Exploring the Details

This summer, the HECUA class "Environment & Agriculture: Sustainable Food Systems" was responsible for supplying a steady stream of new ideas and experiences to my brain. From the opening day of hearing about the lens through which my classmates view the food system to the closing days of my internship with Mhonpaj Lee, the class planted seed after intriguing seed. Some have germinated, but a lot I haven't even watered.

Through this final project for the internship, I get deeper into the practicalities of the food system. I have spent plenty of time reading books like Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, by Raj Patel, and Remaking the North American Food System, eds C. Claire Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson, that gave me an overview of food system issues. The field portion of E&A showed me that my knowledge of how systems like dairy farms and small towns work day to day is limited.

For example, at the Symposium for Small Towns at Morris, I attended a breakout session entitled “Local Governments: Doing more with Less – LGA, Leadership, and Communications.” In case you don’t know, as I didn’t, Local Government Aid is a critical source of revenue for cities whose property tax revenues cannot cover the costs of services. In 2009, St. Paul received $62.6 million in LGA, Morris $2.3 million, Delano $179,684, and Inver Grove Heights, zilch (numbers found here).

When LGA from the state drops, towns are left wondering if they can increase revenues and where they can cut the budget. And if the state issues a mandate about storm drains at airports, towns are in an even greater bind trying to come up with the money to pay for it. During the session, I was so caught up placing these new concepts into context that I missed the bigger picture of how to grapple with budget woes.

This project then, is about stepping back from a top-down view of food system issues and getting closer to the problems that actors in the food system face, specifically, organic farming, nonprofits, and farmers markets. I explore these issues at personal, organizational, and ground (pun sometimes intended) levels through interviews, personal experiences, handbooks and other publications. Stay tuned for the next couple of weeks for the inside scoop on organic pest management techniques, 501(c)(3)s, and the St. Paul Farmers Markets.