Projects
Local Farming
With the increase in demand for locally grown food, there are accompanying concerns with accessibility to the products. Financially, it can be challenging as it is more expensive for consumers to purchase local food rather than coming from a large corporate food supply store. Also, the lack of proximity to convenient locations is a concern as more urban places are less likely to have local farms which grow and produce the products.
Currently, there are organizations that are trying to increase the accessibility to local food by creating food hubs, which are distribution facilities used to help smaller farms gain access to larger markets, according to a 2015 study done by the Connemara Consulting Group in Northern Michigan. It is becoming harder for people, especially those who live in low-income communities to afford healthy and local food. Luckily, there are programs that are being created to help those who do not always have access or the funds to purchase local food. According to the U.S Department of Agriculture, increasing the amount of community gardens in neighborhoods not only helps with access to healthy produce but also is a solution for hunger overall.
It has just been in recent years getting food locally has become a preference to consumers. Before it really came an issue, people really didn’t care or know to care where their food came from as they thought all food at the grocery stores were good enough. The oldest farmers market in the United States is in West Birmingham, Alabama and has been around since 1921. The U.S Department of Agriculture started tracking and developing farmer’s markets in 1994, starting with only 1,755 across the entire United States according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.
As there are a few concerns regarding accessibility to locally grown food there are significant benefits as well. For example, increasing accessibility to healthy, local food can lower the risk of heart disease and obesity. 1 in 3 children in the United States are overweight or obese between the ages of 2 and 19, according to the study done in 2009 by the U.S Department of Agriculture. On the other hand, it tends to be more expensive to buy fresh local produce as it has a shorter shelf life then processed food and cannot be bought in bulk, according to ABC News Medical Unit.
Written Piece
Leda Hermecz will pay up to $22 for a whole chicken to show her passion for sourcing locally. Hermecz is the owner and head chef of the 100-Mile Bakery in Springfield, which only uses ingredients that come from within 100 miles of Eugene. Hermecz is known for her killer lunches and fresh pastries made from scratch daily. “People taste it one time and after a few times and a few visits here, they realize they actually feel good after a lunch here,” Hermecz said. Her drive comes from her appreciation for local food and her motivation to show, love and embrace it. Hermecz is famous for her zero waste as she will take any type of food from her farmers and use any and all of it. Joyce Douglas is a close friend of Hermecz and one of her current farmers in Springfield who benefits students at Springfield High School in the Youth Transition Program. “If we have a bunch of carrots, I can count on Leda taking them all and making something out of them,” Douglas said. This all comes from her ambition to provide her customers with good food from close by.
She grew up on the coast of Alabama and started cooking for her family at the age of 12. She received a degree in theater from the University of Alabama but still had culinary in the back of her mind. She moved to Oregon and got a job for Sweet Life Bakery in 2003. Hermecz opened her first bakery in the same year in Walton, Oregon. This bakery is where she first thought of the idea of opening a café that sourced food from local farmers. In 2008, Leda Hermecz took a trip to Turin, Italy through Slow Foods International, a group that promotes local food and traditional cooking. In Italy, she was surrounded by farmers and food activists who had the same mentality as she did. She realized she was not the only one out there with her idea. “That was the turning point for me when I realized I really, really wanted to stay super involved with food and keeping it local, and showing it and loving it,” Hermecz said.
Hermecz hopes the community can keep the momentum of improving access to locally sourced food going, because once 50% of the population starts doing something, it is likely that everyone else will catch on and make it an everyday lifestyle. She believes there is a ripple effect coming as more people start to make sourcing locally a bigger and more important issue. She plans to show other large cities that sourcing locally is possible and has many benefits to the community and the environment.
Photo Piece
Taylor King, a student at the University of Oregon displays her fresh tomatoes that her and her classmates harvest during their Landscape Architecture class on Tuesday, October 24th. These fresh heirloom tomatoes are a class favorite and are the first ones gone every harvest party.
Kings favorite part of the class is what they call the harvest party. It is at the end of each class and everyone choose which vegetables they would like to take home.
