A commitment to clean, local food with Chris Jepson

FURTHER

By Chris Jepson

UKIAH NATURAL FOODS CO-OP GROCERY MANAGER

The Co-op carries over 6,000 organic products.

The total organic acreage farmed in Mendocino County is approximately 14,000 acres.

THE TRANSITION FROM FALL INTO WINTER often triggers a need to reflect over the last year and look forward to the next. Life slows if only for a moment and sometimes if we are lucky there is room in our busy lives for some thoughtful consideration. Families and friends are drawn together in some form or another and conversations often wander to the chaos of the prior year and the uncertainty of the next.

Looking back can be painful, especially knowing now what we didn’t know then. Have we done enough? Did our actions make the world a better place? Could we have done better? Taken things further? A resounding YES to all of these questions. We did our best with the resources and information we had at our disposal. But also equally true, of course we could have done better and, knowing what we do now, we have to do better!

For me, everything revolves around food. Buying and selling food is my living, growing food is my relaxation, and cooking food is my art. Your life likely has some differences but the core idea remains the same. You do something and owe it to yourself, and all the rest of us, to do it even better. To push past what was once good enough and strive for something that wasn’t attainable at the time but just might be now. I don’t know what pushing things further looks like for you; you are the expert on what you do and know what needs improving. With food I know at least a few of the attributes I’m chasing, maybe some of them apply to your passions as well.

Food should be clean! Non-gmo is a start, organic is better, but there is no such

thing as clean enough. We must always be asking, how much cleaner can it be? Not damaging the land isn’t enough. The production of food should have a positive impact on the land and the human and non-human communities that live on it. A reduc"Food should tion in packaging is great, but honestly no amount of be clean! Non- plastic should be entering the waste stream. A comgmo is a start, mitment to local sourcing cuts down on fossil fuels organic is burned for transportation, better..." but how local can we get? Certainly we have made progress but there is so much further to go. I’m encouraged and inspired by the resilience I see in our local producers, they have not taken the easy route. Competing on the marketplace against giant companies is full of risks and the playing field has never been level. The last few years have brought fires, droughts, shortages of goods and labor, increasing prices of feed and packaging, and a host of other unanticipated difficulties. And yet I see new local producers all the time, the drive to produce and create on a smaller scale continues to grow. Perhaps these chaotic times are providing the inspiration to do it yourself, do it better, and share it with the rest of us. I can only hope so.