Winter 2018 Envision, Agriculture by Envision Magazine

envision THE AGRICULTURE ISSUE

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Agriculture is a necessary industry because, after all, we all need (and love) to eat. But as the human population continues to increase, sustainable agricultural practices become more difficult to uphold — but also more necessary. The University of Oregon’s Urban Farm offers a model of productive land use that integrates sustainable growing practices with community learning. Every quarter a small group of students participates in cultivating their own produce as part of the curriculum — many of our own garden-savvy members have plowed the earth, grown the vegetables, and enjoyed the tasty delicacies of this garden. With this kinship to sustainable agriculture, our team made the decision to center an issue of Envision around not only the Urban Farm, but different aspects of the agricultural industry on a broader scale. As we worked, new information on how the food industry personally affects us emerged — and that is what takes root within these pages. Envision is ever-growing: with new members in both our executive and all-staff positions, we are working hard to increase our readership and develop high-quality work, starting with our website. Check out the new envisionuo. com. We hope you enjoy this edition!

Photographed by Meg Matsuzaki

CONTENTS 01

Agricultural Goldilocks 4

Humans of the Urban Farm

Stories from the Garden

Left in the Dark

18 Trends of the Supermarket 24

Above the Cut

For the Love of Local

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AGRICULTURAL

goldilocks

regon has a little bit of everything when it comes to agriculture: from berries, peaches, kale, and green beans to meat, eggs, and honey. With so many choices to choose from that are planted in their own soil, it is only natural that Oregonians have the desire for local food. The love for local produce is apparent when walking down a farmers market, a place where melodic sounds, flavors, appearances, and smells come together in a delicious and unique Saturday morning compilation. A bit of all this richness exists in the tiny white tents of these events — from vegetables, fruits and meat to kombucha and ice cream. And for those who can’t make it to the farmers market, supermarket shelves are also stocked with local and organic options, although these products come from predominantly big agricultural businesses — big producers are the kings of the shelves. Big or small, the local agricultural market is so substantial that, according to a 2017 report by the Oregon’s State Board of Agriculture (OSBA), the agriculture sector maintained its stability and no jobs were lost during the last economic recession. So certainly, as consumers, locals love the organicobsessed state of Oregon and everything it gives. The local and traceable factor is attractive: The food you consume is made by people like you, who are close to

you, whose family works hard — you practically know them as your own neighbors. Afterall, according to OSBA, 96.7 percent of the farms in the state are family-owned. For producers and vendors, however, as beneficial as the love for local may be, the competition for consumers’ pantries isn’t always equivalent. Of course, many of your neighbors plant and harvest their own crops, but the produce in most supermarkets comes from big farmers. Agriculture in Oregon is responsible for approximately 326,000 jobs, according to Oregon’s State Board of Agriculture, which means that 8 percent of Oregonians currently work in agriculture. Thus, there are 35,439 farms and ranches throughout the 98,466 square miles that the state of Oregon occupies within the United States, and with that, many options. Usually small producers cannot reach the shelves of big supermarkets such as Whole Foods. It must be noted, though, that New Seasons has online guidelines for small vendors in Oregon. Among them are guarantees that the producers have all licenses, insurance, and permits, as well as vendor profiles and a new item form. It was not possible to find similar forms on the Whole Foods’ or Zupan’s websites.

Being in agriculture is not an easy task for any company, but small farms struggle far more. Factors such as weather, market change, and human relations can alter the result of the production for small producers, whereas big producers can afford the luxury to lose some, but not all, of its crops. According to Sarah Crawford, the Vice President of Oregon Farmers Market Association (OFMA), “Workforce capacity, equipment access and access to land are the biggest barriers for small farms. There’s only so much land two people like a husband and wife can farm without mechanical help or hired labor,

especially if the farm is run with organic practices.” She argues it takes many years to learn how to efficiently cultivate and harvest certain crops and farmers hope to sell the produce at a “price worth the effort.” Although the love for local is evident, Oregon’s big producers aim for exportation while small producers fight for customer loyalty and space in local farmers markets. At the same time, for big producers who have a wider access to big markets, 75 percent of the 225 different commodities planted and harvested in Oregon farms are exported to other U.S. states and occasionally to other countries, according to the OSBA. The profit can be big, but most of the time, only those farmers who have the appropriate infrastructure have access to this market, while small farmers often face struggles. Actually, the state of Oregon even uses federal funds to promote the agricultural export market, but it is unclear whether federal funds solely benefit big producers or if they aid small farms as well. As often as local produce is associated to organic, shockingly only 2 percent of Oregon’s agriculture is organic. According to Crawford, this is because “if a product is to be sold mostly to customers in a supermarket where the farmer isn’t present then the certification makes more sense. At a farmers market a vendor is able to answer questions about production right on the spot and the customer may find out that the farmers’ methods even surpass organic standards.” Ultimately, it depends on where the farmer or vendor is selling and the value they see in the certification. So while big producers profit by reaching supermarket shelves and the export market, small producers, although not always organic, benefit from farmers markets due to the opportunity to network and expose their products to local consumers. According to a Deck Family Farm Representative Beth Topper, the Eugene Saturday farmers market is an extremely important way to share their product.

“We work with the local community and word of mouth in addition to social media and our website.” Topper said. “We also occasionally place advertisements in the local paper Locally Grown and the website ‘Local Harvest.’ We also attend various farmers markets in Eugene and Portland.”

“I think [farmers] are very careful as they have devoted their entire lives to their venture and cannot afford a mistake like big corporations may be able to,” Crawford said. “A food safety mistake would be devastating for a small farmer and farmers market managers take the safety very seriously.”

Topper said that the Deck Family Farm prioritizes creating good relationships between farmers and consumers to grow the business.

Christine Deck, who sells organic eggs and beef, said the USDA presents a big challenge for small local producers. She believes it is important to have certified organic products, but the guidelines for such status are difficult to get. Not only is physical work needed to comply with USDA rules, but the bureaucracy takes “hours of work doing paperwork.” Deck claims that it would become even harder to comply with more FSMA rules as the existing guidelines are already demanding as it is.

Food Safety Modernization Act In 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a legislation called the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which has been a controversy in Oregon’s agriculture. It determines that farmers must have specific infrastructure to prevent product illnesses. The rules of compliance were created by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the course of five years and the rules are still in the process of being understood and attended by producers. In fact, the Oregon’s Department of Agriculture (ODA) administered lectures for small producers to comprehensively explain the rules of compliance, which took place in November throughout Oregon. But for those small producers who struggle with infrastructure, the FSMA may present another challenge that is not only a resource challenge, but one that requires more attention than ever to the process of farming.

“I don’t know what else they can ask from us,” Deck says. Maybe a middle ground between big and small business needs to be found.

According to Crawford, because small producers cannot risk losing crops like big producers can, the process is cautious. With the FSMA, farms are required to have clean harvesting procedures, washing stations, and certified kitchens. There are also labeling requirements, fertilizer regulations, and prohibitions regarding animal proximity to vegetables to Written by Renata Geraldo ensure clean, attractive, and high quality produce. Illustrated by Ava Karim

HUMANS OF THE URBAN FARM

which is offered during the spring, summer, and fall terms of the University of Oregon school year. “I have a relentless stream of enthusiastic college students just parading through my life. And because I am who I am, I find something to love about everybody. And sometimes students pick me back and sometimes those relationships last for a long time. They become part of my farm-ily.” For her, “farm-ily” duties sometimes include performing wedding ceremonies or attending the births of her past student’s children. But they also include getting down and dirty. Students scatter the yard, shovels and rakes in hand, as they rip weeds from the dense soil and meticulously inspect budding plants to cultivate their gardens. She teaches her students the basics: how to grow and cook food in a small-scale urban environment — along with food preservation, soil ecology, and sustainable environmental practices.

Lauren Bilbao ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR // URBAN FARM

n 1996 Lauren Bilbao wanted an escape — and she found that refuge at the Urban Farm.

In an attempt to find relief from the scientific and bookish classes offered by her graduate program at the time, Bilbao found a home within the lush vines and gritty dirt of the urban farm — 21 years later, she still calls it her “farm-ily.” Draped in a maroon shawl that contrasts the stark yellow canopy of leaves she sits beneath, Bilbao is now one of eight professors for the Urban Farm class,

The class looks at the whole food production system, she says, from the social, environmental, and health perspective.

“I have a relentless stream of enthusiastic college students just parading through my life.” But even gardening comes with its difficulties — the inflexible academic calendar is superimposed on top of the farm calendar making it difficult to coordinate growing cycles. It’s backwards, she says. At a time when the most food production is possible, there are the fewest number of people to maintain and manage the garden. Nevertheless, she looks at the farm fondly, even after a long day of teaching. “There’s a whiskey toddy just calling my name right now,” she chuckles as she unlocks her car under the leafy yellow awning.

Milo Gazzola ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES // SENIOR

Inspiration: “I’ve taken a food class on sustainability last term, so I got interested in the whole food scene and I wanted to take this class to immerse myself deeper into the concept and the culture.”

On Farming: “We learn plant identification and the inner workings of the urban farm and sustainability — like not planting the same plant in the same plant family, things that I wouldn’t think about.”

The Future: “I could definitely see myself in the agriculture industry, I don’t know if I could see myself being a farmer, but the world needs more farmers and they need more organic farmers; so I wouldn’t say it’s out of reach, but I’m very intrigued by this class to say the least. It’s eye opening.”

Ari Rassouli PUBLIC RELATIONS // SOPHOMORE

Inspiration: “I wanted to learn everything about putting together and maintaining a garden or a farm. I think over spring break when I’m home in California I’m gonna get some pots and try to get a tomato, strawberry, and cucumber plant and try to grow and harvest them over the summer.”

On Farming: ”There’s eight groups with ten people or so and and the teachers teach us about their section of the farm. They all have different backgrounds in agriculture and different specialties. Then we usually break off in the beginning and work on the garden, we’re all doing it together, but everyone’s section has something unique to it.”

The Future: “I already know I want to do PR, so this has definitely opened my eyes to what I could do within the public relations industry and how I would be able to incorporate agriculture into that.”

Written by Mara Welty Photographed by Savannah Mendoza

STORIES FROM THE GARDEN Lessons I learned at a volunteer farm in Eugene There it was: the biggest pile of compost in the neighborhood, steaming on a crisp fall Saturday. I dug a spading fork into the mesh of rotted leaves and other indiscernibles and came up with a dripping pile of the stuff that I then chucked into a wheelbarrow. A fellow volunteer pushed that wheelbarrow across the garden and dumped it on a path that was slowly rising higher and higher. FOOD for Lane County has farmed the 2.5-acre lot behind St. Thomas Episcopal Church along Coburg Road since 1990. According to the church’s website, more than 2,400 community volunteers help to tend the garden each year, totalling more than 24,000 volunteer hours. The mission behind the garden is twofold:

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To provide nutritious produce to locals facing food insecurity.

To educate people about sustainable farming practices that can be applied to an urban setting. The current director of the garden is Merry Bradley, a spritely woman (fitting her name) who seems more at home in the garden than in any house. She was the first one to greet me Saturday and gave me my first orders after I filled out a volunteer form: shovel the compost.

The work felt good. It reminded me of my years in Colorado on the small farm that my parents still own. Back in middle and high school, I abhorred the work. When my dad demanded that I help build fence or shear sheep, I tried to think up some excuse, any excuse, to avoid it. Gardening bored me, despite my mother’s repeated attempts at peaking my interests in fresh strawberries or just ripened tomatoes. But after almost four years of college, halfway across the country from the farm and manual labor, I could feel myself itching for the work, for sore bones and calloused hands. As I thrust the large fork into the brown pile, a young woman about my age sang a church hymn. She, along with about 15 others at the farm that day, were from a Catholic church in Portland. I learned her name, but remember only her ecstatic energy. Her singing gave a rhythm to the work, and before long others from her group joined in. I would have done the same had I not given up religion in middle school, only to find it again two years ago. I’m still behind on learning my hymns. After about two hours of laying compost, we took a break for lunch. I had noticed a substantial kitchen crew preparing food in pots and pans, but could not be in any way prepared for the feast that awaited us: butternut squash soup, pasta with quinoa, pasta with noodles, and apple crumble for dessert. I sat with fellow classmate, Jack, next to an old man in a grey knit cap. The man was quiet for most of the meal, eating his soup seemingly deep thought — each spoonful had a purpose. As I dipped into the apple crumble, I finally broke conversation with him and asked where he was from. In a thick accent, he said,

“1944,” he said, rehearsed. He didn’t have to say much else, all of us at the table knew what that meant and were too nervous to ask further. Still, I’m a journalist. “10,” he said to my next question concerning how old he was when he fled. “Can you remember much from your childhood?” I asked. “The things that happened, you try your best to forget.” I didn’t push him further. He said nothing else for the rest of the meal. I wanted to ask more of this man who held so much history, who was hardened by it but wore a wedding ring. He smiled at us before taking his plate to a plastic bin and leaving for the day. I think he just came for the meal (I can’t blame him). The rest of us got to work erecting two raised beds and pathways between them. We then laid down a thick layer of compost, alternating wheelbarrow loads between decaying leaves and the dark, steaming soil underneath them. Others hacked at squash stems and leaves, accumulating a pile of green chop for future compost. After 3 p.m., we began to clean up our workspaces and put away tools. Just before I was set to leave, the garden director, Merry, gathered everyone under a trellis draped in grapevines. On the ground was a pile of freshly cut squash stems. We circled around Merry, and she waited until all of us could hear before beginning.

“I was born in Hungary, but now that I’ve eaten I’m not so hungry anymore.”

“I am about to teach you one of the most critical lessons in life,” she said. “How to make a zucchini flute.”

He had a gruff voice, raspy but from a tough life, not cigarettes. It sounded somewhat like my grandpa’s, who grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch and was the wisest man I know. I asked the man when he came to the U.S.

She showed us the process of making just the right cuts to a stem to make an embouchure, then adding some key holes for flair. My first attempt was unsuccessful, but I was a flute player in high school — Those years in band had to count for something.

Sure enough, my second zucchini flute sang as pretty as a busted foghorn. There was admittedly little to be admired about the sound a zucchini flute makes, but Merry had her own reasons for loving them so much. She told us the story of a man whom she used to work with who was the first to show her how to make a zucchini flute. “This is one of the most critical lessons you will learn in this life,” he told her. Merry took the advice to heart, and spent years perfecting her garden instrument. Years later, the man, much older than her, moved to an assisted living center. She visited him one day and found him sleeping deeply. When she woke him, the first words out of his mouth were, “My protegé.”

Merry said those were his last words. I’m a journalist, so I love stories. The Grassroots Garden is a novel in and of itself, and the people who visit it even more so. A garden is the most human of places, where people cultivate the life that gives us life. One goes to the garden young and leaves older than the hills (if one does it right). You can see it in people’s sore backs —hunched, and in their eyes —weary. But it is the best fatigue in the world that comes from a hard day’s work. One goes to the garden empty and comes back full (of food, of friends, of stories). This is what the garden taught me. Jack, his roommate Henry and I stopped along the Willamette River on our way home. It had been cloudy that day, but the sun burned through to catch the last bit of daylight. We got naked and swam in the river at

a boat ramp in Alton Baker Park. The cold water felt good where we were sore, especially the palms of my hands. We hooped and hollered at the cold, then at the life it renewed in us. We got beers at the 16 Tons taphouse near campus. I ordered something wheaty that tasted like the earth. And boy, did it taste good.

Written by Derek Maiolo Photographed by Kezia Setyawan

LEFT IN THE

DARK Can the Urban Farm survive construction of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus?

“Genius, curiosity and lots of money.”

which has been cultivated by students for over 40 years. Harper Keeler, director of the farm, said that he has tried to work with the building designers to mitigate harm to the Urban Farm, but that he was shut out from the planning process. When Keeler heard last winter that the design team was soon going to begin conceptual planning, he sent emails to the architect firms and university officials asking to be involved. They assured Keeler that they would notify him when the planning process would start. He waited.

These, according to plans for the $1 billion Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, are what it takes to craft a “cutting-edge research center.” Construction of the campus will come in several phases. The first of which, a $225 million, 160,000 sq. ft. building along the north side of Franklin Boulevard, will begin in early March and be completed by 2020. The University of Oregon released architectural renderings of this building in October. They show a sleek, silver building of six stories covered in large windows. On the first floor is a spacious public lobby, with mezzanines, meeting rooms and labs rising on the upper floors. It was designed by Bora Architects of Portland and Ennead Architects of New York, who said they aimed to encapsulate the aesthetic of the 21st century. Indeed, it looks like it came straight from the Silicon Valley. The possibilities that lie within these future walls seem almost endless, or in the words of a beaming Patrick Phillips, executive director for the new campus, “game-changing.” Others would certainly agree with that term, but with less optimism. Some UO faculty, particularly from the Landscape Architecture Department, have voiced concerns over how the new campus will shade the Urban Farm,

“The end of February, then March rolls around, nothing,” he said. Then, he received an email from the design team inviting him for an update on the planning process. “They pretty much had the building done and said this is what’s going to happen,” he said. Keeler said that from the beginning there has been a profound lack of interest in working with the College of Design and faculty from the Urban Farm. He and colleagues had even developed some ideas to integrate the farm into the campus’ buildings, like installing edible landscapes like those around campus intersections or building flower beds for pollinators. “Not once did the design team even come out and walk around the farm with me,” he said. “As a primary stakeholder in the area, it would have been nice to be involved in the conceptual planning.” Keeler, referring to solar studies that the design team conducted upon request by the College of Design, showed that while the primary growing season – April through September – may not be largely affected by the building’s shade, come December, the farm may be completely sun-blocked during all daylight hours, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The winter months, though not as bountiful as the spring and summer, are still vital growing periods. Leafy greens like spinach and lettuce are grown at this time and cover crops like clover help prepare the beds for spring harvests. Pollinators like bees also rely heavily on those cover crops to forage on warmer winter days, according to a report by Oregon State University. Keeler said that the designers don’t seem to understand that losing the sunshine in those winter months poses serious threats not just to the farm but to these organisms that rely on its crops. “[The design team] thinks the farm is just a classroom that happens 10 to 6 every Tuesday, Thursday,” he said. “But it’s also an ecosystem that’s been improved upon for 40 years.” He mentioned that some of the planners have since asked him, “If you have to move, where would you go.” That question irks him. “You can’t move the Urban Farm,” he said. “You can’t just move soil that you’ve been working for decades.”

Phillips also addressed the possibility of shade from the building affecting the Urban Farm and commented, “We did extensive daylight studies and it turns out [that the] big trees right along the mill race are actually the major source of shade,” referring to those solar studies. Those trees, Keeler said, do shade part of the farm in the summer, but that they will in turn be shaded by the new building. He added that the size of a tree is much smaller than a 160,000 sq. ft. building, and that they shade the farm for a much shorter period than a building that size would. Phillips hopes that the new Knight Campus will become a place for both undergraduate and graduate students to not only be able to operate at the highest levels of academia, but find practical ways to apply what they have learned to their intended career paths. Phillips explained that the true philosophy of the Knight Campus is, “Bringing students in and giving them education on campus and then immediately putting them into real world experiences.” He estimates that the Knight Campus will serve upward of one thousand students within a decade.

Patrick Phillips, the Acting Executive Director of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, immediately reassured that the Urban Farm will not be impacted by the development of the new campus.

With the Knight Campus predicted to bring in new science and tech companies to Eugene, there will be potential internship opportunities for students to utilize Knight Campus research facilities. Phillips predicts that more students will be able to stay in Eugene after college rather than travel to a larger city like Portland to pursue graduate degrees. Additionally, Phillips said he is particularly proud of the fact that the construction of the Knight Campus will not increase tuition in any way for students due to the $500 million dollar donation from Phil and Penny Knight.

“There are no direct impacts on the Urban Farm,” he said. “We have been in close communication with them. The Urban Farm will move forward and still exist just as it is.”

As for Keeler, he said that the new campus won’t be a death certificate for the Urban Farm, and he is hoping to have more involvement in the subsequent planning phases.

That isn’t to mention the 300 students that Harper says work and take classes at the farm every year. Winter term will be an especially hard time for students, who may not get to do much farming at all.

“I have no other choice but to just be positive,” he said. Despite his frustrations, Keeler knows this is a complex process with a lot of stakeholder interests. “The designers are dealing with a billion-dollar project that’s going to change the economics of Eugene,” he said. “They aren’t evil, but they have to work in a system that is not very flexible.”

Knight Campus construction began March 2.

Written by Derek Maiolo & Alysa Wulf Photographed by Meg Matsuzaki

trends of the

SUPERMARKET GMO Edition

o GMOs! Organic! Umm…great? More and more companies have been jumping on these trends, reassuring consumers that products from orange juice to cat litter are non-GMO and organic. But what do these terms entail? And should we actively seek out these products?

NON-GMO TREND

To compensate for the growing human population, scientists are finding ways to increase nutrition production and decrease the time and resources the food industry employs. Scientists do this by cutting a bit of DNA from an organism that has the desired trait and putting it into a plant or animal chosen to be genetically modified. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the potential to make a large impact. If done carefully, GM plants could be designed to be more resistant to insects, viruses, and herbicides that kill the weeds around them. Some produce with these capabilities available on US shelves include corn, soybeans, and canola. In a way, genetic modification can be a faster approach to artificial selection – choosing which organisms to reproduce based on desired traits – which humans

have done for decades. As with artificial selection, genetic modification could increase availability of nutrients to developing countries. GMOs aren’t exclusive to plants either. AquaAdvantage salmon – Atlantic salmon modified with a Chinook salmon growth hormone and an ocean pout with antifreeze proteins – grow faster and larger than the average salmon, require less food, and withstand near-freezing temperatures as well as disease. With many communities relying on salmon to provide their major source of protein and the declining health of the wild salmon population, AquaAdvantage salmon provides a supply to the demand and decrease the pressure on the wild salmon population. There is a clear stigma towards genetic modification, though, which has slowed the movement considerably. Anti-GMO coalitions have popped up in the recent years, hence the increasing trend of “No GMOs” labels. A 2016 Centra Foods study showed a 50 percent increase in non-GMO-claiming products from 2013 to 2015. There have been some concerns associated with some GMOs. Because a major use of genetic

modification has been increasing the hardiness of the plant against insects, viruses, and herbicides, many are concerned that these insects, viruses, and weeds will build resistance to the chemicals. This is a catch-up game we have seen occasionally with antibiotics. And while the amount of pesticides used has decreased since these crops were introduced starting in 1996, the use of herbicides has increased significantly now that the crops desired are more resistant to those chemicals, according to Consumer Reports. In a way, their hardiness gives farmers of GM crops permission to go full-force on weed-killers where they might have been more cautious to do this before.

genetic diversity decreases the chance of a population getting wiped out. But if genes are shared between one farm that grows GM plant and another that does not, the farmer with natural crop might inadvertently grow the patented GM plants. This means that companies growing GMOs, such as Monsanto, can sue their neighbors for accidently growing and distributing their GMOs.

Patenting in the GMO industry has also caused problems, as cross-pollination makes it difficult to keep patented seeds on the GMO farm’s side of the fence. Cross-pollination occurs when birds and insects spread seeds or pollen. This is very helpful to plants because it increases genetic diversity; good

If you still decide to avoid GMOs, be cautious of products advertising “no GMO”. The label might not mean anything if a produce has no GMO option. Companies eager to jump on the bandwagon have placed the phrase on products that have never been a GMO and sometimes can’t even be a GMO.

Most the European Union nations currently block new GMO’s from being grown in their borders and Russia bans both production and imports of all GMOs. But for each GMO, the correct approach might be “innocent until proven guilty.”

Written & Illustrated by Becky Hoag Read the Organic Edition at envisionuo.com.

ORGANIC

U AC T sustainable practices

ABOVE for consuming meat

“We are like children around our meat,” said Jonathan Tepperman, founder of the Eugene Meat Collective. This collective is a place where locals can buy animals directly from farmers and learn how to break them down into meat themselves. Before starting the collective, Tepperman was a vegetarian. He felt if he ate meat, he would be supporting the mistreatment of animals. This all changed during a stay with a family in Israel. Tepperman started eating meat again because he didn’t want to infringe upon anyone else’s diet. However, he looked to alternative ways to consume meat that didn’t involve the inhumane treatment of animals upon his his return to the United States. Through gardening in his own backyard, then taking wilderness survival classes, Tepperman learned how to be self-sufficient back in the United States. He now invests in helping people reconnect to how humanity has created food for most of human history. In the Eugene Meat Collective classes he facilitates, Tepperman provides students with connections to local meat and instructors from the community. “The Eugene Meat Collective has bought chickens from our cooperative for their butchering class,” Fair Valley Farm vendor Jenni Timms said. Tepperman appreciates the relationships built between students and vendors through his classes, like when students purchased piglets from the farm that provided meats used in class. He finds that people who take the classes are hungry for knowledge and want to get connected to resources on how to process animals with care. He wants people’s first experience of slaughter to be as positive as possible and meet them where zthey are comfortable. When Tepperman returns from hunting, he breaks down the animal in the kitchen

and integrates the butchering process into everyday life, a vast contrast to his first experience of slaughter. “I was traumatized the first time I hunted for meat,” Tepperman said. “It was a squirrel and after I processed it I let it sit in the freezer for months to come to terms with it.” Tepperman aims to educate his children and be transparent about the meat in their food. If they are eating cookies with deer tallow, Tepperman will tell them what it is and why it tastes so good. Through the Eugene Meat Collective, Tepperman hopes to establish a meat culture that creates infrastructures in Eugene for people to buy higher quality cuts and be more connected to what they are consuming. Soon, Tepperman hopes to have a podcast called ReEvolution up and running with contributors from all walks of life. He wants listeners can feel that they can also create a meaningful and sustainable lifestyle. “This has been my journey of growing in selfknowledge and sharing it with others,”Tepperman said. “The Eugene Meat Collective is a great vehicle to spread what I’m passionate about.”

“We are like children around our meat.”

Written & Photographed by Kezia Setyawan

FOR THE OF LOCAL

As you roam through your local grocery store, many decisions are subconsciously being made. Do you choose your groceries based on price? Based on what seems healthiest? Based on brands you know and trust? Based on what says “organic”? Or based on what you see first? While everyone may have their own reasons for shopping the way that they do, many consumers today do not understand what they are buying and the effects of the choices that are being made before heading to the checkout line. Decisions on where to purchase food not only affect the consumers themselves. In fact, they even have an impact on larger scale issues like environmental factors, sustainability, efficiency, and support for local businesses. Money spent on locally grown food directly funds local farms and workers from the surrounding community. When a community implements a new policy forcing businesses to be more sustainable and environmentally efficient, local businesses are more likely to adapt to environmentally friendly policies. Local businesses also impact many people on a personal level. Local companies are less likely to do any harm to the surrounding community because the problems they cause have personal effects on their community. Businesses who live in the communities they are impacting are generally more likely to want to support the people and environment in the community that they know on a personal level. Farmers Markets strive not to produce waste. For example, in 2011 The Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in Seattle donated 44,000 pounds of fresh quality food to food banks. Acts like these give back to society, and ensure less waste and harm to the environment. It is also important to note that communities are more self-reliant when they can produce their own goods and provide for their own people. For

example, if a community is focused on promoting and supporting local businesses and taking care of the environment around it, the community can run smoothly and successfully without help from outside forces. With all of these benefits, why do people still go to supermarkets? Many reasons consumers choose to purchase food from supermarkets rather than farmers markets has to do with the convenience of the products. There is a significantly smaller amount of supermarkets accessible, and often outdoor farmers markets operate based on weather conditions that could affect the amount of days that they are opened. In 2010 only around 15 percent of farmers markets were open in the winter months. It is generally more convenient and faster to choose to purchase food from a local grocery store. In Lane County, Eugene, for example, there are four well known farmers markets: The Winter Market, Holiday Market, Tuesday Market, and Saturday Market. Another key aspect to consider when making the choice is the negative impact of transporting and maintaining food that is not locally grown. Chad Samuels, a worker at the New Season’s market in Seattle, Washington, recently discussed the disadvantages that occur when purchasing organic nonlocal food, as opposed to locally grown food. “When we order asparagus, it takes a lot more fuel usage to import organically grown asparagus from Brazil rather than from locally grown farms,” Samuels said. “It also has a shorter shelf life requiring us to order more of it more frequently.” According to The Farmers Market Coalition, more than 85% of farmers market vendors traveled fewer than 50 miles to sell at a farmers markets. Not only does the consumption of locally grown food require less fuel for transporting, which produces less greenhouse gases that pollute the air, but the food is fresher than food transported from farther away.

In some cases foods might not be able to be grown naturally in local farms. For example, bananas produced by local farms in areas that are not conducive to its typical growing climate may actually take more energy to produce than to transnationally transport from Guatemala.

which can emit harmful gases into the air. The area of Eugene is fit for growing a large variety of produce.

Even if it did require more energy to grow food in unnatural lands, this is not a problem for Eugene, a city swarming with locally sustainable businesses and farms.

While it is a smart choice to select foods that are convenient and well priced, it is also important to keep in mind how the long term effects of purchasing locally grown food will benefit the consumer and the community. In the future there will hopefully be more farmers markets and better ways for grocery stores to produce foods at a reasonable price without harming the environment.

The Redneck Organic Eugene Farm, as well as other local farms in the Eugene area, are able to produce a large variety of produce. They grow more than 50 different crops in 250 different varieties each year. None of their foods are grown in greenhouses,

But for now, as you walk down the aisle of the grocery store or down the street to a local market, how will you make your choice? Written by Leah Kahan Illustrated by Ava Karim

Featured Photo by Damon Holland

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