A New Food Plan 50-25-25

One of the best ways to contribute to ecological balancing, curbing global climate change and getting more connected with your life sourceis to grow much of your own food and source your food closer to your home.

The goal I’d like us to shoot for is 50% of our food coming from sources within 250 miles of our homes, 25% coming from our own home garden or pea patch and 25% coming from sources further afield (like Trader Joe’s goodies which largely come from California).

This may take you 1-3 years to achieve, yet keeping track of your progress and sharing it with your friends and associates will spread this ethic like wildfire.

I began converting my south facing grass lawn to productive beds 10 years ago. Now I have four productive beds, a fig tree, a peach tree, two plums, strawberries, raspberries

and a bevy of vegetables – kale, cabbage, several kinds of beans, leeks, potatoes, squash, radishes, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, broccoli, onions, lettuce, eggplant and more.

I keep two rotating composting bins out back and work the compost into the beds every 6 months or so. One of the keys is to begin with thoroughly clean soil after clearing (all roots, green matter, virtually anything that can grow back except of course the wonderful worms and other insects that keep the soil rich). Weeding can be assisted by placing chips or other neutral mulch in between beds and in other access areas.

You can use this initiative as a good way of lobbying PCC and Whole Foods and other upscale organic markets to focus on buying food within the 250 mile radius. That includes seafood brought in from the sea, which will force us to eat more local shellfish and local fish, which will mean more vigilant stewardship of our local water quality.

Getting a full 25% from your garden or pea patch means growing intensively (like the French double-dig, mounding style, which gives you warmer, much more productive beds) and canning/jarring and freezing your harvests.

It means more vigilant monitoring of your soil quality (because PNW soils typically leech a lot of nutrients due to being clayey and getting a lot of rain) and adding compost regularly. It means swapping seeds with your neighbors, rotating your beds and using rain barrels (and a cistern!) to keep your water bill reasonable.

It means knowing your common food areas and responsibly gathering fruit and other

wild food (mushrooms, herbs, edible flowers like sweet pea, etc.).

It means doing some community planning in pea patches and common areas with good soil concentrating on higher protein yields like soybean, amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat.

The 50% within 250 miles means verifying foods meet that criteria or asking the store to either label or place items in an appropriate area so you are assured of meeting that requirement. It means carefully assessing which foods (like pine nuts) you will forego or fine appropriate local replacements. Canola oil can be found in this radius, but not olive oil.

It means greater contact with growers/farmers in that radius so they know what foodstuffs you would like them to provide since they have your dedicated support. It means possible barter/exchanges with those (hopefully) CSA (community supported agriculture) based enterprises. It means children learning more about how to manage and operate every level of a new “subsistence”.

It means more conscious diversification of local supply. Some will grow tomatoes, some chickens, some goats, each with some understanding of their place in the overall local supply.

With these practices in place what will happen? Everyone will enjoy healthier, fresher, more vital food. Food will be cheaper and not stress household budgets. Food supply will be more stable as it is no longer dependent on remote conditions (e.g. orange grove freezes in Florida). Some lands and waterways will be returned to native habitat as supply meets more localized demand. Children at all economic levels will be healthier.

Less preservatives and chemicals will be used in the food production cycle.

This will also reduce traffic congestion as less stuff will have to be shipped/trucked/trained in. This will also significantly reduce packaging waste, reducing landfill demand. More reusable containers will be made and utilized over longer periods.

This will reduce air, water and soil pollution. There will be more biomass and bio-diesel production..

There will much more active stewardship of local lands and watersheds, because we will all be inter-dependently kept alive by their vitality. Slower transportation will be encouraged because goods do not have to move as far. Horses, oxen, donkeys, llamas and other versatile animals can replace overpriced gas vehicles. Innovative non-polluting watercraft can make the Puget Sound region a more livable area

The remaining 25% that comes from distant sources will examined for possible replacements and taxed accordingly as a luxury item. This will encourage a whole plethora of local industries like beer and wine making, berry juicing (as tropical juices

fade out) and a variety of nut milks (hazelnut, hemp??!!)

This will enable both Puget Sound and eventually Washington State capable of meeting the new requirements for curbing global warming.

Several ways to get involved immediately. Take the Master Gardiner training in King County, attend a City of Seattle Master Composting training, plan your garden and/or pea patch site and get going. Start an inventory of your market purchases by radius. Lay it out on a living room “grid” (like an archery target) for your children’s amusement and learning. Research alternatives and source them. Set up neighborhood food and seed swap groups, as well as tool sharing co-ops.

Have fun and thank you for preserving this beautiful planet for the next seven generations!