Willits Economic Localization/Food/What can YOU do

From CFI

INDIVIDUAL Action

The most powerful change of all . . .

  • increase personal awareness of food practices

Change buying habits

  • purchase local food from small-scale sustainable sources
  • join a CSA or box scheme--or help start one
  • ask local vendors and restaurants to carry local foods
  • organize a consumer cooperative to purchase local food
  • boycott big food corporations and supermarkets

Participate in actual food production

  • gardens: Personal, Community, Public
  • farms: Vegetables, Poultry
  • ranches: Dairy/Cow, Dairy/Goat, Beef, Pork
  • orchards: Fruit, Nut, Citrus

Join with others

  • organize a teach-in
  • start a study group
  • host a local food supper and discussion group
  • join groups committed to creating a local food economy
GROUP Action

Publish local listings of:

  • Food sources: Local gardens, farms, orchards, ranches
  • Food experts
  • Existing food projects, organizations
  • Local foods (seasonal, appropriate to temp, rainfall, latitude)
  • Available funding for food projects

Organize/Coordinate programs for local food production

  • Seasonal Planning
  • Consulting
  • Funding, research on purchasing land for food production

Provide education

  • School Gardens
  • Demonstration Gardens
  • Garden/Farm Tours
  • Workshops: Nutrition, Cooking, Gardening, Farming

Do outreach

  • write letters to local, state and national leaders expressing your commitment to strong local economies
  • write articles or op-eds on local food
  • phone radio call-in shows
  • contact local newspapers
  • work with local food stores/restaurants to provide local food

Provide support for existing organizations

  • create CSAs for farmers and ranchers
  • participate in Farmers Market
  • work with Farms-to-Schools
  • start a local labeling initiative

Become politically involved

  • help update the County General Plan
  • pressure policymakers for regulatory changes
  • encourage local government to direct resources toward public spaces and markets
  • join or start a food policy council to effect change locally
  • encourage local government to make institutional buying of local food part of public policy
  • support or join anti-globalization groups
COMMUNITY Action

Farmers

  • diversify production and switch to direct marketing or local distribution
  • save seed and share it with other farmers
  • establish a conservation easement on farmland
  • team up with nearby farms to share distribution and marketing costs
  • start up or join value-added initiatives, such as community food processing facilities
  • join forces with farmers' coalitions such as Via Campesina
  • educate consumers, policymakers, and other farmers about the benefits of marketing locally

Independent commercial sources (stores, restaurants)

  • obtain raw foods from local, sustainable farmers
  • seek local sources for food
  • seek out processors and distributors that source from local farmers
  • stock bulk food to reduce packaging
  • educate customers

Processors, distributors, and marketers

  • obtain raw foods from sustainable local producers
  • market locally
  • link up with others in cooperatives
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