Buy local..Eat local..

Video coming soon!

This explains it all. I was able to join in and take some pics for one of these interviews and lets just say it was one of the most amazing experiences! It is so good to hear about people trying to make a difference and for the better! This eventually all lead up to a local event in Bellingham! A huge discussion! Here is the events information and flyer :)

Free before 8 p.m. Those who attend the dialogue are admitted free to the concert. After 8 p.m. door charge = sliding scale $5-10.

This event, consisting of two sections, is first an open-dialogue, panel discussion amongst local producers, farmers, professors, city council members, sustainability oriented organizations and community members. It is secondly a fundraiser for Sustainable Connections by means of a musical concert (Performed by The Endorfins and friends), so as to produce income in support of our local economy and raise awareness about the importance of buying local. This event will be creating the discursive and physical space for engendering social change. It will be a day of one-on-one networking and learning what's working in our local food economy. Time and place: The Foundry (100 E. Maple) doors open at 6 p.m. discussion begins at 6:30, benefit concert around 8:30-9 p.m.

The overarching goals of the event are to (1) engage the above stated attendees in a thought provoking discussion, open to the community with strong emphasis on community involvement and contribution, about questions and issues concerning our local food system, (2) provide local restaurants and producers an opportunity for free marketing and promotion, and a place to take part in direct interaction and relationship building with consumers, (3) provide consumers a place to come and ask questions of local producers, such as about quality, location, access, production techniques, sustainability, transparency, etc., (4) raise awareness of gastronomic knowledge to a wide variety of audience members in an effort to promote a food policy for the city that prioritizes food justice, establishing the right of all residents to adequate, nutritious food and promoting food production and distribution systems that are grounded in equity and equality, (5) address differential discursive status and access asymmetries of power by providing a physical space where anyone and everyone in the community is welcome to learn and have a voice in speaking about concerns, inequalities, disparities, visions of the future, and any ideas or comments in general concerning both the national food production system and our local system.

Open Panel Discussion: Invitations have been extended to the following recipients (more are in the works): NamaSte Entrepreneurs, Terra Organica, Bellingham Food Co-op, Common Threads Farms, Growing Washington, Walter Haugen, Gigi Berardi, Fred Berman, Sustainable Bellingham, Sustainable Connection, Mike Long, The Table, Bellingham Food Bank, Misty Meadows Farms, and City Council members Terry Bornemann and Jack Weiss. 

I, Kenneth Schaumberg, and Chelsea Thaw (a friend and fellow intellectual) will be facilitating the discussion. The following questions will be posed:

(1) In an effort to create a more resilient food market and system, what steps can be taken to boost consumer participation in the local economy and ensure more product and market transparency? (Examples: more efficient food pickup and delivery routes, centralized distribution markets, increased awareness, promotion and consumer knowledge, etc.)

(2) At both local and regional levels, participatory democracy is a necessary condition for developing social equity in the food system. In what ways can an effective democratic process, operating to overcome asymmetrical distributions of power, status and privilege, and thus including the empowerment of those who are most vulnerable and given the least opportunity to have their voices heard, be developed within our community? How can we move away from a system focused on individually bounded rights and toward one in which the notion of the public good takes precedence and differences in experience are valorized?

(3) What changes in institutional design would focus more attention to accountability and responsiveness of institutions? What criteria and priorities would accomplish this?

(4) Striving to develop and achieve a socially inclusive creative food economy requires questioning an assumption of shared interests among all members of the community when there are often substantially different material interests and power allocations. How do Local Exchange Trading Systems (goods and services can be traded without the need for printed currency) offer social equity, create resiliency and stability, increase consumer participation in the local economy, and expand the local gastronomic network of products, resources, producers, consumers, knowledge, information, and support? Does such a model have potential in our community?

(5) In what direction will food sustainability in Bellingham be most effectively directed?