Satisfacer las necesidades y cambiar la cultura

Satisfacer las necesidades y cambiar la cultura

En Cooperación Humboldt, creemos que el acceso a alimentos nutritivos y culturalmente apropiados es un derecho humano fundamental.

por Tamara McFarland, Cooperation Humboldt

En Cooperación Humboldt, creemos que el acceso a alimentos nutritivos y culturalmente apropiados es un derecho humano básico, y no se debe negar a nadie, independientemente de su nivel económico.

Estamos trabajando para devolver a este territorio la regeneración  de una vida sustentable con alimentos en un bosque, capaz de sostener a cada uno de los residentes con comida que ellos necesitan para su bienestar y sus actividades diarias.

Nuestros proyectos de soberanía alimentaria se ha desarrollado estratégicamente, explorando nuestras metas, estrategias y tácticas. Hemos evaluado cuidadosamente los servicios que ya existen en nuestra comunidad y nos hemos centrado en crear proyectos nuevos e innovadores. Nuestro trabajo satisface necesidades tangibles al tiempo que capacita a los residentes con nuevas herramientas y habilidades,  fortaleciendo la participación de la comunidad.

Nuestro objetivo es abordar el hambre no a través de la caridad, sino más bien proporcionando a las personas la información y los materiales que necesitan para satisfacer sus propias necesidades, y las necesidades de sus comunidades, al tiempo que reducimos (y finalmente eliminamos) la dependencia de los industrializados / globalizados altamente destructivos sistema alimentario.

Pequeñas Bodegas de despensas gratuitas

Nuestro primer proyecto de alimentos se centró en establecer Little Free Pantries (Pequeñas Bodegas de despensas gratuitas) como centros en vecindarios para compartir recursos y construir vínculos. Hemos instalado 25 despensas en el área metropolitana de Humboldt Bay. Operan de manera similar a las librerías abiertas, cualquiera puede donar alimentos no perecederos o artículos de cuidado personal, y cualquiera puede tomar lo que necesite, las 24 horas del día. Estas pequeñas cajas azules han sido acogidas con entusiasmo por los miembros de la comunidad, y cada una de ellas recibe un uso diario.

Sustituyendo los jardines de ornato

Nuestros voluntarios también han ayudado a convertir alrededor de 20 jardínes delanteros en huertos productivos con plantas comestibles, así como plantas nativas y polinizadoras. Al igual que nuestras despensas, la sustitución del jardín ornamental, tienen como objetivo cambiar el concepto de los alimentos en las comunidades, como un beneficio al poder cultivar y compartir colectivamente, en lugar de solo comprar y vender cómodamente nuestros alimentos.

Árboles frutales comunitarios

Durante los últimos tres años, hemos ofrecido árboles frutales gratis a miembros de la comunidad y organizaciones que deseen poner la fruta a disposición de cualquiera que quiera. Esperamos plantar 230 árboles frutales para abril del 2021.

Mini Jardines

En Primavera del 2020, cuando estalló la pandemia, nos dimos cuenta de la necesidad de llevar los recursos alimentarios a quienes más los necesitaban. Por ello comenzamos nuestro proyecto Mini Gardens, y en seis meses habíamos entregado e instalado 260 jardines pequeños para residentes de bajos ingresos. Con este programa se podrán proporcionar alimentos a corto plazo, y también permite a la comunidad cultivar más alimentos en un futuro.

Siembra comunitaria

En asociación con Centro del Pueblo, Open Door Community Health Centers y la Iglesia Presbiteriana de Arcata, Cooperation Humboldt ahora administra el jardín comunitario en la esquina de las calles 11 y F en Arcata. El jardín está lleno de plantas perennes comestibles, anuales, hierbas y plantas nativas, todas cultivadas como un santuario y recurso comunitario para los residentes desatendidos. Nos esforzamos por crear un espacio de aprendizaje, empoderamiento, nutrición y regeneración.

Educación

Brindamos recursos educativos relacionados con el cultivo de alimentos, incluidos videos, talleres personales y recorridos entre los jardín, materiales impresos y más.

Guía de comida comunitaria

La revista que está leyendo ahora se ha convertido recientemente en parte del programa de Soberanía Alimentaria por Cooperación Humboldt. Cuando se necesitaba un nuevo editor, dimos un paso adelante porque sabíamos lo importante que es esta Guía para nuestra comunidad local, sabiendo su gran potencial. Esperamos que disfrutes de la información que se puede aprender aquí y te invitamos a que te comuniques con nosotros para crear una comunidad donde la alimentación sea un derecho humano.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tamara McFarland (ella) es residente del territorio Wiyot y madre de dos hijos. Se desempeña como Tesorera de la Junta y Representante del Equipo de Alimentos para Cooperación Humboldt.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What’s in a Social Justice Diet?

What’s in a Social Justice Diet?

You can make whatever diet you’re currently eating even healthier.

by Ray Levy-Uyeda; reprinted with permission from Yes! Magazine

Photo credit: North Coast Growers’ Association

Billions of dollars are spent telling individuals how to eat healthy. But even if you follow EAT-Lancet’s planet-friendly diet to a T, and your dinner plate is filled with gluten-free nutrivore fare, vegan locavore leafy greens, and ovo-pescatarian (wild caught!) omega-3’s, it still might be missing something. America’s industrialized food production and the dire nature of our planetary health raise the question: How do we add climate and social justice to our diet?

This year, members of the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will convene to update their recommendations. But this effort to help guide Americans toward a “balanced” diet is also the product of lobbying by the dairy, grain, and meat industries, which have long been accused of pursuing dollars at the expense of health.

Considering the impact of environmental racism and the number of food deserts in the United States, it’s clear that food production and consumption are not just about personal decisions. It’s about politics and systems that determine who has healthy grocery options available and who does not. Existing guidelines not only ignore the needs of the climate and rely on intensive factory farming practices, but they assign blame for poor bodily health and quality of life based on “choices” that, for many people, simply do not exist.

What would it look like to be able to eat with justice—social, racial, economic, and climate—in mind?

HONOR TRIBAL TREATIES & FOOD SYSTEMS

Before we talk about eating, we have to talk about the land on which our food is grown. In contrast to the American colonial prioritization of extracting resources from the ground, rivers, and oceans, Indigenous food systems are built on a relationship with the land. But when Native peoples were forced to leave their lands—along with their soils and place-based expertise—they were robbed of the healthy diets they had developed over generations.

Genocide, forced assimilation, creation of reservation territories, and continuance of anti-Native policies have dispossessed Native people of two kinds of wealth: the ability to truly self-govern and manage their land, and the ability to build capital, which would enable individuals to make choices about how to live a healthy lifestyle.

“What we’ve noticed, and what I’ve aimed to do, is promote the simple enrichment of diets through our traditional foods, because we know that eating just one traditional food meal a week changes the blood,” says Valerie Segrest, a member of the Muckleshoot tribe and a director with the Native American Agriculture Fund. According to a 2019 U.N. report, Indigenous peoples steward 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity—plant and animal species that are essential to climate health.

But the U.S. government has an abysmal record of breaching treaties made with Native governments. And by replacing Native food systems with industrialized versions, Segrest says the U.S. harms the land and public health simultaneously. Native leaders, U.S. scientists, and public health officials say that chronic diseases, including diabetes, didn’t exist in Native communities until the mid-20th century. Now, Native people have the highest rate of diabetes of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S.
Segrest has worked with all of the tribes in Washington state to teach the importance of traditional ingredients and says that Native foods are the remedy to this health crisis: “What’s good for an Indian is good for everybody.”

GROW KNOWLEDGE & ANTI-RACIST PRACTICES

Ayanna Jones is a Black farmer, educator, and community organizer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She lives in a majority-Black community, which runs up against a number of institutionalized racist practices. “Food justice is huge for us,” Jones says, detailing how her community’s food options are limited to local grocery stores that often sell low-quality or spoiled produce.
Stores offering higher quality and healthier options are intentionally located in the wealthy White communities, where customers are thought to be more interested in and able to pay for them. For those who can afford to travel to these neighborhoods to shop, their dollars end up leaving their own communities.

With this in mind, Jones says she began to think about what it would look like to grow her own food, to become self-sufficient. She wanted to find a way to show young people in the community that their bodies were worthy of food that is not rotten or laden with sugar and salt.

In 2015, Jones started the Sankofa Village Community Garden to provide anti-food-apartheid education and community programs, including gardening for seniors and summer camps for youth. Here she teaches young people how to produce their own food and how their bodies feel when they eat food that’s good for them.

“I give them that mental food,” Jones says. “They’re discovering the myths they’ve been given about food and food justice.” But even when one learns that sugar-filled cereal won’t sustain a child throughout the school day, if parents aren’t paid a wage that allows them to purchase healthier options, it’s difficult to turn knowledge into action. Still, Jones believes that “information is power”—that knowing is better than not knowing. “I’m growing to educate,” she says.

SHIFT FOOD POLICY BY BUYING REGIONALLY

In nearly every corner of the country, it’s cheaper to purchase a liter of soda than it is to buy a head of broccoli; a 2013 study found that a “healthy” diet cost $550 more per person per year than an “unhealthy” one. For a family of four, that’s an extra $2,200 each year. “The system is set up to feed poor people more poorly,” says fifth-generation farmer Andy Dunham, who runs an organic vegetable operation in Grinnell, Iowa. “The only reason that soda is so cheap [is because] the United States government subsidizes the hell out of those crops: sugar cane and corn.” Billions of federal dollars are disbursed annually growing Big-Ag products: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice, and to industries like big beef and big pork rather than small family farmers.

“I don’t think people have any idea about how much we spend on policy that [is] environmentally degrading,” Dunham says. To combat today’s industrial production, he calls for establishing ecologically diverse farming systems and a managed grazing system that allows soil to sequester carbon. And empowering people to know the difference. If consumers and voters understand the environmental implications of what they’re purchasing and which businesses they’re supporting through their consumption, then food policy at the federal level might look different. “Having a food literate society allows for policy to be sane,” he says.

In terms of what that translates to on the plate, Dunham says climate justice eating is about having a region-based diet. That doesn’t always mean picking plants over meat; it means taking into consideration where your food was raised and what kinds of energy, chemicals, and transport went into that process. You may need to change your approach to menu planning to reflect what’s in season, rather than relying on production somewhere that’s enjoying summer during your winter. This approach supports local farmers and keeps the carbon footprint of your food relatively low.

SUPPORT COMMUNITY-RUN COLLECTIVES

All forms of structural inequalities are made visible in the industrialized food system—from production to consumption, says Victor Brazelton, a community activist and educator with Planting Justice, an Oakland, California-based grassroots organization that works to cultivate food sovereignty, economic justice, and community healing through individual and communal empowerment. Planting Justice hires organizers, farmers, and activists who were formerly incarcerated. Part of its work is to combat current-day colonization and community displacement by building access to organic food through community gardens and educating kids about what healthy food looks and tastes like. “Food is medicine,” Brazelton says. Sustainable farming practices heal people and the planet.

“Community first starts wherever you are,” Brazelton adds, which includes acknowledging and collaborating with the people who originally stewarded the land. In the East Bay of California, the state government forced Ohlone tribes from their land through violence, but despite this, they still live and practice Ohlone culture today in what’s now called Oakland. Planting Justice developed a partnership with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, which works to repossess stolen Ohlone land. Planting Justice is currently working to pay off a 2-acre land parcel, and when it does, it will hand the deed over to the Land Trust.

“What’s really important is people having agency over their food,” says Molly Scalise of FRESHFARM, a D.C.-based food justice organization. FRESHFARM brings healthy food directly to communities through farmers markets, in-school programs, and gleaning programs, which distribute unsold produce to shelters. The organization also runs a farm-share through local schools, where parents can purchase produce at a subsidized rate using SNAP benefits. Scalise says this is necessarily a collaborative effort with D.C. residents to make sure it’s “not invasive or intrusive.” She says solutions arise from working with neighbors and communities.
The goal is making options more accessible to consumers in order to impact community health while ensuring that local farms remain profitable.

DEVELOP RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED FOOD SYSTEMS

How can we begin to talk about justice when those most impacted have the least access to decision-making tools and systems? That question is at the center of Jamie Harvie’s work. Harvie is the executive director of the Institute for a Sustainable Future, which works to build solutions for ecological health through advocacy and research. A food justice diet, he says, must mitigate climate impact, reduce poverty, and ensure that decision-making processes include those most impacted.

Ultimately, Harvie says, what’s good for the climate will be good for people too. But White, Western, colonial systems have conditioned many of us out of the understanding that food systems and communal health are connected.

Food justice must return systems to communities, Harvie explains. Organizations like Oregon Rural Action tackle food injustice from a farming and policy perspective, by working to change state laws that allow farmers to sell directly to consumers, as well as collaborating with the state’s Department of Energy to provide low-interest loans to schools upgrading their energy systems, and building access to local farmers markets. Local food systems that are communally owned and operated allow for communal wealth creation. This means that food is not only eaten in the same region where it is produced, but the financial and public health benefits uplift the community as well.

Tying together food and climate justice isn’t an intellectual exercise, Harvie notes. Justice work, in any form, is about creating and sustaining relationships with one another, including the relationships with the Earth and our food systems. We have to do the hard work of moving from a transactional, colonial, and capitalist model of feeding ourselves to a relational model of feeding and caring for each other.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ray Levy-Uyeda is a Bay Area-based freelance writer who focuses on gender, politics, and activism.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

TAKE ACTION LOCALLY

  • Buy locally grown food. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture); see more information on page 91.
  • Grow some of your own food. Even a little bit helps – set a manageable goal, like 10% of your vegetables, and take it from there.
  • Garden in the community. Coordinate and share with your friends, family and neighbors. Strengthen local sharing and trading networks.
  • Pay an Honor Tax to the Indigenous people whose land you inhabit. An Honor Tax is a tangible way of honoring the sovereignty of Native Nations. The tax is voluntary, the amount is decided by each individual/organization, and it is paid directly to the tribal entity. Look up the Indigenous history of where you live at www.native-land.ca.
  • Cooperation Humboldt is a nonprofit working to create a community where food is understood to be a human right, and no one goes hungry due to lack of wealth or income. Volunteers are needed to plant community fruit trees, stock Little Free Pantries, install mini gardens for low-income residents, plan events, and produce the Community Food Guide you’re reading now. More information at www.cooperationhumboldt.org and here.

Reactivando las relaciones con nuestra forma de alimentarnos

Reactivando las relaciones con nuestra forma de alimentarnos

Historia sobre la soberanía alimentaria indígena en California.

por Cutcha Risling Baldy, Ph.D. & Kaitlin Reed, Ph.D., Co-directores del Laboratorio de Soberanía Alimentaria de Estudios Nativos Americanos en la Universidad Estatal de Humboldt

Los pescadores se reúnen en la desembocadura del río Klamath en la orilla norte donde se encuentra con el Océano Pacífico. Los Yurok utilizan tradicionalmente pequeñas redes que se arrastran a mano a lo largo de las costas. Autor de la foto: Joel Redman / If Not Us Then Who www.ifnotusthenwho.me

En el corazón de la soberanía alimentaria se encuentra la autodeterminación de las personas, y las comunidades, sobre sus sistemas alimentarios. La Declaración de Nyéléni (Ni-ye-leni) define la soberanía alimentaria como “el derecho de los pueblos a una alimentación sana y culturalmente apropiada, producida mediante métodos ecológicamente racionales y sostenibles, y con el propio derecho de definir sus propios sistemas alimentarios agrícolas”.

Hay seis principios de soberanía alimentaria:

  • Enfocarse en alimentar personas sanamente
  • Valorar a los productores de alimentos
  • Localizar  los sistemas alimentarios
  • Tomar decisiones a nivel local
  • Desarrollar lo conocimientos y habilidades
  • Trabajar con la naturaleza.

La soberanía alimentaria también se trata de enfocar las voces indígenas en el cómo avanzamos colectivamente, en la construcción de sistemas alimentarios sostenibles. Los sabios indígenas Devon Mihesuah y Elizabeth Hoover escribieron “el concepto de soberanía alimentaria indígena,  no se centra únicamente en los derechos a la tierra, la alimentación y la capacidad de regular un sistema de producción, sino también la responsabilidad y relacion que existe a nivel cultural, ecológico y espiritual.” Por lo tanto, la revitalización de las fuentes tradicionales de alimentación a través de la soberanía alimentaria indígena es fundamental para la forma en que construimos la soberanía alimentaria en nuestra región.

ALIMENTACION Y SU BUENA RELACION

En todo California, pero especialmente en el norte de California, los pueblos nativos mantienen fuertes relaciones con sus fuentes de alimentos tradicionales. Los sistemas alimentarios nativos tradicionales, las prácticas ecológicas y los conocimientos científicos de los indígenas incluían sistemas alimentarios muy sofisticados, bien pensados ​​y complejos la cuál requiere de una gestión ecológica continua.

En California hay varios ejemplos claros de cómo los indígenas de California practicaron un sistema complejo de manejo de alimentos de manera sustentable continua y abundante. Por ejemplo, la rosa y quema fue una práctica que prevenía incendios forestales catastróficos al mismo tiempo que aumentaba drásticamente los sistemas de producción de alimentos y apoyaba prácticas culturales como el tejido de cestas. Hay varios ejemplos documentados de exploradores que describen California como un “jardín bien cuidado” y también observando cómo el paisaje fue moldeado significativamente por las prácticas ecológicas de los nativos de California.

En esta región, siempre ha habido movimientos y esfuerzos para mantener la soberanía alimentaria de las naciones tribu. Nuestra región es vibrante con programas, organizaciones y líderes nativos que han construido movimientos líderes considerando la soberanía alimentaria en torno al salmón, las bellotas, los jardines tradicionales y “Cocinar saludablemente en el país indígena“.

Autor de la foto: Dr. Cutcha Risling-Baldy

EQUILIBRIO INTERRUMPIDO

Cuando el colonialismo invadió California, los colonos intentaron no solo matar y expulsar a los pueblos indígenas, sino que también suplantaron su gestión ecológica que redujo drásticamente la producción de alimentos de la que dependían los pueblos indígenas.

Durante el sistema de Misión Española, los Padres prohibieron a los nativos comer sus alimentos tradicionales. Se pensaba que la separación de los pueblos indígenas de su forma de alimentarse era una forma de civilizar y controlar a los pueblos indígenas. También obligaron a los pueblos indígenas a trabajar en campos agrícolas, eliminando plantas nativas y reemplazándolas con cultivos como uvas (para vino) y maíz. Negarse a trabajar para la misión  resultaba en azotes o secuestros, entre otros castigos violentos. Incluso hay historias de algunas misiones que enfrentan la inanición debido a la dependencia excesiva del cultivo de alimentos no nativos y la negativa de los Padres a permitir que los pueblos nativos proporcionen bellotas a todas las personas en las misiones. Los padres dijeron que preferirían que la gente se muriera de hambre antes que comer alimentos nativos.

La fiebre del oro fue uno de los momentos más violentos en la historia de California reduciéndose un 90% en la población indígena de California. El estado de California apoyó un intento de genocidio de indígenas al legalizar la esclavitud de los indígenas y también al autorizar a una milicia de voluntarios en California para matar a los indígenas. A cada región de California se le permitió establecer su propio precio para pagar el cuero cabelludo y la cabeza de los nativos americanos, y donde variadas regiones establecieron precios en números como $5 por cabeza o 25 centavos por cuero cabelludo.

La Ley Gubernamental para la Protección de los Indígenas  en 1850, permitió la esclavitud de los pueblos indígenas como “aprendices”. Los registros del condado de Humboldt reflejan que la mayoría de las personas esclavizadas bajo esta ley eran niñas de entre 7 y 12 años. Este sistema de esclavitud vulneró a los nativos para practicar sus tradiciones  alimentarias.. En un momento, era demasiado peligroso salir y reunirse o tratar de transmitir este conocimiento entre generaciones, nuestras mujeres y niños estaban siendo objeto de secuestro y esclavitud.

Cuando pensamos en todo lo que se tuvieron que adaptar y sacrificar los nativos, debemos recordarnos que nuestra desconexión hacia los alimentos ancestrales no se debió a que “perdimos” nuestra cultura o nuestro conocimiento, esta desconexión se vió obligada por medio de la violencia. Estos conocimientos nos fueron arrebatados violentamente por la colonización.

Las prácticas de ataque del gobierno de los Estados Unidos contra la soberanía alimentaria fueron una forma de expulsar por la fuerza a los pueblos indígenas de sus tierras continuaron en todo el país. George Washington, referido por los Haudenosaunee como el “destructor de ciudades”, era conocido por su política de “tierra en llamas” en la que ordenó que se destruyeran los campos agrícolas de los Haudenosaunee y se quemara la tierra para que los cultivos no pudieran prosperar en la región. El gobierno de los Estados Unidos ordenó una matanza masiva de búfalos en su intento por debilitar y matar de hambre pueblos nativos de las Grandes Llanuras. En California, la Oficina de Asuntos Indígenas realizó un informe para discutir cómo podrían erradicar los robles con la esperanza de destruir la relación de los indios de California con las bellotas que seguían siendo un alimento de la dieta básica.

Los pueblos nativos, como resultado de ser forzados a permanecer en las reservas, fueron sometidos a raciones alimenticias del gobierno, en algunos casos, esas raciones se retenían a  tribus que resistían la continua invasión del gobierno de los Estados Unidos.

Luego, el estado impuso sistemas educativos, como internados, alejando por la fuerza a los niños indios de sus familias, separándolos de su cultura y soberanía alimentaria.

La aprobación de la Ley Dawes en 1887 trató de obligar a los pueblos nativos a acceder a tierras de propiedad comunal por propiedades privadas. También intentó obligar a los pueblos nativos a practicar la agricultura occidental. La destrucción de la soberanía alimentaria continuó debido a los cambios ambientales como la represa de ríos, inundación de tierras nativas, y políticas como la remoción, reasignación y reubicación.

El despojo de tierras indígenas fue la forma en que el estado de California pudo convertirse en una de las principales economías del mundo. Este despojo de tierras impide que los nativos accedan a sus fuentes de alimentos hasta el día de hoy. Las tierras nativas se tomaron a través de políticas como la creación de parques nacionales y estatales que continúan impidiendo a los pueblos originarios  el acceso a alimentos,elementos culturales y lugares sagrados. Cuando hablamos de recuperar nuestros alimentos, no solo se trata de la comida, también se trata de recuperar la historia, los idiomas, prácticas culturales y la conexión con nuestras tierras.

Autor de la foto: r. Cutcha Risling-Baldy

RESTAURACIÓN LIDEREADA POR EL PUEBO INDÍGENA

Nuestros recursos alimentarios se ven constantemente amenazados, como el salmón, amenazado por las incautaciones de agua y los proyectos propuestos de infraestructura acuícola. La pandemia de COVID-19 también nos recordó cuán precario sigue siendo el sistema alimentario dentro de nuestras regiones locales en tierras nativas.

El Proyecto de Seguridad Alimentaria Tribal de la Cuenca de Klamath encontró que el 92% de los hogares nativos americanos en las regiones de Humboldt / Del Norte padecen de inseguridad alimentaria y el 70% nunca o rara vez tienen acceso a alimentos nativos. El 64% de los hogares nativos depende de asistencia alimentaria y el 84% se preocupa por su próxima comida.

Mientras nos encontramos tabajando por la soberanía alimentaria de nuestros pueblos indígenas y comunidades que han sido un blanco de explotación historico hasta el actual,  atravéz de prácticas comtemporaneas.  Comunidades rurales en estado de pobreza, como los pueblos originarios, tienen menos acceso a una sana alimentación y comunmente enfrentan una de los mas altos índices de diabetes y otros problemas de salud en la nación. La soberanía almentaria no se trata solo sobre reconectar nuestro conocimiento y practicas, también ha sido un problema ambiental y de justicia social. Nuestros conocimientos y tradiciones al rededor de la alimentación puede ayudarnos aconstruir futuros mas seguros.  Las comunidades rurales y pobres, como los grupos originarios, tienen menos acceso a alimentos saludables y, a menudo, enfrentan algunas de las tasas más altas de diabetes y otros problemas de salud a nivel nacional. La soberanía alimentaria no se trata solo de reconectar con nuestros conocimientos y tradiciones; también es cuestión de justicia ambiental y social. Nuestros conocimientos alimentarios tradicionales pueden ayudarnos a construir un futuro más sólido.

Lo que ves hoy en día en nuestra región es una conección que hemos estado luchando, por la soberanía alimentaria durante más de 150 años, y continuar llevando nuestros conocimientos hacia un futuro a pesar de los muchos intentos de destruirnos a nosotros y nuestra relación con la tierra  y el alimento.

Aprender sobre la soberanía alimentaria nos demuestra cómo y por qué la importancia de las relaciones con nuestras fuentes de alimentación, es fundamental para la existencia del pueblo y la naturaleza. La académica y activista nativa americana de renombre internacional Winona LaDuke afirma que “la soberanía alimentaria es una afirmación de quiénes somos como pueblos indígenas y … una de las formas más seguras de restaurar nuestra relación con el mundo que nos rodea”.

Creemos en revivir nuestra relación con la alimentación y la soberanía alimentaria, esto nos permite reconocer esa relación y esperamos encontrar otras muchas formas más en que podemos continuar apoyando el trabajo comunitario local.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
La Dra. Cutcha Risling Baldy (ella ) es la directora del departamento y profesora asociada de estudios nativos americanos en HSU y codirectora del Laboratorio de Soberanía Alimentaria de NAS y el Espacio de Taller Cultural. Ella es Hupa, Karuk y Yurok y está inscrita en la Tribu del Valle Hoopa.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
La Dra. Kaitlin Reed (ella) es profesora asistente de estudios nativos americanos en HSU y codirectora del Laboratorio de Soberanía Alimentaria de NAS y el Espacio de Taller Cultural. Ella es Yurok, Hupa y Oneida y está inscrita en la Tribu Yurok.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

¡Bienvenid@s!

Apples at the Farmer's Market

autor de la foto: North Coast Growers’ Association

¡Bienvenid@s!

El trabajo para crear esta publicación se llevó incesantemente a cabo en el territorio Wiyot. Somos afortunados de vivir, trabajar, jugar y crecer en este lugar, rodeados de belleza y abundancia, agradecidos con los habitantes originales de esta tierra por su guía, tenacidad y generosidad.


Querid@ lector@,

En nombre de las docenas de personas locales que colaboraron para dar vida a esta edición, ¡bienvenid@s a la Guía de alimentos de la Comunidad 2021!

La revista que tienes en tus manos presenta recientemente algunos cambios. Después de cuatro años de existencia como Local Food Guide de Locally Delicious, Cooperación Humboldt ha asumido con entusiasmo la publicación de la Guía.

Naturalmente, en Cooperación Humboldt creemos que el acceso a alimentos nutritivos y culturalmente apropiados son derecho humano fundamental que nunca debe depender de un estatus económico o de los ingresos.

Trabajamos arduamente para crear una revista que promueva el acceso, la equidad, la educación y el empoderamiento en nuestro sistema alimentario local a través de las siguientes prioridades:

  • Honrar la historia, el conocimiento cultural y las experiencias de los pueblos indígenas locales , centrando sus voces.
  • Crear una herramienta atractiva, accesible y útil, que pueda apoyar específicamente a los más necesitados.
  • Apoyar a las empresas de alimentos locales, especialmente aquellas que históricamente han enfrentado desafíos para acceder a los recursos, incluidos aquellos que pertenecen y son operados por BIPOC y personas LGBTQ +.
  • Promover la justicia y la localización de nuestro sistema alimentario.

Hemos aprendido mucho durante este primer año del proceso de publicación y estamos agradecidos por toda la paciencia y el apoyo que recibimos.

Esperamos que disfrute de la Guía, la compartan y nos hagan saber cómo la han utilizado apoyando la soberanía alimentaria local.

Hou ’(gracias),

Tamara McFarland

Editor;  Representante del Equipo de Alimentos

para Cooperación Humboldt

2020 Mini Garden Recipients Invited to Supplies Giveaway 4/25/2021

If you received a mini garden last year from Cooperation Humboldt, you’re invited to a supplies giveaway on Sunday, April 25th from noon-2:00 p.m. at the parking lot across from Redwood Acres in Eureka. We’ll have bags of compost (so you can add nutrients to your soil to prepare it for another year’s planting) and plant starts available for free, plus educational materials and experienced gardeners on hand to answer questions.

Questions? Email tamara.mcfarland@cooperationhumboldt.com.

Pathways to Healing

Pathways to Healing

How herbal medicines – and the foods we eat – empower us to heal ourselves & our communities.

by Holly Hilgenberg, Cooperation Humboldt

 

Our current healthcare system with its dependence on for-profit health insurance has left millions of us with inadequate coverage, or no coverage at all. This expensive and unequal system has contributed to bankruptcy, homelessness, preventable disease and death.

As many among us work to create a better alternative – one that provides high-quality, cost-effective health care for all – a hunger for solutions that can be enacted at the personal and community level has also grown.

More and more of us have become aware of the relationship between what we eat and our overall health, and a growing awareness of herbal medicine has taken root. Locally, we are fortunate to have many individuals, organizations, and businesses working to provide us with locally grown health-enhancing foods and herbal medicines.

Isis Walls and Jacob Ferdman, Five Finger Farms / photo credit: Five Finger Farms

From Farm to Tincture: Five Finger Farms

For Isis Walls and Jacob Ferdman of Five Finger Farms, growing medicinal plants is about remembering our relationship with nature, and sharing it with others. They started their farm as “a way to connect with the seasons and rhythms of nature, and share those connections with our community.” Despite the increase in popularity of herbal medicine, Isis and Jacob noticed that many of the herbs in their favorite products were imported. This spurred their goal to provide individuals and herbal product makers with affordable, locally grown medicinal herbs.

Five Finger Farms began as a quarter-acre space in 2018, growing quickly to their current location, where they farm on nine acres in the Eel River delta. The duo was able to rent the land and buy the necessary supplies thanks to funds raised through Kickstarter, and they acknowledge how important community support has been from the beginning. “We are so thankful for those who gave us the space to farm,” they said, noting that, “the hardest part of farming is getting started, and it seems almost impossible to do so without the support of friends, family and the broader community.”

The farm grows crops such as calendula, chamomile, ashwagandha, lemon balm, marshmallow root, yarrow, Tulsi basil and milky oats, which they offer dried, fresh, tinctured, infused in oil or distilled. They are currently working on expanding these offerings by developing non-alcoholic extracts such as oxymel (made with vinegar and honey), with the aim of making herbal medicine more accessible and palatable for everyone.

Isis and Jacob are excited to see more folks studying healing traditions including Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and many Indigenous practices. They hope this recognition of herbal medicine’s diverse history will be a step toward building a better world. “We believe that the thoughtful sharing of knowledge and wisdom of our collective relationship with plants can bring people together to heal ourselves and the planet.”

Nicole Gagliano, Wild & Wise Herbal CSA / photo credit: Wild & Wise

Community Supported Year Round: Wild & Wise

Nicole Gagliano of Wild and Wise Herbal CSA also sees herbal medicine as a key component to healing and moving toward a brighter future. Nicole began working in herbal medicine 12 years ago when she began meeting with a small group to brainstorm ways to bring herbal healing to the community. While there were many ideas the group explored, it was creating an herbal CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that stuck with Nicole.

Today, the heart of Wild and Wise is its herbal CSA, which has been in operation for 10 years, and is the only herbal CSA in Humboldt County. Similar to a vegetable CSA, members sign up at the start of the year and receive a package each season full of goodies including tinctures, teas, and products for body and skin care. Nicole says the seasonality of the CSA is one way of connecting people to the plants growing seasonally in our bioregion.

In addition to providing the products themselves, Wild and Wise also helps educate CSA members on how various plants can aid in their health. As Nicole says, “Herbal medicine is empowering! Having the knowledge to maintain and restore good health to yourself and those around you is radical and life changing.” In each package, CSA members also get an educational newsletter that includes information about the herbs in each product and a guest article by a fellow herbalist.

While supporting local herbalists is one great way to bring herbal healing into your life, Nicole encourages people to try their hand at growing medicines themselves if they are able. “Growing herbs offers a connection to your land, to your medicine and to your community,” she says.

Casandra Kelly, Casandra Kelly Catering / photo credit: Casandra Kelly Catering

Food as Medicine: Casandra Kelly Catering

Healing is not limited to tinctures, salves and teas; humans have been experiencing healing through food for millennia. Many common plants in your backyard that help with various ailments can also be added to your diet for extra boosts of nutrients, vitamins and minerals (see page 48). It’s not a coincidence that many of the herbs you may find in your pantry (such as oregano, mint, thyme and rosemary) are useful for both flavor and for their healing properties.

Casandra Kelly (they/them) is a local chef who sees food as having potential to be both nutritious and healing. “I do think food is medicine,” they say, “It’s a conduit for how we ingest so many things and our first line of defense is having a healthy relationship with food. If we aren’t doing that, we aren’t getting the nutrients that we need. And if we aren’t getting the nutrients that we need, then none of the medicine we are taking in is going to be helpful.”

Casandra Kelly Catering provides meal services for all occasions – from large gatherings to private dinners and individual meals. For Casandra, the meals they prepare aren’t just about feeding their clients. “My basis for understanding meals and what I provide for people is more of an integrated health system,” they say. Though Casandra makes it clear that they are not an herbalist, their knowledge of herbal medicine and Ayurveda shape their meal offerings, along with their understanding of food’s healing potential. For Casandra, the food they make is about bringing health and joy into their clients’ lives, and helping them to heal from formative relationships that Casandra notes most people have in one way or another with food.

Like Isis, Jacob and Nicole, Casandra points to the importance of community support in enabling them to run their own business. Like many in the service industry, Casandra found themself without a job when COVID hit, and ultimately decided to take the leap and put their stimulus money toward making the business their full-time job. This came after working for over a decade in kitchens and catering large gatherings. Casandra points to the strong, supportive women who mentored them along their way, as well as this region’s farming community as being foundational to their journey.

Casandra’s experiences learning from local farmers brought them a whole new understanding of food. “Farming has given me a deep lesson into seasonality and microclimates,” they say, “Much like a farmer, I can tell when a green bean is just past its prime without even biting into it. That’s just not something you can learn in a kitchen.” Beyond the knowledge Casandra has gained from the farming community, “their practice and dedication stays with me every time I cook.”

This unprecedented time didn’t just prompt Casandra to focus on their catering business; it also inspired clarity about what kind of business they wanted to create. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, they could no longer be apolitical as a business owner. As someone who identifies as queer, Jewish and a person of color, Casandra had had their share of experiences not feeling safe in previous workplaces.

When Casandra made the decision to make a statement through their business about the social unrest taking place, they lost about half of their followers, which they note is “a lot for a small business.” But Casandra persisted, believing that it is more important for them to run a business where their employees and clients feel safe and supported, particularly because the majority of the people they work with are queer and people of color.

“I want people who work with me to feel like they are accepted and I will back them up and stand behind them. I don’t want anyone to come into my business and feel like they are othered or that they have to live in fear. My number one priority for my staff is health and safety,” they say. According to Casandra, the past year has brought a lot of previously unaddressed inequality to the surface, including in the industry they work in. They point to how service industry folks are among those being hit the hardest by the pandemic, as many have lost their livelihoods, don’t have health insurance and have underlying health issues resulting from the high stress environments they’ve worked in.

While the pandemic has brought the inequalities and inadequacies of our healthcare system (and society in general) into the spotlight, it’s an even greater reminder of how important empowerment and accessibility in healing are. Plant medicine can be one path that can get us there, especially if we take care to support each other on the way.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Holly Hilgenberg (she/her) is a writer, artist, and lover of nature, plants, vintage clothing, print publications and thrifting. Being part of Cooperation Humboldt has been her favorite way to combine social change work, creativity and community building since she moved to Humboldt from Minneapolis 2.5 years ago.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Photo credit: Wild & Wise

Plant medicine is for everybody!

While there are many intricacies involved with making plant medicines, it can also be very simple! Take it one step at a time. Developing a relationship with just one plant can be life-changing, and you don’t need to be an expert to work with plant medicine.

Here are a few basic ways herbs can be used*:

  • Tinctures: Dried or fresh herbs added to alcohol (or vegetable glycerine for a non-alcoholic option) to extract the plant’s healing properties.
  • Oils: Similar to tinctures, using oil and typically dried plants.
    Balms and Salves: Uses an infused-oil base, with beeswax added to make the medicine more like a paste (for external use).
  • Teas: Dried or fresh plants steeped in boiling water for a healing drink.
  • Oxymel: Similar to a tincture, but with vinegar and honey instead of alcohol or vegetable glycerine.
  • In your food: Try plants fresh in salads or add them to soups or pastas. Add dried herbs to everything you cook!

*Note: Typically, the plant material is removed from all of these options (with the exception of adding them to your food) before using.


Completing the Cycle

Completing the Cycle

New co-op ready to solve food waste problem, one pedal at a time.

by Karlee Jackson, Cooperation Humboldt

 

Humboldt County has a food waste problem. According to the Humboldt Waste Management Authority, over a third of our waste going to landfills is food or food-related. As it decomposes in landfills, food waste produces methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And trucking thousands of tons of food waste to landfills each year consumes fossil fuels and drives up disposal costs for everyone.

Landfills and the industrial waste disposal industry also disproportionately threaten the health, social and economic wellbeing of the low income and BIPOC communities that tend to disproportionately be located near these facilities. Meanwhile, local residents have very limited options for diverting their food waste. It can be especially hard for condo or apartment residents without access to a backyard composting set-up.

“What we call ‘food waste’ is actually a resource,” says Morgan King, one of the worker-owners of Full Cycle Compost, a new worker-owned cooperative dedicated to zero waste. “Society tacitly supports an industrial system that earns millions of dollars hauling away and then burying this resource in landfills. Instead, we should be using this resource to build our soils, store carbon, and grow food.”

Full Cycle Compost is a new business on a mission to provide residents with a convenient and affordable way to remove their food scraps from the waste industrial complex and to put that resource to use building soil and growing food. Starting this spring, the bicycle-powered collection service will haul food scraps from residential and small business subscribers to local composting sites.

I recently sat down with King and his fellow worker-owners – Isaac West, Rory Baker, Julian Palmisano and Tobin McKee – to learn more about their business and their vision for the future.

Why bikes?

“We are focused on sustainability,” says worker-owner Isaac. “One of our goals is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it would be hard to do that if we’re relying on fossil fuels for our business. It also helps that we all are avid cyclists, so we appreciate the health benefits and the pure joy of riding bikes.”

Why a cooperative?

Tobin from Worker Owned Humboldt, a program of Cooperation Humboldt and the North Coast Small Business Development Center, initially brought the group together and facilitated its development into a worker owned and operated cooperative business. “Democratic self-governance and community building were big reasons for us becoming a cooperative,” says McKee. “We see Full Cycle Compost as a strong community partner. We want to eventually provide educational and workforce opportunities for HSU students, youth, and the community at large, and we want to help our local governments achieve their zero waste goals.”

Who are you trying to reach?

According to worker-owner Rory, Full Cycle Compost will start out by serving residents of Arcata. “We’re looking forward to serving single family and multifamily households, as well as small businesses,” says Baker. “Our climate here can make it hard for backyard composters to keep up with their piles, so our service may also be attractive to those who just don’t want the hassle of DIY composting.”

How does it work?

Worker-owner Julian explains, “We provide the customer one or more buckets, or they can use their own bucket if it meets our guidelines. For a monthly subscription, one of our riders will come each week to collect the compostables and leave the buckets empty and clean, ready to be filled up with the next week’s food scraps. Our riders will drop off the food scraps at one of our composting sites. We are currently working with the Jacoby Creek Land Trust farm, and with the Arcata Community Health and Wellness Garden, to help build their soil to grow healthy food. It’s the full cycle, realized!” According to Palmisano, the Full Cycle Compost crew might add additional sites in the future as they gain more subscribers. They also want to eventually give compost back to their subscribers.

Want more information?

Full Cycle Compost is currently accepting new subscribers in Arcata, Sunnybrae and Bayside. Visit www.fullcyclecompost.com to learn more and sign up.


Crisis & Transformation in Food Retail

Crisis & Transformation in Food Retail

How altruism and solidarity are helping our community cope with economic crisis and lay a foundation for long-term resilience.

by Leila Roberts, North Coast Small Business Development Center

 

You and I are living through a brief moment in human history that our species may not survive intact. Add to this pandemic global climate disruption and a crisis of economic inequality and political upheaval and the future seems bleak.

Our human gifts of mass social cooperation and tool-using genius created the political economies that brought us to this point, but they won’t help us transcend them unless we leverage another survival strategy: altruism.

What can we learn from the ingenuity and generosity of local food businesses about how to anticipate, survive, and transcend our multiple crises?

Food Industry in Crisis

A mid 2020 McKinsey study projected that if our national response to the pandemic is effective we may start to see economic recovery in the food value chain in early 2021. But if our safety practices and vaccine roll-out aren’t enough to prevent another infection surge, the recovery could drag on for 3-4 years, and we’ll lose many precious local businesses along the way.

Governments are trying to put the people’s will to work with imperfect – but still desperately needed – financial assistance. At the time of writing we’re expecting up to $25 billion in new federal grants for restaurants and bars hard-hit by the pandemic, a tripling of the state relief grant program, liquor license fee waivers, and more local loan and grant programs.

These are all policy choices with an important positive impact on our local food business owners’ and workers’ day-to-day lives. But crisis response does not prepare us for the next emergency unless we’re strategic about it.

Adaptive Altruism: From Relief to Regeneration

In mid 2020 dozens of frontline economic, racial, and climate justice groups launched United Frontline Table. They agreed to work together toward 80+ policy solutions organized in fourteen planks for a Regenerative Economy and Green New Deal for shifting us toward regenerative economies (see overview at right).

Within this framework are food sovereignty proposals that put “the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations.”

A PEOPLE’S ORIENTATION TO A REGENERATIVE ECONOMY

Excerpted with permission from unitedfrontlinetable.org/report/

Protect, Repair, Invest & Transform

The intersecting crises of income and wealth inequality and climate change, driven by systemic white supremacy and gender inequality, has exposed the frailty of the U.S. economy and democracy. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these existing crises and underlying conditions. Democratic processes have been undermined at the expense of people’s jobs, health, safety, and dignity. We need a shift in popular consciousness.

A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy offers community groups, policy advocates, and policymakers a pathway to solutions that work for frontline communities and workers. These policies must be enacted at the federal level, and also at the local, state, tribal, and regional levels, in U.S. Territories, and internationally.

These fourteen planks entail over 80 policy ideas. They are deeply intertwined and should be held as a collective framework to achieve a Regenerative Economy. The planks are organized starting with a focus on championing human rights and dignity, moving into infrastructure shifts for a Regenerative Economy, and ending with how we can resource these solutions.

  • Indigenous & Tribal Sovereignty
  • Justice for Black Communities
  • Justice for Immigrant Communities
  • Just Transition for Workers & Communities
  • Protections and Investments for Sacrifice Zones and Environmental
  • Justice Communities
  • Healthcare for All
  • Homes Guarantee
  • Energy Sources and Pollution Mitigation
  • Energy Democracy
  • Food Sovereignty and Land Sovereignty
  • Equitable and Clean Energy/ Emissions-Free Transit
  • Just Recovery
  • Investing in the Feminist Economy
  • Investing in Regenerative Economy

Regenerative Economy is based on ecological restoration, community protection, equitable partnerships, justice, and full and fair participatory processes.

Learn more and read the full report at unitedfrontlinetable.org/report/

Solidarity Entrepreneurship

Today on the North Coast our current reality sits somewhere between the beautiful vision articulated by United Frontline Table and the current crises. Some local food businesses are finding ways to adapt to the pandemic without losing their commitment to this community. They embody many of the principles outlined by United Frontline Table.

US Vets Deliver’s Jim Richards accepts the Eureka Chamber of Commerce 2020 Positive Community Impact Award

Delivery without exploitation: US Vets Deliver

App-based food delivery companies are leveraging more than 1.5 billion in venture capital to grow a business model that extracts wealth from communities for faraway shareholders. Their massive financial backing allows them to operate at a loss so they can blanket communities with advertising to grab market share, often underpay delivery workers, and charge fees that take a damaging cut of local restaurants’ narrow margins.

Jim Richards of Ferndale started delivering for Door Dash out of necessity. He quickly saw an opportunity to meet an unserved market when he realized how many local restaurants wisely refused to sign on to the delivery service apps with ruinous fees. He saw how badly compensated the hard-working delivery workers were. He noticed how many customers had disposable income going unspent because it was unsafe to dine-in and inconvenient to pick up.

So, mid-pandemic Jim launched US Vets Deliver – a business that competes effectively with the app-based firms sucking dollars out of local communities.

“My goal is to make a living and help local restaurants stay connected to customers. We hire drivers who can give our customers the attention to detail and customer service they want. Sometimes I sit and chat for fifteen minutes with some of our older customers. It’s a great way to build that relationship,” Jim says.

“We serve people who like good food and don’t mind tipping. The model I created is a win-win-win. We don’t charge restaurants. We set our rates so that our drivers can’t work themselves into a sub-minimum wage outcome. The delivery fee and tip go straight to the driver.”

You can find US Vets Deliver on Facebook, or reach them by text at 707-298-9595.

Meredith Maier and Talia Nachson Clare, Six Rivers Brewery

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: Six Rivers Brewery

In 2019 a national restaurant industry group announced that revenue from delivery sales was growing three times faster than on-site dining. With the arrival of a worldwide pandemic, any restaurant that doesn’t offer food delivery and pick-up won’t last long.

Mckinleyville’s Six Rivers Brewery – “The Brew with a View” – is a small batch craft brewery and restaurant that draws loyal customers who packed the space every evening and weekend for 16+ years. Six Rivers’ co-owners Meredith Maier and Talia Nachson Clare are a case study in excellent “Pandemic Pivoting.”

They engineered a lightning-fast shift to meal pick-up and outdoor dining and became locally famous for their funny, spicy social media posts showing them enforcing strict pandemic safety practices. Their shift to counter service and commitment to protecting customers and employees worked. “Like everyone else we took a loss for the year overall, but still managed to turn a profit during the summer high season,” Meredith explained.

Their most telling pandemic strategy was sharing the wealth with fellow business owners. Customers of Six Rivers Brewery can at the same time patronize two local food trucks invited to sell in the outdoor space and buy more than 50 local products on sale from the brewpub’s community marketplace: local beers and wines, liquors and kombucha, spices, hot sauces and dressings, chocolates, body care products, fresh fish, local honey, and various clothing and home merchandise.

“We used to sell a few hundred dollars in merchandise a month. This past summer it was up to $1,000 a day. I wave that Shop Local flag like crazy. Every six pack I sell helps our business and our staff. So I know that every jar of Diane’s Sweet Heat or Humboldt Hot Sauce does the same for them,” Meredith shared.

“What do we want to be remembered for? We think of our business as an extension of the community…In a small community we truly can keep each afloat and make a difference with small purchases.”

A Resilient Ownership Model

In 2018 a Humboldt business survey uncovered that 62% of seasoned owners were considering selling their business to their employees. We’re also seeing dozens of potential entrepreneurs percolating new business start-up ideas. Straddling both trends on the North Coast is a growing number of businesses that will be owned by the workers themselves.

This is good for workers’ asset- and skill-building, good for the tax base, and good for closing the racial wealth gap. Worker-ownership creates more resilience in an economic crisis. A 2017 study of ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program) companies showed that employees built nearly twice as much net worth as other companies, stayed longer, and earned more. A 2020 follow up reaffirmed previous findings and then some. Employees with a stake in their company’s future retained four times more jobs in the pandemic crisis, were half as likely to cut hours and pay, and were more likely to quickly implement pandemic protective measures.

Right now, the North Coast Small Business Development Center, Cooperation Humboldt, and Project Equity are collaborating to support at least 10 new and a handful of converted worker-owned businesses in Humboldt. These range from solo enterprises to 50+ employees, across a variety of industries: food manufacturing and service, durable goods retail, energy, engineering, and more.

Re-thinking Ownership: Signature Coffee Company

Signature Coffee Company, based in Southern Humboldt, has been a pioneer in fair trade, organic coffee sourcing and roasting since the 1980s. They have long followed waste reduction and sustainability best practices. Now they’re breaking new ground again for the next phase of the business: an eventual conversion to worker ownership.

Signature’s founder and owner Karyn Lee-Thomas is determined to follow this exit strategy, saying “This really is the best way to mitigate corporate greed and create a new paradigm of corporate consciousness. It is a way for us to work together to create a stronger, healthier community, county, state and country.”

Here on the North Coast, creative solutions to the numerous interrelated crises we face abound. We’re proud to share these local examples of businesses responding with solutions based in altruism, solidarity, and regeneration, and we invite you to join us in supporting them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Leila Roberts serves as Director of the North Coast Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which helps small, local businesses start, grow, and thrive in Humboldt, Del Norte, and Adjacent Tribal Lands. She constantly asks, “Who has access and opportunity? Who benefits?”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What’s a worker-owned cooperative?

Worker owned cooperatives (co-ops) are entities that buy and sell goods and services, just like traditional businesses, but they are owned by their workers, rather than by shareholders.

Worker cooperatives empower workers to make decisions that impact their lives and livelihoods, learn new skills, and share equitably in a business’s profits. They put the needs of people and the environment first (as compared with most current capitalist business structures, which prioritize financial returns to investors above all else).

Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

Worker Owned Humboldt (WOH) is a project of Cooperation Humboldt. In partnership with the North Coast SBDC and Project Equity, WOH is incubating new worker-owned businesses in Humboldt County.

Learn more: cooperationhumboldt.com/worker-owned-humboldt/


Regenerative Farm Spotlight

Regenerative Farm Spotlight:

Table Bluff and Alexandre Family Farms are flipping conventional farming perspectives one patch of soil at a time.

by Katie Rodriguez, Cooperation Humboldt

 

Pumpkin the pig at Table Bluff Farm / photo credit: Katie Rodriguez

Take a minute to imagine what healthy soil might look like – a teeming mecca of microorganisms and insects working together to process and cultivate important nutrients that help plants thrive. Think of it as akin to a rainforest underground, a complex ecosystem that’s integral to turning carbon (the villain of global warming) into a superpower fuel. Looking at the soil as an ecosystem that should be allowed the time, space and nutrients to function without being disrupted is at the core of what we know today as regenerative agriculture.

You may have heard this term before; it’s been touted as a carbon sink, the next “climate solution under our feet.” Regenerative agriculture fundamentally shifts our perspective from conventional farming methods to Indigenous farming methods – emphasizing that instead of thinking only of crop yields, we must also consider the condition and needs of the soil, and more broadly, the relationship between humankind and the diverse ecosystems at play.

In practice, regenerative agriculture requires looking at a farm holistically. This involves utilizing things like cover crops to assist in suppressing weeds and soil diseases as well as fixing nitrogen and sequestering carbon; and integrating livestock by strategically moving them to graze and yes, poop (fertilize). It requires thoughtful time – observing how plants, animals, and insects can cohabitate with one another in a beneficial way, and encouraging that process. It also challenges a farming practice widely accepted for generations – routine plowing. No-till management with minimal disruption is key to allowing healthy soils to work their magic.

The benefits of regenerative agriculture – other than fertile soil – are many: no pesticide use, no supplemental fertilizers, little to no machinery and therefore, reduced machinery costs, no GMOs and increased carbon absorbed from our saturated atmospheres.

But can this be done on both a small and large scale? And what does that look like?

 

Hannah and Nic of Table Bluff Farm / photo credit: Katie Rodriguez

SMALL IS MIGHTY: TABLE BLUFF FARM

“There’s this idea that you need to have a lot of land to succeed [in farming] but that’s just not true” says Hannah Eisloeffel, owner of Table Bluff Farm.

Table Bluff Farm currently sits on about 2 acres nestled between the Eel River, the Pacific Ocean and the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge in the town of Loleta. Today, the microfarm is managed and run entirely by Hannah and her partner Nic Pronsolino, and produces a variety of mixed vegetables, flowers, eggs, broilers, and heritage hogs.

They’ve come a long way in a short time, having only recently purchased the land in 2017. Back then, it was an overgrown horse pasture filled with blackberry brambles, ponderosa pine trees and acidified soil. Hannah and Nic have been busy – pouring their heart and resources into rehabilitating the land and turning it into the lush farmland it is today; now providing for a growing list of CSA members and other locals.

Hannah’s vision and mantra have been salient: prioritize the health of the soil and the health of the local community. From the farm’s conception, the mission has been rooted in following regenerative agriculture principles – both for restoring the necessary balance in nature, and to provide equitable access to their goods.

“We believe that to practice regenerative agriculture you also have to be regenerative for your community and the economy,” says Hannah. “Everyone has a right to good food. We want to make it easy for people to eat healthily and affordably.” And Hannah and Nic have done just that – providing their products for a low cost, and a true cost. Instead of requiring a large up-front cost for a year of CSA produce, they have a pay-as-you-go system: $20 per week for a box of seasonal veggies (or $25 with delivery included).

Their emphasis on practicing smaller-scale regenerative farming has garnered the support of organizations like the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) and the nonprofit Kiss the Ground. Grants from these organizations have been instrumental to enacting projects like creating high tunnels to assist with weather management, installing drip irrigation and planting perennials such as redwood trees, monkey flowers, pink honeysuckle, six different species of berries and more. The presence of perennials is a huge component in capturing carbon because they are never harvested or disturbed, and they help protect other plants from wind.

Table Bluff Farm is the smallest farm to receive a grant from the Kiss the Ground Foundation, a nonprofit that supports farmers transitioning to a regenerative agriculture model. The reason? Replicability – enforcing the notion that following regenerative principles can happen on both small and large scales, and Table Bluff Farm was an excellent example of what that can look like.

Hannah’s story is an inspiring one for many reasons, but perhaps one of the most notable ones may be that as a first-generation farmer, she began her farming experience just five years ago in 2016. “I never dreamed that I would become a farmer, even though I can tell now from my whole life I had all these proclivities. I just never really thought that was an option for me.”

A 2008 environmental studies graduate from UC Santa Cruz, she’d used school to cultivate her knowledge and passion to pursue environmentally minded work, while maintaining a deep desire to get her hands dirty and learn more about what goes into creating a farm. After meeting her partner Nic, who shared some of his extensive farming background knowledge with Hannah, coupled with completing Darren J. Doherty’s Regrarian certificate program through Kiss the Ground’s Farmland Program, she took the leap of enacting her vision of creating Table Bluff Farm.

For more about Table Bluff Farm, visit tableblufffarm.com, or keep up to speed on Instagram at @table_bluff_farm.

 

Alexandre Family Farm cows are moved from pasture to pasture to graze on tall, healthy grass. The residual plant biomass decomposes, and helps keep carbon in the soil as particulate organic matter. / photo credit: Katie Rodriguez

A FAMILY AFFAIR: ALEXANDRE FAMILY FARM

For the Alexandre Family, dairy farming is in their DNA.

Blake and Stephanie Alexandre, both fourth-generation farmers, met while in school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Both of them, determined to carry on their family’s traditions, began searching for land to create a dairy farm of their own. Although their hearts were set on Ferndale, California, where Blake originally grew up, fate had a different plan. They landed in Crescent City about 29 ago, wowed by the landscape and falling more in love with the area the longer they stayed.

And so they remained. The Alexandre Family Farm today has expanded from 560 acres to 4,500+ acres, with over a hundred employees (including all five of Blake and Stephanie’s children), 4,200 cows, 35,000 hens and an organic alfalfa hay farm for animal feed. They sell their organic products – milk, cream, yogurt, beef, eggs, chicken and pork – all across the United States; and over the years they’ve worked to become a certified humane, organic, non-GMO, and regenerative farm.

For Stephanie and the Alexandre Family, what all of these titles boil down to is: nutrition. Good nutrition goes beyond platitudes or labels, it’s a necessary building block to life that has played a pivotal role in how the Alexandres live their lives and operate their farms. In their minds, you can only have good food if it comes from healthy animals and healthy soil. Prioritizing nutrition for themselves and their buyers translates to ensuring the best nutrition for their cattle, chickens, pastures, and environment.

When Stephanie and Blake first bought their land, they befriended an agronomist that taught them all about how to measure organic matter in the soil. It was akin to what they learned in school, that “if you want healthy plants, you really have to have a great soil biology happening and growing that organic matter,” Stephanie says.

And so they held true to that mantra. As they grew their farm, they spent the time and resources to understand what was happening underground, observing how it affects their pastures. They saw that their pastures with a higher percentage of organic matter led to greener fields for longer amounts of time – even with less irrigation or during colder weather.

They found that moving their animals around not only made for happier, healthier cows and chickens; it also created more organic matter in the soil – and so they began implementing rotational grazing as part of their farming practices to support the best soil biology and maximize grass pasture growth.

Twice a week, mobile chicken coops are moved to different parts of the farm as part of the Alexandre Family Farm’s rotational grazing strategy. / photo credit: Katie Rodriguez

“When the term regenerative got thrown around” shares Stephanie, “we were like ‘Well, that’s what we do. That’s what we’ve been doing for years, we’ve just been learning how to do it right’.”

Because of their efforts to improve ecosystem health, which includes the soil, animals, land, water and air, they are the first and only dairy to be verified by the Savory Institute, a global nonprofit enterprise that conducts research on soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem function. Additionally, they were one of 21 farms (and the only dairy farm) to be selected for the global Regenerative Organic Alliance pilot program, and one of only ten farms to receive designation as Regenerative Organic Certified at their 100% grassfed dairy in Eureka.

“We just want to be a light in the community,” shares Stephanie. “We didn’t do this to drive better cars or build a bigger house. We just wanted to tell the story of where great food should come from.”

To learn more about Alexandre Family Farm, visit alexandrefamilyfarm.com or on Instagram @alexandrefamilyfarm.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Katie Rodriguez (she/her) is a freelance writer and photographer based in Arcata. Much of her work focuses on scientific, cultural and natural elements, with the goal of illuminating the ways in which we can better care for our planet.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .