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Bluegrass food summit touts importance of sustainability

By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The phrase “food security” conjures up many different thoughts, and that is okay with Jim Embry.

He heads up the Sustainable Communities Network (SCN), a group of local individuals and organizations that network with other groups around the nation and world to promote sustainable local food economies.

Embry said more than that, the group promotes sustainable communities, an idea that is based on food.

“We believe the foundation for sustainable communities is local food systems,” he said. “It was only after human beings began to grow food that we were able to move from being nomadic and gatherers of food, to what we now call human civilizations. We are able to do what we do because someone is growing food.”

SCN will join other sponsors in presenting an upcoming summit that will involve many sectors to teach about and discuss the necessity of a strong local food economy made available to everyone.
The Bluegrass Food Security Summit will take place March 18-19 at Crestwood Christian Church in Lexington, bringing together a host of individuals including youth, educators, and those from diverse food system backgrounds to openly discuss issues affecting the sustainability of Kentucky’s food system, according to the organization.

The summit has four main objectives that will be discussed and demonstrated through a series of workshops, noted Embry. Those include creating the framework to develop a food policy council, providing professional development for K-12 teachers on creating a school garden and agricultural literacy curriculum, offering a sustainability workshop to engage young people in food systems and develop food system strategies among faith community members.

“Often, people forget about food systems and how critical they are,” said Embry. “That’s why we are having the food security summit, because we’ve been ignoring, I think, some of the signs. If we had a similar collapse that we have had in the economy, if we had that with the food system it would be far worse.”

Embry pointed out that if a hurricane-like disaster such as Katrina had hit California where so much of the nation’s food supply originates, the results would have been detrimental across the country.

He also said that a local food system can affect so many different issues including the health of individuals and hunger and that is why such a cross section of organizations will be involved in the summit.

The workshops
Each of the summit workshops will focus on bringing a variety of interest to the discussion of local food systems.

The creation of a food policy council would help to get all those involved in the food economy the opportunity to have a voice in the development of strategies affecting the food economy.


“Food policy councils have been around for more than 20 years in other states and essentially it is a structure that recognizes that in order for us to improve the local food system, you have to have everyone at the table that is a stakeholder,” said Embry. “We have to have people who represent the entire system whether it is growers and producers, retailers, market people, educators, people involved in the delivery and disposal of food, the media and all the different policy makers like the state ag department and the USDA.”

Another important group to involve in the discussion is faith-based organizations said Embry.

One of the goals of the summit is to develop a Faith-in-Food network and involve churches, temples and synagogues,” he said. “We want to have those who worship to come together to ask what they can do to help local farmers.”

Getting schools involved will be the focus of another workshop in hopes of getting educators and students involved.

“We want to develop a campaign to get a garden in every school,” said Embry. “We know we have some real problems related to health in Kentucky such as obesity and diabetes and these are all food related. We want young people growing up healthy, and we think that having a garden is one way to introduce kids to fresh fruits and vegetables. They would get to grow the food and learn about agriculture, agriscience and the ecosystem.”

This workshop is aimed primarily at teachers and staff to help them learn how to get such a project started at their schools.

Another session is designed to develop a youth and sustainability network which would give middle and high school aged students the ability to communicate with each other and learn more about food issues.

“We think one way to help farmers develop the ability to make a good living is to have young people go out and work in the summertime like they did years ago and learn how food grows and how hard it is to be a farmer. Then they grow up with a different appreciation for local farmers,” said Embry.

It is through such a diverse gathering that Embry hopes the issues facing local food economies will be transmitted throughout the communities and the state.

“We want everyone to come to the table so-to-speak and meet each other, enjoy the day and leave with some work to do,” said Embry.

The registration fee for the Friday, March 19 workshop is $45. The Thursday March 18 recognition dinner fee is $20. But no one will be turned away for lack of funds. There are scholarship opportunities to cover the registration fees.

For more information and a complete rundown of the summit go to www.sustainlex.org or call 859-312-7024.

3/3/2010