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Strategies for Community Food Security: The Local Foods Coop (and Bob Waldrop)
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon's Book
So a while back on a list I read, there was a discussion about who should lead a national movement to sustainability that addressed our current set of crises. This is a big question, and a big job. My personal vote for our Gandhi was Bob Waldrop, and no, I wasn’t kidding. If you don’t know him and his work, you should check him out at www.bobwaldrop.com. He’s one of the few people on the planet I think who could actually move mountains. Among his many other accomplishments he’s run for mayor of Oklahoma City (I’d vote for him for anything - the man is a national treasure) and he was the founder of the US’s first local foods coop http://www.oklahomafood.coop/. Here’s a great sample of some of his wonderful and compelling writing: http://depletion-abundance.blogspot.com/2008/02/bob-waldrop.html or you can read the interview he kindly gave us at hen and harvest: http://henandharvest.com/?p=107 (You can also play “duelling best beards in the Peak Oil Movement” option if you want to check out our interview with the great Albert Bates: http://henandharvest.com/?p=186 ;-).)

The food coop is, I think, one of the best tools available to us for community food security - and for just plain getting better stuff to eat. The magic of it is that you don’t have to believe in any particular worldview to think that bringing great local farm food to consumers is worthwhile. Food coops are a gift to all of us even if nothing bad ever happens and we manage to start running the planet on hot air or snow or something (I’ll happily volunteer some of my snow for the greater good ;-)).

There was a time when coops popped up all over, but perhaps because of the growth of whole foods and farmer’s markets, the coop model hasn’t been as popular - but it needs to be brought back. It connects people with local resources, and as solid, stable markets are created, it encourages other people to join in the project of growing food, preserving food and otherwise fostering local economies and everything else that’s good. There are more and more local food coops built on Bob’s model - here are links to find them: http://www.oklahomafood.coop/otherstates.php. So far they are almost all in the west - I think we folks in the East had better get our acts together and create one!

And not only did Bob pull together this amazing local food system (with help, this a good bit of work and not a solo project), but he’s given instructions on how to start one in your community. http://oklahomafood.coop/organizing.php. There is even software available for tracking orders and putting things together here: http://www.localfoodcoop.org/. So you really have no excuse for not starting one in your town or region, do you?

Remember, this is potentially not just a way to bring in food, but a way to get more people involved in the local economy - Bob doesn’t just make the show run, he sells his own bulghur and hot sauce through the coop. You could do that too!
(15 January 2009)
I agree with Sharon about Bob Waldrop. We've been following his work and published some of his writing at EB. -BA

Hope and the new USDA chief
David Murphy, Gristmill
On Wednesday, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack began his confirmation hearing to become the 30th U.S. secretary of agriculture with the promise to be a forward-looking leader who would make the USDA a 21st century agency. While his nomination has been unpopular among some members of the sustainable-agriculture community, there is hope that under his guidance the USDA can grow into a very different agency than it has been during the past four decades, when it's been run by secretaries such as Earl Butz.

As the next head of the USDA, Vilsack will be charged with revamping a sprawling agency that has an annual budget of $89 billion and more than 92,000 employees, a task that he is uniquely qualified to do.

In Iowa, which my family has called home for six generations, Vilsack is known to be a smart, capable administrator who has been willing to listen to the concerns of family farmers and rural advocates. While attending a Practical Farmers of Iowa conference this past weekend, where many of the state's most progressive and sustainable farmers gathered, there was almost universal agreement that Vilsack is capable of much more at the national level than he was as the governor of a former red state, where almost any progressive policy he would have put forward would have been blocked by a Republican-controlled Iowa House and Senate.
(14 January 2009)
If Denise O'Brien can endorse Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture then I think that I will have to hope that Sharon Astyk's assessment may have been too harsh. And if you are an American that hopes that change at the USDA can finally happen, you might want to consider signing the petition over at FoodDemocracyNow. KS

Sustainable Table suggests sustainable food for thought
Vicki Godal, LA Green Life Examiner
As I've dedicated the majority of my green life examiner writing to a sustainable home and lifestyle, perhaps its time for a little refresher course on what exactly I'm referring to when I write about sustainability. To give you readers a clear picture, I visited one of the coolest websites I've seen that promotes the message of sustainability, sustainabletable.org. The following is Sustainable Table's definition of sustainability from their website,"When a process is sustainable, it can be maintained indefinitely."
(15 January 2009)