Links:

Montana Food System Council (MFSC)

Grow Montana

The Community Food and Agriculture Coalition ( CFAC)

Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO)

Western Perspective: Part III of III

Read Parts I and II

Why do our children eat hamburgers in the lunchroom that are shipped from thousands of miles away, while cattle graze within walking distance from their school?

The lack of food processing infrastructure is a primary culprit.

The fact is, most of Montana ’s raw agricultural commodities – like wheat and cattle – are shipped out of state for processing. Then in their value-added form – such as bread and ground beef – are imported back to feed Montana ’s own citizens. Though Montanans spend $3 billion on food each year, ninety percent of those dollars go out of state.

This means our farmers, ranchers, and agriculture-related businesses are capturing only a tiny fraction of the value of what they produce. This does not make sense economically, socially or environmentally.

To provide some perspective, in 1950, 70 percent of the food Montanans ate was produced here. Back then food processing was our state’s number one employer. Today food processing in Montana isn’t even considered worth tracking by the U.S. Census Bureau. The result is fewer jobs, and farmers, ranchers, and other entrepreneurs have limited options to process their products – and communities lose the economic stimulus of food processing facilities close to home.

Now that consumers are increasingly demanding to know where and how their food is grown and processed, there’s a great opportunity to re-build Montana’s food processing businesses and capture more of that food dollar in-state.

That’s why Grow Montana, a state coalition that promotes community economic development policies, proposed and successfully passed House Bill 583 this past legislative session. The new law seeks to maintain and expand the state’s processing infrastructure by funding four food and agricultural development centers.

The Montana Food System Council was a strong supporter of HB 583 and understands that rebuilding our food processing infrastructure – one of the Council’s key priorities – will take new policy initiatives, financing, technical support and most importantly, creative entrepreneurs, to move this emerging opportunity forward. This is exactly what HB 583 helps to foster. These essential services were threatened with loss of funding -- HB 583 will help ensure they remain available.

HB 583 funds four established food and agricultural development centers – traditionally known as “food innovation centers” and more recently “bio-product innovation centers”– to maintain and modestly build on Montana’s capacity to assist entrepreneurs in the areas of food manufacturing and alternative energy production. These centers hold tremendous potential for economic development in both urban and rural communities by ensuring that more of the state’s food, agricultural, and energy dollars circulate in Montana – revitalizing communities, improving access to healthier food for our citizens, and reconnecting our rural and urban economies.

It was a tough time to ask the Montana Legislature for funding, but producers, small businesses, consumers – and groups like the Montana Food System Council – told their local legislators that value-added agriculture is an engine of sustainable, community-based economic development. In the end, HB 583 is a modest investment considering the economic benefits that come back to our state in the form of small businesses, nutritious food, and renewable energy.

The application process to receive funding under the new law is currently under way.

Established food and agricultural development centers can contact Perri Walborn with the Montana Department of Agriculture at (406) 444-5423 for more information.

The Montana Food System Council members want to hear from you. If you have a value-added food project under way, see potential for one or want to talk about obstacles and opportunities to localizing our food system, please contact a Council member, or go to the Council's web site.

If Montanans are to enjoy the economic, health, and environmental benefits of a Montana-based food system, we must continue to build our capacity to add value to our agricultural products.

Kiki Hubbard was Grow Montana ’s Policy Coordinator during the 2009 legislative session and currently works for the Center for Rural Affairs and National Family Farm Coalition. For more information on Grow Montana, visit growmontana.ncat.org.

Montana communities seek
local solution to food insecurity

In the face of severe economic hardships, the community of Livingston, in Montana’s Park County, has mobilized to help ensure that people are fed. Fifteen community members and nonprofit agencies are spearheading a Community Food Assessment (CFA) to take a close look at where its food comes from, and how much is being produced, processed and distributed locally. It also provides a forum for people experiencing hardships to tell the community how to best help feed people.

According to Lori Christenson, Program Coordinator for Farms for Families and a member of the Community Food Assessment Steering Committee, the research project is happening at a pivotal time: “The average age of the Montanan farmer has risen to nearly 60. This fact, accompanied by a dramatic increase in people using emergency food assistance services, points to the need for our community to take stock of our food resources in this region, and ask some tough questions about how we plan to feed ourselves in the years to come.”

The Montana Food System Council (MFSC) was formed last September to help communities learn from each other and gain access to tools and resources for building a stronger statewide, local and sustainable food system.

The Council and county groups across Montana are part of a growing, nationwide Community Food Security movement that challenges communities to address food issues. Breaking away from seeing hunger as an individual’s problem, it focuses on food insecurity as a communitywide issue.

The Park County group hopes that their assessment will serve as a roadmap for concerned Montana groups. As Jessica Wilcox, Nutritionist at the Livingston Memorial Hospital and a MFSC member, comments “The Community Food Assessment will provide crucial information about how the County should move forward to meet the food needs of its residents. This rural County faces unique economic challenges, and local food can contribute to building our economy and a healthy community. We work to ensure that every person in this County has sufficient access to a nutritious diet.”

Other communities in Montana are conducting CFAs and engaging in communitywide food system development as well:

Glendive in Dawson County is engaged in a comprehensive economic development project based on local food production, processing and retail development including a restaurant and culinary school, led by Bruce Smith of Farm to Table and a MFSC member.

In Kalispell, Pam Gerwe, a farmer and Council member, and her local group, Farm Hands, made a map to guide people to local farms and food production, and are now working with a diverse set of community groups to help the Montana Food Bank Network pilot an assessment of low-income food resources and needs in five counties.

Diana Taylor, mayor of Big Timber and Council member, established a farmers market, brought together local producers, processors and retailers, and is seeking other resources to increase local food production and economic development.

The Missoula County Community Food Assessment (MCCFA) began in 2003 when two University of Montana professors, Maxine Jacobson and Neva Hassanein, formed a steering committee, including farmers, county planning officials and food bank representatives to identify the most vital research questions related to food and farming in Missoula County. Next, a college course put 21 students to work producing a report which shows key patterns and changes in the food system over time. See Foodshed in Focus. Students also put together a resource guide of food and farming in Missoula County. See Grow, Eat, Know. Their excellent report titled Food Matters includes a number of recommendations for action in Missoula County.

Much more needs to be done. The Montana Food System Council’s mission is to advance the growth of a sustainable and self-reliant statewide food system. To participate, please email your stories, questions or concerns and visit our website www.montanafood.org. The Council wants to hear from food activists across the state about other local food initiatives happening in Montana.

Barbara Rusmore is the coordinator for the Montana Food System Council and an organizational development consultant in Bozeman. Jessica Wilcox is a member of the Montana Food System Council and Food and Nutrition Services Manager at Livingston Health Care. She has been using local foods at her facility since October 2007, probably the only hospital in the state to do so.

By Erika Fredrickson
Montana Food System Council
for Headwaters News
May 28, 2009

In March 2007, at the Governor's Food and Agriculture Summit, nearly 300 people sat down at tables together to discuss their vision for a strong, sustainable food system. Ask anyone who went to that summit, you'll be told it was an exhilarating experience to see people from all walks of life taking time to talk about one thing we all have in common: food.

The Summit consisted of farmers and ranchers, chefs and academics. There were leaders and activists from public food assistance, food business wholesalers and retailers, tribal constituencies and economic development. There were food-service managers, government officials and interested citizens.

Despite differences in politics and place, despite differing personal goals with food issues—some were focused on local marketing while others sought to end hunger—it was easy for people to agree that something had to be done and that the vision was, in short, a strong sustainable food system: Montana food for all Montanans.

The Montana Food System Council (MFSC) formed as a result of that Summit. It is a new and important collaborative force for strengthening a sustainable, just and economically viable food system for Montana.

The Council is made up of 17 citizen volunteers and leaders in agricultural sustainability, food security and food-system development and education. Its mission is to advance the growth of a sustainable and self-reliant food system. Its vision is a food system that supports a sustainable agriculture, affordable nutritious food for all, and is a source of community economic development for Montana.

The Council has a unique relationship with state government leaders. After the Summit and the call for a council, Gov. Brian Schweitzer created the Montana Food for Montanans Initiative (MFMI), which charges the directors of five state agencies to assist with the goals of the Council. Those state agencies are the Department of Public Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, Department of Corrections, Department of Labor, and the Department of Commerce.

Having the ear of state government helps the Council be a conduit for change in collaboration with community food projects across the state.

The Summit identified four areas of the food system that need to be strengthened.
For that reason, the Council will encourage food system infrastructure development (processing, marketing, distribution); promote public awareness, support research and curriculum development; promote farm viability; and reduce barriers to local food access for all Montanans, thereby promoting food security.

Here's the thing: Montanans are already doing great things. There are amazing people who have fantastic food system projects in the works.

For example, in Lolo, a former industrial foods processor, Skip Cleek, manages the state's first for-profit processing kitchen and packaging facility called Montana Food Products LLC where local farmers can send their apples, carrots and other whole produce to be turned into sauces and snacks for local schools. Cleek and the processing owner, Ron Oberlander, have created their own spices, drinks and sauces, among other things, that have the potential to be just as competitive as any food in the supermarket.

Policy changes have also been made. Under the leadership of Grow Montana, organizations and individuals across the state pushed for funding of food and agricultural development centers. The hard work paid off. The Montana Legislature passed House Bill 583 in late April that will provide an opportunity to maintain and expand existing processing infrastructure at a time when demand for Montana-produced food and energy greatly exceeds supply.

Schools are making an impact, too. Since last summer, five Montana schools and colleges served $831,562 worth of Montana-grown meats, grains, dairy products and fresh produce with the help of a team called FoodCorps, five full-time Americorps VISTA volunteers stationed at each institution for the sole purpose of helping to rebuild Montana 's food economy. If that effort continues, the collective Farm to Cafeteria spending in Montana will easily top $1 million for the year.
Members of the Council are contributing to food system changes as well.

Recently, a group of Madison Valley citizens—including Council member Cindy Owings--orchestrated a meeting after their farmers’ market was about to be shut down following only one season. It was supposed to be a meeting of four but turned into 20 plus people so riled up that toward the end a man in the back stood up and shouted, “Let’s take back our food!” Since then, farmers have been sharing a meat-processing plant that allows them to turn sides of meat into products people are ready to cook and put on their plates.

At Montana State University in Bozeman, Dr. Alison Harmon, a professor in the Department of Health and Human Development, launched a brand new interdisciplinary undergraduate degree in Sustainable Food Systems and Bio-energy with colleagues from three other departments. They were overwhelmed with more students than anticipated for its first course this winter.

And Townes Harvest, the practical hands-on farm for students wanting to learn about local food production and marketing is starting its third year as a Community Supported Agricultural entity, along with providing shares for the local food bank.

In Livingston, a cattle ranch that had mostly sold to individuals and small stores started providing local beef to the Livingston HealthCare Center and Memorial Hospital, with the help of MFSC member Jessica Wilcox.

Anita Dupuis from the Council and a member of the Salish and Kootenai Confederated Nation has a program to assist Native families to acquire, raise and use local food in culturally appropriate diets.

Council member Alicia Moe, owner of Cream of the West, has been getting local business leaders and community members involved through a role play that demonstrates that Montana produces all elements of the food pyramid and how much impact their decision to buy local could have on the state. In fact, according to Grow Montana, if every household spent $10 a week on Montana-produced food, they would redirect $186 million each year to the state’s food producers rather than going elsewhere.

From Kalispell to Big Timber and Glendive, communities are rallying their agricultural resources, creating maps of the local producers and places to buy local food, setting up farmers markets and community gardens, and undertaking economic development projects based on food processing, distribution and marketing. The Montana Food Bank Network has developed a countywide assessment process for understanding and strengthening communities' ability to provide effective programs to reduce hunger.

With all these great projects and many, many more happening simultaneously across the state, the Montana Food System Council has its job cut out for it.

Its role is to collaborate with state agencies and communities to provide leadership for significant statewide food system change. The Council can help assess current barriers to and opportunities for change. It will increase public awareness of the value of a local food system by, for example, working with state agencies and nonprofits to help coordinate labeling projects—something already in the works.

The Council will help promote community food security and, for example, connect local producers with emergency food providers. Finally, the Council's relationship with state agencies will help reduce systemic barriers, increase incentives and implement policy for local food system development.

The Montana Food System Council members want to hear from you about your ideas. If you have a food project under way, see potential for one or want to talk about obstacles and opportunities you see in the localization process, please contact a Council member, or go to the Council website.

The Council, in cooperation with Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) and other groups, is creating a statewide directory of food-system projects. Your input and dialog with others around the state on these issues in conjunction with the Council’s meetings and relationships with state leaders will help make a local food system viable.

This is an exciting time for Montana food—for making food a stronger part of our state culture, for reducing hunger through the help of local producers, for building a better economy and for enjoying every nutritious bite of food our great state can offer.

Erika Fredrickson is a member of the Montana Food System Council, the arts writer for the Missoula Independent, and a blogger for Envirovore.