More small ‘local’ events help farmers earn living

St. Augustine, reflecting on his misspent youth, described his attitude as a prayer to “make me chaste, God, but not yet.”

“But not yet” is not an excuse, as we explain to children who beg for “more time” for toys, for lying in bed, for finishing a video game. (Do they ever finish?) I can’t produce more time. I don’t even understand what time is. But I do know that action happens in the here and now, not in procrastination land.

There’s a lot of “but not yet” about the need to buy local food at a fair price.

The message has been delivered, loud and clear, that thoughtful re-localization of food systems is the answer to better health and to reducing the greenhouse effect of long distance trucking, but I don’t see much real change yet.

Malcolm Gladwell suggested in his bestseller, The Tipping Point, that three things are necessary for social change: the accumulation of many small changes, a sudden public awareness spreading like a viral infection, and a cataclysmic event, the last of which precipitates change like the tipping of a teeter-totter.

What will bring the tipping point we need for local farmers to be selling out their produce at prices that enable them to make a living? It seems we must increase the small events to support local producers.

One suggestion is to commit to using local produce for entertaining and group events.

Global Village Nanaimo has made the decision to “bring fair trade home” by making the annual AGM dinner a local food event.

Since the dinner occurs in May, that means putting goods away now, dried, bottled and frozen, for use before next year’s full harvest is in.

My husband Al and I held a big joint birthday party in the local hall recently and arranged for a local food menu, cooked by Chris, owner of the Black Dog Café across the street.

One day I woke up knowing the decorations must be foodstuffs and the foodstuffs should be sold off at their true value.

Never let it be said that farmers lack creativity. No sooner had I asked a few local growers for help, than plans emerged for displays and basket auctions. Who would have thought that Jerusalem artichoke blossoms in carafes would make such elegant table décor?

And, though no one warned the guests that an auction would happen, the farmers handed me about $200 for Foodshare and $70 for a fair trade basket with fair trade olive oil, coffee and chocolate from Global Village. (Bought by our daughter-in-law, who gloated all the way back to Smithers). And then the growers sold off loose vegetables from the basket display table, too.

This was a learning experience for me and I’m considering ways to expand on what we tried.

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Marjorie Stewart is board chairwoman of the Foodshare Society and president of the new multi-stakeholder co-op, Heritage Foodservice. She can be reached at: marjorieandalstewart@shaw.ca.

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