presenation at Elkhart Environmental Center 3-8-12

1. Eat Green
Save Green
Good for your budget
Good for your health
Good for the planet

2. Community Challenges
– High Unemployment
– Crime
– Food Quality Issues
– National Health Crisis
– Food Availability &
Accessibility
Disparities http://www.southbendtribune.com Tribune Photos/JIM RIDER
– Donut Communities

3. Reconsidering the Notion Of “Cheap” Food
“The food system is now a significant contributor to
climate change. Reducing the carbon dioxide
emissions from food production, processing and
distribution by minimizing the distance between
producer and consumer should be a critical part of
any strategy to mitigate global warming.”

4. Cutting Planetary Food Costs
Reducing meat consumption to
2 ounces per day is roughly
equivalent to doubling your
vehicle's fuel efficiency
(United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report “Livestock’s Long
Shadow”)
Go vegetarian & cut your CO2
contribution by 1.5 tons a year!
Univ. of Chicago study
Improving Health

5. Source: Heller and Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S.
Food System. 2000.

6. It takes 400 gallons of oil to feed
each person each year
The return on our oil investment?
caloric energy ratio of
1:10 (food:oil)

7. Food miles ecolabel example. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

8. Source: Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

9. Reconsidering the Notion Of “Cheap” Food
“Passive How fresh is it?
consumers …buy How pure or clean is it?
what they want – How free of dangerous
or what they have chemicals?
been persuaded to How far was it
want – within the transported?
limits of what they What did transportation
can get….they add to the cost?
mostly ignore How has manufactured
certain critical or “processed” or
questions about “precooked” food
the quality and the affected its quality or
cost of what they price or nutritional
are sold… value?
-Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating

10. Organic or Not – Does it Matter?
• Less fossil fuel consumption (for the manufacture
and supply of pesticides, feedstuffs, fertilizers, and
machinery) and greenhouse gas emissions than
conventional systems.
• Chemical additives used in the growing process
account for half of the energy input in conventional
potato production and up to 80 per cent of the
energy consumed in some vegetable crops.
• From Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil by Norman Church , available at
http://www.energybulletin.net/5045.html

11. Prepare your own food
Number of items sold in 2003 in a typical US supermarket: 30,000;
Number of multinational food and beverage companies that
produced half these items: 10
Average number of minutes per day each member of a married
couple spent shopping, preparing food, and cleaning up: In
1985: 87.5 minutes;
In 2003: 47.5 minutes

12. Opportunities
People with more time,
seeking to provide for
themselves and their
families
Community and
neighborhood
organizing
Increased interest in
local, fresh food

13. Opportunities
Grow Your Own
Stock up on seasonal
bounty
Support local farmers
Farmers Market
Extension Offices

14. Start a Garden
Economic support for As a neighborhood
neighborhood social networking,
residents meeting, and play
space for all ages,
Community Service races, classes
Project
Decrease crime
Youth entrepreneurial
experience Raise property
values
Neighborhood
beautification – more Help residents take
green space ownership of their
neighborhood
Educational
opportunity for all Good Health: fresh,
ages local food,
recreation and
socialization

15. Benefits
Produces nutritious food
Reduces family food budgets
Stimulates social interaction
Conserves Resources
Creates income opportunities
& economic development Reduces Crime
Encourages self-reliance Preserves green
space &
Provides a catalyst for
neighborhood and community Beautifies neighborhoods
development

17. The vision for the Unity
Gardens is to have a
community with an
abundance of healthy,
locally grown produce.
Mission ~ To improve community health:
• Physically by increasing accessibility of fruits and vegetables
as well as providing education on nutrition and food
preparation.
• Socially by providing access to healthy food and opportunities
for the disadvantaged
• Economically: by developing a sustainable local food system,
recapturing food waste, creating new jobs, and increasing per-
capita productivity

19. Carry Out Food Ideas
Reduce your carbon footprint
Enjoy fresher, healthier food
Support local farmers
Keep your money in the community
Know where your food comes from

21. We each have the
ability to bring
change to
the system through our
food choices.
We can change the
world with every bite.

22. Local Resources
The 2012 Summer CSA will comprise 20 weeks of pick-ups,
from the first full week of June to the third full week of
October. Our start date is scheduled to be Monday, June
6th.
Pricing for CSA Summer Shares:
Full Share -- $550 Half Share -- $300
Work Shares available
Pickup Locations:
We will have pickups this season at the following
locations-- Elkhart (Rise Up Farms), Elkhart (Jubilee House
- near Roosevelt Primary School), and South Bend (Purple
Porch Co-op)

23. Local Resources
CLAY BOTTOM FARM
11434 CR 34
Goshen, IN 46528
www.claybottomfarm.com
claybottomfarm@gmail.com
Internship program Hands-on learning experience in all aspects of organic food
production. Basic housing, plenty of great produce, and a $50 stipend provided in
exchange for four days (32 hrs)/wk. of your help.
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Shares in summer contain about $28 worth
of vegetables and $13 of fruit (varies throughout season.) That’s an average of $1.50
per day per person for a family of four.

24. Local Resources
ELKHART LOCAL FOOD ALLIANCE
http://elkhartlocalfoodalliance.blogspot.com
Goal: To cultivate community and create food security through
a variety of interactive program; to create food security by
having greater control over and knowledge about where and
how our food is grown, particularly by using space in our own
neighborhoods to grow food for ourselves and our neighbors,
and; to increase access to nutritious food and education about
good food choices in all neighborhoods.
Currently working with the Historic Roosevelt Neighborhood Association and
tenants at the Roosevelt Center to begin a neighborhood garden on site.
Prairie Street Mennonite Church (PSMC) has given ELFA yard space surrounding
Jubilee House (the voluntary service household, owned by PSMC) to install a
neighborhood demonstration/teaching garden, based on permaculture design
principles.
ELFA is collaborating with the Summer Academy program at the Roosevelt Center,
and with local 4-H leaders and staff to offer educational programs to youth and
children, as well as with Michiana Master Gardeners and the Elkhart Environmental
Center to provide workshops for people of all ages.

25. Local Resources

26. Local Resources
Elkhart Farmer’s Market
Woodlawn Nature Center Farmer’s Market

27. Local Resources
COMMUNITY GARDENS
The City of Elkhart's Environmental Division has established 2 community gardens at
selected sites throughout the city and oversee the majority of the maintenance and
coordination of the gardening activities.
Hudson-Sterling Elkhart Airport
Elkhart Environmental Center
Elkhart Airport
Community Garden
Since 1997

28. Reading & Resources
BOOKS
Food Not Lawns
-H.K. Flores
The SUV in the Pantry Purdue Extension
-Thomas Starrs Elkhart County Master Gardeners
The Pleasures of Eating Buying Clubs
-Wendell Berry
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
-Barbara Kingsolver Your Ideas/Suggestions?
In Defense of Food/Food
Rules/Omnivore’s Dilemma
-Michael Pollan
FILMS
Fresh
Dirt!
Food, Inc.

29. Yeo Dairy

30. Yeo Valley Ad LYRICS
The sun is up, YEO VALLEY, YEO VALLEY
the milk is chilled, We change the game, it will never be the same
it's going to be a good one. YEO VALLEY, YEO VALLEY,
Yo, yo. Big up ya chest, represent the West
Yo, I'm rollin' in my Massey on a summer's day, This isn't fictional farming, it's realer than real,
chugging cold milk while I'm baling hay. you won't find milk maidens, that's no longer the
Yeo Valley's approach is common sense, deal.
harmony in nature takes precedence. I'm in my wax coat 'n' boots, I'm proper farmer
My ride's my pride that's why you never see it Giles,
dirty, now look, you urban folks done stole our style.
and I love it here man, that's why I'm never I'm not a city dweller, me I like to keep it country,
leavin' early. the air is clean and all those cars won't make me
I'm looking good in my cap and my shirt, jumpy.
I'm representing for the West so hard it hurts. It's different strokes for different folks, my man,
Just enjoy the results with what we do with the
Yeah. land.
We make this look easy Check out Daisy she's a proper cow,
'cause we're proper modern with this farmin', a pedigree Fresian with know how.
believe me. Her and her girls they got their own names,
Wind turbines are shining, baby, We treat them good, they give us the cream.
it's solar farming no buts no maybes.
Here we're down with the soil association YEO VALLEY, YEO VALLEY
and we do lots of what? Conservation! We change the game, it will never be the same
Sustain, maintain, it ain't no thing, YEO VALLEY, YEO VALLEY,
We set the bar, real leaders by far. Big up ya chest, represent the West