I just returned from Iowa and my ears are still ringing from the gut-crunching drone of low-flying airplanes—the kind that seem to be all engine and spray nozzles. About a dozen crop dusters blanketed one county alone during a two-day period, spraying for aphids—thirsty little monsters that literally suck the life juices out of crops like soybeans. The rolling hills of Cass County were under chemical siege from dawn ’til dusk.

A lack of timely rains and the absence of aphid predators like lady beetles have made the pests a real threat to soybeans in certain parts of the Midwest this summer. In a year when floods and a late spring are already making a good harvest iffy, no one’s taking any chances, even if it means paying $14 to $15 per acre to hire a daredevil who skims the earth while sitting on tanks of toxin. One farmer joked that they were going to charge him less since his rolling hills were more scenic than his neighbor’s land, but these drag racing dusters don’t have the luxury of sightseeing—they spend most of their time keeping twitchy eyes on gauges, global positioning system equipment and power lines. (more…)

Sometimes it seems like the owner of the Café Wren has a better idea of what’s going on in John Adams’ vegetable plots than he does. “I think she has spies in the garden,” Adams joked on a recent August afternoon while showing me his produce operation near Luck, in western Wisconsin’s Polk County. “She knows when my stuff is ripening. She knows her stuff about food and promoting local food.”

The “she” Adams is talking about is Stephanie Lundeen, who is working diligently to create an oasis of fresh, local sustenance in the land of bar and grill food. She’s doing that by teaming up with operations like Adams’ The Good Luck Farm and promoting the idea that fresh, local food is key to sustainable economic development, a healthy landscape and community building — even in a rural area far from the glitzy restaurants of the Twin Cities and other metropolitan areas.

“I think there is a real connection between a healthy community and keeping our money in the local economy by supporting local farmers,” Lundeen told me after I polished off a delicious locally-sourced lunch at the Wren before visiting Adams’ farm. (To listen to an Ear to the Ground podcast featuring Lundeen and Adams, click here; it’s episode 55).

That’s why when she started the Wren in a former bait shop/residence on the edge of Luck in 2003, Lundeen knew she didn’t just want to serve coffee and sandwiches. From the start she wanted to operate a business that not only served good food, but was good for the community, supported the arts and featured local music. She’s been true to her word. Café Wren hosts performances by local musicians and “open mic” events. It also showcases the work of local artists in its dining room and in the courtyard, as well as hosts two major art sales annually. The café also uses solar panels to provide hot water and part of the old bait shop has been made into a community meeting space.

But it’s the food that serves as the café’s community bonding agent. Lundeen, who has a degree in environmental education and sustainable agriculture from the University of Minnesota, helped launch farmers’ markets and a natural food co-op in the Twin Cities before moving to Luck in 2001. She also worked with immigrant farmers to help them find markets for their products. By the time she opened the Wren, Lundeen was convinced local food production and consumption could do much to support a community’s economy while creating a healthy place for humans and the environment. That’s why she almost immediately began discussions with local farmers about what they could raise for her menu.

It hasn’t always been easy, especially in a town of just over 1,000 people and in a county hit hard by bad economic times. But over the years Lundeen’s 30-seat restaurant has shown that an eatery that emphasizes community involvement can be economically viable. Besides Adams’ operation, Lundeen also buys produce from Burning River farm near Frederic. Both Good Luck Farm and Burning River are Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations, which means they sell shares to subscribers before the growing season. In return, they provide a weekly delivery of fresh, natural produce. The CSA enterprises use up the bulk of the farms’ production, but Café Wren has become an important buyer of excess vegetables. The Wren also gets ground beef from Smokey Meadows livestock farm in rural Luck. Besides carrying Fair Trade coffee and locally produced wine and beer, it procures ingredients such as eggs from the Natural Alternative Food Co-op in Luck.

During the height of the growing season, as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of the Wren’s menu is made up of food grown within 10 to 12 miles of the café — a stark contrast to the 1,200 to 1,500 miles food travels on average to get to people’s plates in the Midwest. The lunch special I enjoyed on that Friday featured a soup of local carrots, cauliflower and maple syrup. The sandwiches included homegrown cucumbers, salad greens and tomatoes. Perhaps a gallon or two of gas went into getting all those ingredients to the café’s kitchen.

Lundeen calls or e-mails farmers on a weekly basis to see what they have available and to let them know what she needs. The farmers then deliver food on a regular basis, sometimes the same day it was harvested.

“Creating that long-term relationship with the farmers is key,” Lundeen said while traffic sped by the front of the restaurant on State Highway 35, and bicyclists on the Gandy Dancer Trail pedaled by out back. Rising up from the trail was a pasture full of grazing cattle. “It’s very easy to work with the farmers here. You just make the connection, have a conversation about your needs, and then put it into motion.”

Lundeen has taken that relationship building to a new level. Last winter Mike Noreen of Burning River worked at Café Wren. “I got to see what food people like,” Noreen said of the experience, as we toured his operation. This summer, Lundeen has been returning the favor by working one day a week at Burning River.

“I got the desire to get my hands back in the soil and get more in touch with the source of my food,” said Lundeen. “It’s been fantastic.”

Maybe that explains the insider knowledge she seems to have on the ripening schedules of local produce.

All of that knowledge, communication and partnering is paying off. Café Wren’s food and artsy atmosphere has a growing reputation amongst people traveling up Highway 35 to their lake cabins. They stop for coffee, a meal or a snack, pumping a significant amount of money into the local economy. Café Wren fans — clearly identified by the eatery’s unique t-shirt design featuring the namesake bird — have even run into each other in other states and as far away as Africa. But during the wintertime, it’s the local residents who make up the bulk of the Wren’s clientele. Lundeen said these homegrown customers seem to appreciate the fact that there is an alternative to bar food or a sandwich picked up at a convenience store.

“People really appreciate the fresh alternatives they can get here,” she said. “They feel like they’re getting healthy food, and they feel good when they eat it. They get pretty excited when they realize how fresh the food is, that it was picked as recently as this morning.”

The farmers and Lundeen say there are plenty of opportunities for other partnerships between producers and restaurant owners, no matter what the size of the community. Noreen said that the key is for farmers to communicate to restaurateurs why they have a superior product, and then to be prepared to deliver it on a consistent basis.

“You have to be persistent and be willing to prove your stuff is better that what they are going to get from the distributor,” he said. “You can’t just show up one day and say, ‘I have a bunch of cauliflower.’ Restaurants plan their menus two weeks out.”

Lundeen feels strongly that in order to create a local food-friendly environment in a community, an eatery must promote the region’s farmers even when it doesn’t benefit the restaurant directly. Much as the restaurant’s solar panels pique people’s interest in alternative energy, any promotion of local farmers helps local residents begin to see these producers as critical parts of the community.

“I throw the words ‘local growers’ in as much as possible when communicating with the public,” Lundeen said.

That’s a main reason Café Wren is participating in “Dine Fresh Dine Local,” a special one-day culinary celebration of good, local food that will be held Sept. 11 in Minnesota and Wisconsin eateries in the St. Croix River Valley.

“Dine Fresh Dine Local is a great opportunity for restaurateurs like Stephanie to highlight the quality food they source from local growers,” said Dana Jackson, who coordinates the local chapter of the national Buy Fresh Buy Local initiative. “It also highlights how diners, communities and the landscape can benefit when eateries partner with local growers.”

Speaking of partnering with farmers, on a recent Friday Lundeen was preparing for an evening event in the Wren’s courtyard that was to feature locally produced food as well as music and art. The farmers from Burning River, The Good Luck Farm and Smokey Meadows were to be the guests of honor. Part of Lundeen’s future plans for promoting local food as a resource include featuring at the restaurant photos and promotional materials explaining her relationship with local farms.

Perhaps the most direct way Café Wren helps create a community buzz around local farmers and the food they produce is by serving as a weekly pick-up site for CSA subscribers to Burning River and The Good Luck Farm. Seeing all those boxes and bags of fresh vegetables lined up each week helps inform people in the community of the local bounty that’s available. The presence of fresh, whole food, whether it be in a CSA box or on the plate, sends an important message to local residents, said Adams.

“We’re showing you can do this in a town of a thousand people — it’s not just in Minneapolis or it’s not just in any large town that local food is available,” he said while checking on lush rows of snap peas. “Local food is out here where the food is actually grown too, and that makes more sense than anything.”

Delicious sense.

Sometimes it seems like the owner of the Café Wren has a better idea of what’s going on in John Adams’ vegetable plots than he does. “I think she has spies in the garden,” Adams joked on a recent August afternoon while showing me his produce operation near Luck, in western Wisconsin’s Polk County. “She knows when my stuff is ripening. She knows her stuff about food and promoting local food.” (more…)

by Carin Skoog, global warming solutions coordinator, Fresh Energy

Just this morning (Thursday, August 21^st), the 3^rd Congressional district candidates for Congress squared off in their first debate. Hosted by the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce at General Mills Headquarters, this early morning event was attended by more than 250 business leaders from around the district. Questions were moderated and could be submitted in advance, and despite one question related to rising energy costs, the business community did not prioritize any specific questions about climate action. Surprising, considering that 32 of the largest corporations in the world support federal action on global warming. The United States Climate Action Partnership (U.S. CAP) is a group of businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in global warming pollution.

But despite a lack of emphasis on climate, all the candidates broadly addressed energy and the environment in a few of their answers to other questions. One candidate best summed up the bottom line, saying, “We are not going to be able to drill our way out of our energy problem, we are going to need to think our way out of our energy problem.” This is the kind of leadership we need to see in Washington.

Attending debates like this as well as town hall forums are great ways to find out about candidates’ positions on important issues. But what if your daughter’s soccer game conflicts with that scheduled time? You can always pick up the phone and call their campaign office, or write a letter to the editor hoping for a more public response. But now there’s a fast and easy way for you bloggers and internet users to ask the candidates for Congress in your district about their positions on important issues like reducing global warming pollution and increasing clean energy and energy efficiency. And it’s only a mouse click away!

Developed by the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, CandidAnswers is a new online voter guide that allows you to directly ask your Congressional candidates five questions on the intersections between energy and the environment. The questions — focusing on global warming and energy issues — were developed in collaboration with leading policy experts at the nation’s top environmental organizations and endorsed by a bipartisan review panel. With CandidAnswers, candidates can conveniently and publicly indicate and explain their positions. Responses will be displayed as a side-by-side comparison so that constituents can see where their candidates stand on these important issues.

Using CandidAnswers is incredibly simple. Just enter your zip code and the website will display your Congressional candidates and indicate whether they’ve already responded to the five questions. If not, you can send an email asking them to do so with just one click. If a candidate doesn’t respond to a request within 14 days, CandidAnswers will let you know, and you can ask again. (Keep in mind, any questions submitted now will be stored in a queue and sent to the candidates after the Minnesota primary on September 9th.)

Election Day will be here before you know it, so get your CandidAnswers now!

by Carin Skoog, global warming solutions coordinator, Fresh Energy

Just this morning (Thursday, August 21^st), the 3^rd Congressional district candidates for Congress squared off in their first debate. Hosted by the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce at General Mills Headquarters, this early morning event was attended by more than 250 business leaders from around the district. Questions were moderated and could be submitted in advance, and despite one question related to rising energy costs, the business community did not prioritize any specific questions about climate action. (more…)

Late last Tuesday afternoon I and around a dozen crop farmers emerged from the air-conditioned confines of the “Biofuture” trailer. Like abductees departing an alien mothership, we blinked in the bright hot light of a southwest Minnesota August. I looked around to get reacquainted with my surroundings: big tires, bigger iron, seed plots, debating politicians, a helicopter buzzing overhead. Oh, that’s right, I’m in the midst of the 2008 Farmfest, the state’s largest agricultural gathering. I’d just spent 20 minutes or so in front of a flat screen monitor being bombarded with messages about the future of farming as Channel Bio Corporation sees it. I was more than a little discombobulated. I wondered to the back of the show grounds to a shady spot where a one-man polka band was competing with the putt-putt of antique engines—after being inundated with so much of the “future,” I needed a little dose of the past to clear my head. I thought back to another Farmfest presentation I had seen earlier in the day. It consisted of representatives of sustainable agriculture talking about another kind of future. Being exposed to two such profoundly different takes on agriculture in the span of a few hours was a bit like shock therapy. But while sitting in front of the bandstand, something struck me: the difference between sustainable agriculture has little to do with technology, which is often used as the gauge—industrial ag embraces technology; sustainable ag shuns it, goes the conventional wisdom. No, it has to do with relationships—relationships between humans and technology, sure, but also relationships between farmers and the people they feed.

According to Channel, it’s one of the “largest and fastest growing companies in the American seed industry.” That’s probably true, considering it’s buying firms left and right. Formerly independent seed brands like Crow’s, Midwest Seed Genetics and NC+ are now part of the Channel family. Our “Biofuture” guide was a middle-aged man clad in the standard seed-company-employee-manning-a-farm-show-booth uniform: polo shirt and khaki pants. He informed us from the get-go that he has been involved with the seed business for a number of years, and over that time has witnessed many changes in agriculture.

“As you can see from the half-smirk, half-smile on my face, I’m still enjoying the seed business,” said our guide as he leaned languidly against a counter. “I like all the changes I see in agriculture.”

Really? You like all the changes? What about empty Main Streets? Mono-cropped landscapes? Rural America’s brain drain? I suspect that smirk has more to do with having a job that allows one to stand in an air conditioned trailer on a hot day showing movies.

Then came the video. It was clear from the start the themes were “future” and “change.” I could tell because floating around in every frame were double helixes, twisting and turning in slow motion. Everybody knows that the double helix is the international sign of change brought on by scientific progress, right? Well, judging by this video, helix-induced change is just about everywhere you look in the agriculture of the future: fields, labs, barns, tractors, offices, you name it—helix, helix, helix.

The video quoted experts from various aspects of the agri-industrial complex; most of them happened to be employees of Channel. Their message: all these changes being wrought in agriculture are making it more complicated than ever—exciting, but complicated. Now, more than ever, farmers need to build relationships with “input suppliers” like seed, chemical and biotech companies. The business has just become too complicated to make decisions on your own anymore.

It’s time to give over your decision-making to people who know better. At one point the video shows a farmer riding in a combine. The camera slowly pans down until you see he does not have his hands on the steering wheel. A global positioning system taking orders from outer space is doing the dirty work. The image was as subtle as a sledge hammer: just sit back and relax Mister Farmer, leave the driving to us.

No surprises here. This was a video produced by a seed company being shown in a seed company trailer by a seed company employee. It’s an input supplier’s job to convince farmers that the more decisions the supplier takes control of, the better that farmer—and a hungry world—will be. That’s just good salesmanship. But it’s not a sound basis for creating a sustainable food production system.

What troubled me were the images shown at the end of the video. Farmers were standing in their fields, talking about how they used to rely on their own decision making, but now things have just become too complicated. That’s why we need input suppliers as “partners” if we are to raise a crop, the farmers admitted sheepishly. That doesn’t sound like a 50-50 partnership to me. It sounds more like a signing over of the control of food production to entities that may not have the best interest of farmers or consumers at heart. Seed and chemical companies are in the business of selling inputs, not providing high quality food. Farmers are in the business of providing high quality food.

Industrial agriculture hasn’t made farming more complex. Quite the opposite: it’s worked hard to simplify, de-skill and McDonalize every aspect of it, from raising a crop of corn to pumping out pork, beef and milk. Make no mistake, the farmers out there on the land today, including the so-called “conventional” ones, are all highly skilled. But if industrial ag has its way, they will be the last of a breed. Smart, highly-skilled farmers, the kind that have served as the backbone of our country’s food production system, don’t make good “partners” for input suppliers. They think too much for themselves.

As author Michael Pollan has argued, biotechnology is a perfect example of how industrial ag has worked to de-skill farming. Biotech firms like Monsanto have taken all the years of agronomic, economicl and biological knowledge stored in farmers’ brains and attempted to package it in GMO seed. And now they’re selling it back at a dear price.

After the video, Mister Smirky pointed to a back-lit chart labeled “Biotech era: 1995-2007.” It showed how prior to the mid-1990s, corn yields tended to fluctuate widely, sometimes by as much as 30 percent to 40 percent. When biotech seed became widely available after 1995, the trends changed: corn yields have been on a steady, consistent climb. The message: biotech protects yields. An even deeper message: you farmers were doing a poor job of raising corn before we biotech firms showed you how to do it. How did you ever survive before Bt corn came along?

And on the other end of the showgrounds…
During the entire Biofuture presentation, consumers were only mentioned in passing, mostly in the form of a massive, faceless, expanding stomach to be filled with commodities. The image of consumers couldn’t have been more different earlier in the day, when I sat it on the “Entrepreneurial Insights” panel discussion. This discussion was held at the “Agripreneurship Specialty Pavilion”—basically a big tent full of groups and business representing all aspects of organic and sustainable agriculture.

The mere presence of this tent at Farmfest is a positive sign. This is the first time sustainable/organic agriculture has had such a large presence at an event that at times can resemble one big Monsanto commercial more than a gathering of farmers.

During the Tuesday panel discussion—held in a hot corner of the tent sans flat screen monitors by the way—representatives of the Land Stewardship Project, MOSES, Niman Ranch and the Animal Welfare Institute talked informally about the opportunities available in sustainable ag.

Like the Biofuture show, this discussion also highliughted about changes in agriculture. But unlike Channel and its fellow industrial ag firms, the Agripreneurship panelists see this change being driven not by advertising slogans and floating double helixes. They see farming’s future being determined by how well producers and consumers and create strong relationships, how well food with a face on it can become the norm, rather than a niche.

“There are tremendous opportunities in various levels of our food system,” said LSP’s Terry VanDerPol, who raises grass-fed beef in western Minnesota and works on creating local food systems in rural areas. “There are opportunities besides acquiring ever more acreage and more capital investment.”

“It’s a consumer-driven market,” said Harriet Behar of MOSES, referring to the demand for more food produced using environmentally sound methods. “You look at the system and fix the system rather than coming in after there’s a problem and using a synthetic solution. Consumers appreciate that.”

“It’s a trend…I don’t think it’s a fad,” said Sarah Willis of the Animal Welfare Institute. Willis raises hogs for Niman Ranch, a natural pork company that’s enjoyed tremendous success in recent years. “I’ve talked to several friends who are going to vote with their fork.”

Like the seed salesman at Biofuture, these folks were talking to farmers. But their message was much different: consumers want food that can be produced by people like you using your own smarts, hard work and creativity. You can’t do it alone, and that means partnering up with consumers, other farmers and even other entrepreneurs in the community. And these are true, 50/50 partnerships, not the lopsided kind industrial ag would like to see.

The equal partnerships required to create a sustainable food system are not easy to create. In fact, some might say they require relationships that are quire complex.

Telling it like it is…
One final thought on Farmfest: A person with nothing better to do could spend a week making fun of all the advertising slogans used to sell seed, chemicals and equipment at an event like this. But this week I did run into a phrase in the Garst Seed Company tent that wins the truth in advertising award. Their, emblazoned on signs and handout literature were the words: “Garst. Changing the Landscape.” Indeed, our corn and soybean duo-culture has helped make the Midwest one of the most altered landscapes in the world. Kudos to those honest copy writers over at Garst.

Late last Tuesday afternoon I and around a dozen crop farmers emerged from the air-conditioned confines of the “Biofuture” trailer. Like abductees departing an alien mothership, we blinked in the bright hot light of a southwest Minnesota August. I looked around to get reacquainted with my surroundings: big tires, bigger iron, seed plots, debating politicians, a helicopter buzzing overhead. Oh, that’s right, I’m in the midst of the 2008 Farmfest, the state’s largest agricultural gathering. I’d just spent 20 minutes or so in front of a flat screen monitor being bombarded with messages about the future of farming as Channel Bio Corporation sees it. I was more than a little discombobulated. I wondered to the back of the show grounds to a shady spot where a one-man polka band was competing with the putt-putt of antique engines—after being inundated with so much of the “future,” I needed a little dose of the past to clear my head. I thought back to another Farmfest presentation I had seen earlier in the day. It consisted of representatives of sustainable agriculture talking about another kind of future. Being exposed to two such profoundly different takes on agriculture in the span of a few hours was a bit like shock therapy. But while sitting in front of the bandstand, something struck me: the difference between sustainable agriculture has little to do with technology, which is often used as the gauge—industrial ag embraces technology; sustainable ag shuns it, goes the conventional wisdom. No, it has to do with relationships—relationships between humans and technology, sure, but also relationships between farmers and the people they feed. (more…)

by Erin Stojan Ruccolo, program coordinator, Fresh Energy

As consideration of the finer mechanics of a regional cap and trade program are underway through the Midwestern Governor’s Association, a recently released report by Redefining Progress and Environmental Justice and Climate Change Intiative, outlines the elements of equitable climate policy. 

The paper, “A Climate of Change,” (report | executive summary) is a thorough analysis of the contributions to and effects of global warming among African Americans and the impact of various climate policy mechanisms.  It lays out the central tenets of a just climate policy; namely, that emission reductions must be quick and effective (real reductions), and not increase the burden on those most harmed and least able to bear the costs.  The report has already been introduced at a July 24, 2008 Congressional briefing (audio) featuring Congresswoman Yvette Clark (D-NY) and Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), and has been endorsed by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Health and the Environment, and the Congressional Black Caucus.

by Erin Stojan Ruccolo, program coordinator, Fresh Energy

As consideration of the finer mechanics of a regional cap and trade program are underway through the Midwestern Governor’s Association, a recently released report by Redefining Progress and Environmental Justice and Climate Change Intiative, outlines the elements of equitable climate policy.  (more…)