While on vacation, I took three days and attended a very exciting meeting in Oakland, CA. I serve on the Concept Team and the National Organizing Committee for an organization called the Food Commons. (www.thefoodcommons.org ) The meeting was designed to look at how we might create a hybrid financial entity that would be able to walk in lock step with a newly designed national food system. More than a dozen people from across the US were brought together to identify how we might gain access to capital needed to build value chains that better link harvesters to the consumer. It was quite an undertaking.
Most importantly, for this article, is the recognition of one of the first comments at this meeting that really set me back in my chair and caught my attention. "All business starts and ends with food." Think about it, we meet to discuss business over meals; we provide refreshments at most events. We often take for granted where our food comes from and how hard the producers/harvesters work to bring the food to our tables. This group is determined to change that and elevate locally grown food to a higher place of importance in our lives.
I have had the good fortune of having been involved with innovative businesses like the Portland Fish Exchange. Its purpose was to elevate the quality of the seafood we caught in Maine by placing it on an open display auction where buyers could see, touch and smell for freshness and in theory, reward the harvester with a better price. The Food Commons takes another step and links farmers and fishermen to businesses that see value in local food, an educated work force, and innovation and technology. It promotes organizing around a strong set of principles that act as the foundation for all business relationships. The Food Commons promotes fair wages and high standard working conditions. It encourages collaboration, openness and transparency. We believe we must change the way we look at food and get back to basics. How irritated and concerned do you get when you hear of yet another hamburger recall, the pink slime discussion and just yesterday the recall of cantaloupes?
We have the good fortune to live in an area that can produce food and have an economic center that can embrace a new model like the Food Commons. The success and longevity of the Saco Farmer's Market and the recent good fortune of the Biddeford Farmer's Market are great examples that, in my opinion, have only just begun to scratch the surface of what could be if we were to embrace a concept like the Food Commons. What if the next step was to collaboratively open a grocery store in the mill district that accepted as much local produce, local meat and local seafood as possible? And what if that grocery store was a cooperative that was owned by the farmers, fishermen and interested citizens?
Take a moment to check out the ideas put forward by the Concept Team and let me know if you think it is something that interests you. Together we can begin a journey toward safe, affordable, local food that benefits our entire community.
Craig A. Pendleton
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