klamath Rivers of southern Oregon and northern California. Recently, he has turned his attention to the emerging impacts of climate change, how those impacts are likely to affect communities and natural resources, and what we can do to prepare ourselves and the resources we depend upon to withstand these effects. In his off time, Brian fishes, watches his daughter ride horses, and bites his fingernails during Virginia Tech football games.

Last year a group of Sellwood residents created a neighborhood movement that helped shape the design and impact of the soon-to-be rebuilt Sellwood Bridge. At the height of this organizing drive, a neighborhood march drew hundreds of people from all corners of the neighborhood, united in a desire for a bridge that enhances the neighborhood's pedestrian and bicycle-oriented qualities. Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein took part in the march and it was there that she met some of the guests on this week's Locus Focus, who join her for a discussion about creating sustainable projects in our neighborhoods that not only help mitigate climate change but also build a sense of community.

Philip Krain is a former board member of SMILE, the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood association where he has been spearheading neighborhood environmental initiatives, including new bicycle boulevard improvements on SE Spokane Street. He is now heads SMILE's sustainability committee and is working on building a "Sustainable Sellwood" website, listserv and neighborhood activity program.

Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate has lived in Sellwood since 1998 and was involved in the development of Share It Square at the intersection of SE Sherritt and 9th in Sellwood. He and his wife Adriana began pioneering permaculture features, including water catchment systems, gardening and compost systems, creative urban living rehabs, and the first cob structure built in the city of portland, which was also the founding project of what is now known as the Village Building Convergence, now in its 10th year. Share It Square has continued to grow since its inception, bringing together neighbors to design and build amenities in the public right of way and have organized numerous large events in the square, including weddings. Share It Square models the simple idea that when neighbors have a commons, they communicate and create opportunities that impact the whole neighborhood.