NABC Lunch and Learn Q & A
A Food System Plan for San Juan County
Responses by Caitlin Leck, Learner Limbach, Maggi Adamek,
San Juan County Food System Team
January 11, 2024
Resources:
- San Juan County Community Food Assessment + Food System Plan
- For additional questions contact:
- Maggi Adamek,
- Caitlin Leck,
- Learner Limbach,
Questions & Answers
Q: What were your funding sources?
A: In the early phases of this work, a local family provided a donation that we were able to leverage as matching funds for a sub-award from NABC’s USDA Regional Food System Partnership grant. That funded our food system planning efforts including feasibility studies, hiring a coordinator, primary data collection, the agricultural summit, and more. We still have funding left that will be used for the evaluation framework and data dashboard, and to coordinate the first year of implementation.
Q: How do you define “local food”? Is that only food grown in San Juan County or is all of Washington included?
A: Local food is defined as food that is grown, raised, caught, and made in San Juan County. In terms of value-added products, people hold themselves to their own standard about the percentage of local ingredients.
We have dual goals of increasing the percentage of local food that is produced and consumed in San Juan County, and collaborating to support regional food system development as well.
Q: It is impressive that you can put numbers to all the values in your charts. Are you expecting to meet the large projected increases in local purchasing?
A: Yes, the overall goal is an increase from 3.7% to 5% of local food out of total food spending, and we are expecting $6,000,000 in growth. We have a comprehensive list of the different food sectors and an economic analysis tool, and we have the ability to turn up the dial on each sector (e.g., grains, livestock, fruit) and see the impact (e.g., jobs, economic multiplier, etc.). One of the next steps in our implementation phase is to get more granular with this and identify the sectors with the greatest potential for growth. We can then provide this information to interested producers and decision makers.
Q: Farmland is disappearing and the San Juan Islands have a fixed amount of land. How will you crank out more local production with less land?
A: There is plenty of ag land and soil to produce the amount we are projecting, especially if producers get support to optimize their land for production. Because the cost of production is high in the islands, it is hard for farmers to compete with prices of mainland products. That is one of the challenges that needs to be addressed.
There also are intense real estate pressures on the islands and a recent big influx of folks moving here and building second homes here. Our county has the greatest income disparity in the state, so there are grave economic factors. At the same time, we do have farmland protection and access programs that have been working really hard to address these issues. Our Ag Resources Committee has been advocating for no net loss of ag land, and while the issues are serious, there are ways to optimize farmland and production and maintain our stewardship goals.
Some food raised in San Juan County is sold to other markets, so part of it is channeling food that is already produced here, and fish caught here, to local markets. We also are talking about stimulating the maker economy of local value-added products. This is an excellent approach and just needs more infrastructure.
Q: While balancing local vs. regional food, how does production cost variance (by scale etc.) get addressed?
A: A lot of food imported to the islands gets sold through retailers and institutions. It is hard for local producers to compete with commercial sources in terms of wholesale pricing. That is a major challenge. We want to create mechanisms that are innovative and creative to make purchasing local the easy choice for everybody. One component is consumer education. Another is affordability. There are some innovative concepts that have not been tried yet that we hope to pilot.
From an equity standpoint, we want to make sure farmers have right livelihood for the work they do and, at the same time, have local food accessible for everyone in our community.
Q: Can you elaborate on efforts and successes to establish fishery co-ops?
A: This is a long-term plan and a fishery co-op is an aspirational goal that ties in with building relationships with regional Tribes.
There is a lot of interest in co-op development and we are working to change the terrain to create conditions for co-ops to thrive.
Q: What does a shared agenda at a regional scale look like for Western WA and WA as a whole, and how does that position you to seek joint funding (e.g., approaching the legislature for specific initiatives, approaching WSU about large USDA grants for regional food shed development)?
Maggi: Across WA State there are many communities developing food system plans and there is parallel emergence of targeted development goals, and we are seeing corresponding investment by WA State. In the 30 years I’ve been doing food system development work, I’ve never seen the kind of resources and programs available at the federal level, whether it’s related to nutrition or infrastructure development. There is much more openness on the part of the USDA to fund cooperative agreements with land grant universities, for example, and pass funding through to local community projects. That goes for Indian country too. There are a lot of specific initiatives around food sovereignty and food systems development that are tribally specific and regionally specific.
With regard to the questions around how we are going to develop, part of this will emerge as the funding landscape evolves. We are in a golden era with ag funding. The upcoming federal election may change this trajectory, but there is a lot of good work underway and momentum, and a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. We don’t have all the answers yet, but the organizing and due diligence and planning that San Juan County has done will put you in a good position to advocate for the resources you need to advance some of these initiatives.
Learner: There is also a lot of opportunity for collaborating regionally on the data dashboard development, and the potential of having a shared online portal with data sets we all can reference.
Q: Do you have any advice on how we could approach the WK Kellogg Foundation for funding and development assistance?
A: Maggi: Look at their current funding priorities. They are very geographically targeted and do a lot in the Midwest. I don’t know what they might be open to funding in WA State, but every April program officers have a bucket of discretionary funding to spend by June 30 so this is a good time to approach them. It helps to have a relationship with a senior program officer. Have a trusted intermediary provide an introduction, or interact with them at conferences and see if you can set up a meeting.