Dec 8, 2024
Future Of Food Production
Mary Rogers

Our speaker, Mary Rogers, is a University of Minnesota horticultural entomologist. Her research focus has been integrated pest management, plant‐insect interactions and biological and environmental strategies to manage invasive insect species and improve the production of vegetables and fruit for organic and local markets in the upper Midwest. We anticipate that we’ll all be benefiting from the fruits of her compelling research.

Pilgrim House Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Arden Hills, Minnesota
pilgrimhouseuua.org
pilgrimhouse@pilgrimhouseuua.org

TRANSCRIPT
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NOTE: This is the transcript from Zoom and there are likely errors contained below. No effort has been made to proof read.


10:16:24 Welcome.
10:16:26 Pilgrim House is a welcoming congregation, a place of joyful play and work where individuals can explore
10:16:34 develop and apply their beliefs with acceptance and encouragement of friends of all ages.
10:16:40 And we welcome the spirits of those whom this land was once a homeland.
10:16:45 The last of which were the Dakota.
10:16:47 We recognize your claim and hope that we are using it to a purpose
10:16:52 that you would consider appropriate.
10:16:55 Our first song is in the Singing the Living Tradition, page 207.
10:17:01 Earth was given as a garden.
10:17:24 Okay, this is a familiar tune to everybody. It's the same tune as Blue Boat Home and several other hymns, so…
10:17:30 I'll just do a really short introduction and we'll launch into it.
10:17:50 Earth was given us the Lord.
10:18:08 All creativity.
10:19:44 grace of God.
10:20:09 I'm going to light the candle with these following kind of winter words.
10:20:13 As the wild wind baits.
10:20:16 Let us hold a quiet moment together as our chalice is lit.
10:20:20 as the wild wind bites, so does the still flame warm us.
10:20:24 As the deep snows block our doors, that's not quite true.
10:20:32 So does the gentle flame bring us out.
10:20:35 As the crackling cold air stops her breath, so does the radiant flame draw from us the words we need to give and to receive.
10:20:43 Words of greeting, words of comfort, words of solace.
10:20:47 Words to challenge our minds and words to bring us to action.
10:20:50 Let us gaze upon our common flame so that we remember who we are and what we can do when we are together.

10:37:39 So I have a meditation, a short quote from Wendell Berry, who, if you have not heard of Wendell Berry before.
10:37:47 started to write and talk in the 70s on
10:37:50 the importance of sustainable architecture and the small family farm. He's been an advocate for
10:37:59 sustainable horticulture long before probably some of the rest of us ever heard about it. And he's also a wonderful writer. He's written novels, he's written poetry. His poetry is nice, and he's written a lot of essays on farming.
10:38:12 This is from Bringing It to the Table on Farming and Food.
10:38:16 Good farmers who take seriously their duties as stewards of creation
10:38:21 and of their land's inheritors.
10:38:23 contribute to the welfare of society in more ways
10:38:27 then society usually acknowledges or even knows.
10:38:30 These farmers produce valuable goods, of course, but they also conserve soil.
10:38:35 They conserve water and they conserve wildlife.
10:38:38 They conserve open space, they conserve scenery.
10:38:43 And so…
10:38:46 Bill has a little music for us.
10:39:58 It's Mary Rogers. She's an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in the
10:40:06 in the Department of Horticulture, but also she's particularly a professor of sustainable and organic horticulture.
10:40:15 She, um…
10:40:16 went to the U for her first two degrees. She got her PhD.
10:40:20 from the University of Tennessee and this year she won a distinguished Alumni Award from that university on her work in sustainable architecture.
10:40:30 Not architecture, agriculture. And her research focuses on integrated pest management.
10:40:39 Plant-insect interactions, and environmental strategies to improve production of vegetable.
10:40:45 and fruit for the organic and local markets in the upper Midwest.
10:40:49 Her work includes promoting organic farming education. She teaches at the university.
10:40:55 The University of Minnesota has a student organic farm kind of close by to us and does some community outreach for organic
10:41:06 farming and education. So that's what she's doing for us today. She's doing that community outreach
10:41:12 Okay.
10:41:20 Thank you, Mina. I really…
10:41:23 appreciated that Wendell Berry, quote, I myself am a fan of his writing.
10:41:31 Really pleased to be here. This is such a welcoming group. So I'm honored to talk about food. I love talking about food. This is by far my favorite subject.
10:41:41 So I really appreciate the opportunity to be here.
10:41:45 So a little bit about me and what brought me to this work.
10:41:49 I was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
10:41:53 from a large working class Catholic family. So I'm one of five siblings.
10:41:58 So growing up, and I'm a first generation college student, so my parents
10:42:03 didn't have the opportunity to go on to school. And so that was why it was really important for me and for us to go on and to get an education and get good jobs because we struggled a lot financially. There was financial hardships and there was at times
10:42:18 in my youth where we had to depend on government assistance.
10:42:23 depend on the
10:42:25 generosity of our community and our neighbors
10:42:28 to put food on the table. And so food insecurity, although it's not part of
10:42:34 life now. I'm not a stranger to it. And I remember…
10:42:39 kind of poignantly some of the shame, right, that would arise by not having enough.
10:42:46 And how oftentimes
10:42:48 in our culture.
10:42:52 We assume that people who don't have enough, it's a moral failing, right? And we know that that's not true.
10:42:59 So luckily my grandparents had a small plot of land where we were able to
10:43:05 garden and grow our own food and this is so we would grow our own food. We would also sell excess at a market stand and this so this helped
10:43:12 us make ends meet. And it also introduced me to agriculture and I really fell in love with gardening.
10:43:18 as a young person working on that farm and working alongside my grandparents.
10:43:23 So that's how I came to agriculture, not because we were farmers, but we had this
10:43:28 this small plot of land.
10:43:30 So I don't know a lot about Pilgrim House.
10:43:33 And as I was preparing for this talk.
10:43:35 I read about your mission, vision, and values, and I learned that you all care about working together to create a more socially and environmentally just world.
10:43:45 And that your values are acceptance, justice, service, curiosity, and joy.
10:43:50 And so I've really created this talk to reflect those values because I think a lot of what I have to say is
10:43:57 is going to really aligns with what you're all trying to do here.
10:44:01 All right, I'm going to start out with a bummer.
10:44:04 Um.
10:44:05 We have a lot of current challenges right now, and these challenges are only getting more severe.
10:44:12 Climate change is a big one. We're experiencing hotter, drier weather.
10:44:16 We have more erratic weather patterns, more volatile weather patterns, more storms.
10:44:22 Heavy precipitation can mean soil erosion and runoff. We have more wildfires.
10:44:27 It's windier now than it ever has been.
10:44:30 We also have associated challenges here, not just production related but
10:44:35 thinking in terms of human safety and people who are farm workers and people who are working outside
10:44:41 there's more risks associated with higher temperatures.
10:44:45 and smoke inhalation and things like this.
10:44:48 When thinking about our agricultural production and the future of food.
10:44:52 we have depleting resources, so we know our land is finite.
10:44:57 And as the global population grows, we're losing more and more natural habitat to food production. So this intensification and expansion of agriculture
10:45:06 is depleting water resources, disrupting the carbon cycle so more CO2 in the atmosphere means
10:45:13 climate change, this is just exacerbating it, right? So it's making it worse.
10:45:17 And then we have depletion of topsoil and nutrients. So this means more reliance on off-farm inputs
10:45:23 fertilizers, pesticides.
10:45:27 to maintain productivity.
10:45:29 And then concerns with runoff of those nutrients into our natural waterways.
10:45:36 Those are big. And the world's population, so reached 8.2 billion in this year.
10:45:44 We are currently producing enough food to feed everyone.
10:45:48 Yet 1 in 11 go hungry every day due to poverty.
10:45:52 In Africa, this is one in five people.
10:45:55 That's 20%. In the US, 13% to 14% of our population, or 18 million households
10:46:02 are considered food insecure.
10:46:03 So that means they lack reliable access to nutritious food.
10:46:08 And this rate grew between 2022 and 2023.
10:46:13 And we also know that there is quite a bit of racial disparity when it comes to food insecurity.
10:46:18 So 22% of black households in the US are food insecure.
10:46:23 That's the same as the rate of food insecurity in Africa.
10:46:26 23% of American Indian households and 21% of Hispanic households face food insecurity in the US.
10:46:33 Compared to 9% of white households.
10:46:35 And so that's…
10:46:38 kind of points out an injustice here that
10:46:42 that the…
10:46:44 Food insecurity isn't shared equally across different groups.
10:46:48 Another challenge is labor. And so this is on the mind of everyone who's growing food.
10:46:53 Much of the labor in agriculture is low pay, and in the US, ag workers are exempt from most of our worker protection standards.
10:47:01 So there's also regulatory barriers right now for farmers to access non-immigrant temporary workers.
10:47:08 And then this is happening at the same time the general population is becoming more disconnected from agriculture and there's fewer people working in agriculture.
10:47:16 So we have this.
10:47:18 ag literacy issue.
10:47:21 Which is particularly difficult
10:47:24 with youth growing up in urban areas
10:47:28 don't necessarily know where their food comes from or know a lot about agriculture in general.
10:47:32 So this can exacerbate the
10:47:37 exacerbate some of the labor challenges as well as leading to poor decision making, I think, around policies.
10:47:43 in agriculture and our poor health decisions and weakening the ag industry as a whole.
10:47:48 And in fact.
10:47:50 also exacerbating the environmental degradation aspects of agriculture.
10:47:56 So overall, food insecurity, we know it's growing enough food. It's driven by disparities in resources
10:48:04 Poverty, unemployment, and low wages. And so until we can
10:48:07 figure that out. Are my slides showing? I'm sorry.
10:48:14 I should have realized that.
10:48:26 I don't know if I…
10:48:27 I guess I can just keep talking.
10:48:35 Okay, so until we can address that.
10:48:40 poverty, unemployment, and low wages. We're going to
10:48:44 We can produce all we want. If people don't have enough money to buy the food.
10:48:49 it's not going to help them.
10:48:56 There we go.
10:49:00 There we go. Okay.
10:49:02 There, that's where I'm at. I'm sorry.
10:49:04 I think maybe I was supposed to
10:49:06 I can advance slides this way.
10:49:14 Oh, there we go. Okay.
10:49:17 All right. So those were the current challenges in bulleted form.
10:49:25 Oops.
10:49:28 I need to go back. Okay, so now what are we going to do about it?
10:49:33 I'm not going to dwell too much on the
10:49:37 food insecurity part.
10:49:40 Because it's a little bit beyond the scope of what I do.
10:49:43 which is focused on biological aspects of production.
10:49:47 And so there's a lot of really good things that we can do.
10:49:50 So addressing the challenges is going to be, I was thinking of like the four main things we can do
10:49:57 adopt regenerative agricultural practices, and I'll describe what that is in a minute.
10:50:02 Seeking innovative solutions using science, technology, and automation.
10:50:08 we have a personal responsibility maybe to modify our diets, change some of our behaviors so that they're a little bit more sustainable and reducing waste is a big part of this.
10:50:19 And then…
10:50:19 there's a lot of really great things happening
10:50:23 in the Twin Cities.
10:50:24 And I've been privileged to work with so many great people in the community that are working to build community-based food systems and kind of address this equity and disparity piece.
10:50:32 I'm going to end talking about that.
10:50:39 Okay, so…
10:50:41 regenerative agriculture. So this term became kind of a buzzword, I think, two or three years ago.
10:50:45 Everybody was talking about regenerative agriculture.
10:50:48 It's not a new concept. It's very similar to what we've been doing in organic agriculture or sustainable agriculture.
10:50:55 Or if you've ever heard the term agroecology, this is all kind of the same thing.
10:50:59 And these ideas, they're really predicated on two main principles. The first is focusing on soil health.
10:51:07 And so not just feeding the crop, but
10:51:10 what maintaining soil productivity, building soil health.
10:51:14 protecting soil as a natural resource.
10:51:17 So these are practices like
10:51:20 adding soil organic matter through compost or
10:51:23 residues into the soil, reducing tillage which burns up soil organic matter, adding to carbon into the atmosphere.
10:51:29 We can use cover crops, practice crop rotation.
10:51:33 these practices. And another big component of regenerative ag is biodiversity.
10:51:39 So having more
10:51:41 diverse plants on our soils.
10:51:44 promotes services, which I'll talk about in a moment, ecosystem services
10:51:50 that both above and below ground diversity. And then this practice of biodiversity also minimizes
10:51:56 risk and it builds overall
10:51:59 resilience. So the ability of the system to
10:52:02 snap back in the face of a disturbance.
10:52:06 These concepts
10:52:08 have been practiced by indigenous farmers for thousands of years. So this knowledge
10:52:13 is old, but we should return to it.
10:52:17 So here's an example of
10:52:21 These are indigenous knowledge and regenerative practices.
10:52:25 Indigenous farmers developed this concept of agroforestry.
10:52:28 which is growing plants in a way that mimics forests and natural systems, so offering shade protection and nutrient cycling. And so this is an example picture you have
10:52:38 vegetables growing among fruiting trees and a lot of diversity.
10:52:43 Similar to this practice of intercropping, which is
10:52:47 multiple types of crops.
10:52:49 in a system, a lot of these could be annuals or perennials. And we know that when we have systems that are diverse like this, it reduces our risk
10:52:57 of pest and disease outbreaks that we see in systems that are very simplified or monocultural.
10:53:03 Indigenous farmers have been practicing
10:53:06 sophisticated water management practices over thousands of years, developing things like
10:53:10 drip irrigation principles.
10:53:13 and other practices that conserve water and general stewardship practice.
10:53:18 And then our indigenous farmers are the keepers of biodiversity.
10:53:22 Comprising less than 5% of the world's population.
10:53:26 Indigenous people protect 80% of our global biodiversity.
10:53:32 And so it's important to maintain
10:53:35 these foodways, these ways of knowing.
10:53:38 how to steward the environment, how to use these practices to sort of heal the earth.
10:53:43 and reverse this sort of trajectory that we're on.
10:53:47 And here's a nice quote. I don't know if any of you have read Braiding Sweetgrass.
10:53:53 excellent book, but this is Robin Wall Kimmer, who's an indigenous ecologist.
10:53:59 I envision a time when the intellectual monoculture of science will be replaced with a polyculture
10:54:04 of complementary knowledges.
10:54:06 And so all may be fed. So recognizing
10:54:09 We need different ways of knowing and approaching
10:54:13 to come up with solutions.
10:54:15 So I have a couple examples of some really good work.
10:54:18 that's happening. I'm really proud of the work that some of my colleagues
10:54:22 at the University of Minnesota in the College of Food, Ag, and Natural Resource Sciences are doing with this Forever Green initiative.
10:54:28 So the example, what Forever Green is all about
10:54:31 is improving or developing new crops
10:54:34 that stay on the ground longer. So it's a simple concept, but if you have
10:54:39 perennials.
10:54:43 or plants that are covering the soil in the winter when they normally wouldn't be covered. This is protecting the soil from erosion and also slowly building back
10:54:50 soil organic matter into the soil.
10:54:52 And it's reducing our need for tillage.
10:54:55 And reducing our need for input. So we've developed over many years, Kernza, it's an intermediate wheatgrass. It's the first commercially available perennial grain crop.
10:55:05 in the US. They have 15 different crop portfolios here that they're working on.
10:55:10 Another example, here's winter camelina. It's a new short season winter oilseed crop.
10:55:15 for use in diverse rotations so this is
10:55:18 camelina gets planted in the fall. It goes dormant and those rosettes hold the soil into place over
10:55:25 winter thaw, spring, they flower. The flowers are attractive to beneficial insects and pollinators. They provide an early source
10:55:33 of pollen and nectar when nothing really else is around in the landscape.
10:55:36 And as well as it being a commercially viable oilseed, valuable oil seed crop.
10:55:41 And then we have hybrid hazelnuts. This is another example.
10:55:45 So our American hazelnuts are winter hardy and disease resistant. And then when they cross them with the European
10:55:51 hazelnuts which have high
10:55:53 a larger seed and better
10:55:57 quality of…
10:55:58 of nut and oilseed. You can get this hybrid hazelnut.
10:56:02 And hazelnuts work really nice as shelter belts.
10:56:07 snow catches, living fences.
10:56:09 on farms. And so these are ways to diversify
10:56:12 the landscape. And these crops, so they're all designed to provide multiple services in addition to our food and fiber needs.
10:56:20 Recognizing that we need to
10:56:22 build our soil and we need to support insects and we need to support the natural environment.
10:56:29 This is another really great example of work being done.
10:56:33 So…
10:56:34 the Iowa prairie strips and it stands for
10:56:38 There's this really long acronym. I wonder if I have it in here.
10:56:46 No, I guess I don't. Okay.
10:56:48 But the case in Iowa is that 99.9% of the original prairie is gone. So Iowa is the state in the
10:56:56 country that really stands out as being the most disrupted over time ecologically because now
10:57:03 If you go to Iowa, if you drive through, you'll see acres and acres of corn and soybean often in monoculture.
10:57:09 production and we've lost the prairie.
10:57:11 The STRIPS project is the Iowa State University researchers
10:57:17 have looked at strategically placing native prairie back into strips into the field
10:57:23 And they have found that as little as by converting as little as 10%
10:57:28 of a crop to these native perennial vegetation. Farmers can reduce sediment
10:57:32 movement off their fields by 95%.
10:57:35 And total phosphorus and nitrogen loss through runoff by 90 and 85% respectively, as well as it's providing, think about what it's doing to provide for
10:57:44 birds and wildlife and pollinators and
10:57:47 are beneficial insects that are also providing services, important services
10:57:51 on the farm.
10:57:55 So little strategic interventions can have a really big impact.
10:58:05 Yes, there are people all over the Midwest. There's farms too in Minnesota that are adopting it. So it's been kind of a slow development.
10:58:15 But now it's becoming, since they've had so much data and research on the benefits.
10:58:20 They're, yeah.
10:58:22 it's becoming more widely adopted.
10:58:24 So advances in science, I think are going to help us continue to increase efficiencies in production and reduce
10:58:30 that need for human labor.
10:58:34 There's been a lot of work right now thinking in terms of automated harvesters, drones.
10:58:40 autonomous tractors that can drive themselves. We have remote sensing capabilities now.
10:58:45 We have artificial intelligence and big data that can help farmers make better decisions and practice precision agriculture.
10:58:52 So, for example, using satellite imagery to see specific areas of your farm where there's
10:58:58 Where you might need more nitrogen or you might need more water.
10:59:02 So more efficient resource allocation. So these are all possibilities right now.
10:59:07 There's been huge improvements in technology around controlled environment agriculture, which allows for increased efficiencies
10:59:14 related to space, labor, and inputs.
10:59:18 And then it's not a totally new thing, but it's being newly developed into new commercial
10:59:24 areas is this CRISPR-Cas9 technology which is it
10:59:27 relatively in a
10:59:30 inexpensive, quick.
10:59:32 gene editing tool that allows us to
10:59:35 breed new crops maybe that need new
10:59:37 that are more productive or need less resources to grow.
10:59:42 But the challenge is the challenge is the challenge is
10:59:44 energy intensity, right? So the more technology you have, the more energy requirements. These are going to have to happen in
10:59:51 tandem with renewable energy.
10:59:54 to keep them sustainable.
10:59:58 Really exciting developments happening with LED or light emitting diode lights. So we know that these lights
11:00:04 Oops.
11:00:07 are more efficient energy-wise. They take less energy, they're less expensive to run.
11:00:13 But we're learning more and more about how manipulating the spectral
11:00:19 quality and quantity, so different wavelengths
11:00:22 provide different, do different things for a plant.
11:00:26 And the intensity is the amount of light you have or the photo period, the timing of your lighting.
11:00:31 system. So this we this
11:00:33 results in lots of different changes in the plants. So changes in plant physiology
11:00:38 You can enhance nutritional quality by manipulating the light quality that the plants are receiving.
11:00:43 You can increase crop yield and quality.
11:00:47 So all sorts of
11:00:49 interesting science happening around
11:00:52 plant response to light.
11:00:58 So this is AI.
11:01:00 and insect pest management. So we have in this, here's another example of how
11:01:06 technology can help us reduce labor and make better decisions. So this is an insect
11:01:11 trap. I wonder if there's a laser here.
11:01:15 It's not going. Anyway, here's an insect trap. It's equipped with high resolution cameras, and it has solar panels.
11:01:22 temperature and humidity sensors and an electronic system for data acquisition. So it's controllable remotely.
11:01:28 And what it's doing is as insects
11:01:30 are attracted to this beta, there's usually a baited lure.
11:01:33 And it's capturing insects. So it's taking an image
11:01:37 of those insects in the trap and then it's
11:01:40 the software is trained to automatically identify
11:01:44 what you have. And so farmers
11:01:46 can save a lot of time and make more timely decisions.
11:01:52 in these ways.
11:01:55 So automated insect ID.
11:02:00 So those are just some of the technological solutions
11:02:05 that are going to help us achieve this challenge of having to grow more food
11:02:11 for the future and and
11:02:14 terms of we can't do the status quo anymore. It's not going to work, so we're going to have to use
11:02:20 some new tools.
11:02:22 I think here's where it kind of comes into personal responsibility. We know that there's a lot
11:02:28 that not all diets are the same in terms of energy intensity. So eating lower on the food chain or more plants
11:02:35 Not only is it healthier for you, we're not necessarily eating all of our
11:02:39 recommended servings of vegetables and fruit every day.
11:02:43 But eating lower on the food chain reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
11:02:47 land use, water consumption, and energy.
11:02:50 Beef is considerably inefficient. So it takes 25 calories of input
11:02:56 energy-wise to produce just one calorie
11:02:58 of beef. And so that's an example of, oops
11:03:03 Again, with the slides. I'm sorry.
11:03:09 So changing our diets can certainly reduce carbon footprint and be more
11:03:15 sustainable. I'll show you.
11:03:17 Here's an example. So this is tons of yearly CO2 emissions per person.
11:03:23 Based on diet. So you can see beef and lamb as being particularly
11:03:28 energy intensive.
11:03:30 And here's compared to look at the lower impact of a vegan, a vegetarian diet. Even red meatless
11:03:38 has a considerable impact.
11:03:40 on carbon footprint.
11:03:49 Okay. This one, I don't know if anyone's considered this, or has anyone ever eaten these? Yes, some people have.
11:03:56 I am impressed.
11:04:01 So entomophagy.
11:04:03 You know, in the US, we're kind of an outlier here. A lot of countries, a lot of people eat insects. Insects are a high quality protein source, regularly eaten in 130 different countries.
11:04:17 Really great environmental benefits to using insect protein. They require little space to cultivate.
11:04:24 You can feed insects
11:04:25 byproducts of our food scraps, for example.
11:04:30 There's a high feed to conversion efficiency when you're thinking in terms of unit energy per protein output.
11:04:36 So the low environmental impact
11:04:39 And then thinking in terms of how can we maybe use insects
11:04:45 There's more being done with, I think, protein powders. So not necessarily people crunching on antennae and exoskeleton, but manufacturing powders that can be used in cooking
11:04:56 that are high protein.
11:04:59 And thinking in terms of how insects can feed livestock or fish in our systems.
11:05:06 There's some innovation being done here.
11:05:11 Food waste is…
11:05:13 another big, I know this is really small.
11:05:16 I'll point out to you what these facts say. So food waste is a huge issue.
11:05:21 I told you one in five people in Africa are facing food insecurity and one in five
11:05:27 a black American households are as well. And we throw away 40% of our food. It's wasted.
11:05:33 So this is, it's 133 billion pounds of food wasted per year
11:05:38 That represents 1,249 calories per person per day.
11:05:43 And this is uneaten food at retailers, restaurants, and homes. It costs 161 billion annually.
11:05:50 per capita that amounts to over $1,500 for a family of four.
11:05:54 So food makes up 20% of landfill weight.
11:05:57 the single largest municipal source. And it also
11:06:02 rotting food and food in our landfills creates methane, which is a greenhouse gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
11:06:12 So they say diverting 15% of the food that currently goes to waste would be enough to cut the number of food insecure Americans in half.
11:06:19 So thinking about that.
11:06:23 thinking in terms composting is another way.
11:06:26 to recover waste and to recover
11:06:29 an input that you can use in your farms and gardens and for soil fertility, also using to generate electricity so there's more being done with capturing that methane.
11:06:37 and converting it into a usable source of energy.
11:06:40 There's also new efforts to encourage so-called ugly produce. So we have really high expectations. How many of you have passed over an apple at the grocery store because it has a blemish?
11:06:52 Otherwise, it would have been perfectly edible. So I think…
11:06:57 adjusting our standards are going to be important to kind of eliminate or reduce
11:07:02 food waste.
11:07:08 Here's a study.
11:07:12 This was a review, a literature review looking at all these interventions that things that
11:07:17 practices that could be adopted to reduce food waste in cafeterias. And they showed that just by using smaller plates
11:07:23 results in 57% reduction in food waste.
11:07:27 And then also more educational promotion around
11:07:30 nutritional guidelines.
11:07:33 Reminding folks that eat your vegetables. They're healthy, they're part of a healthy diet, and information campaigns around the negative impacts of food waste can also affect
11:07:42 people's behaviors around waste in cafeterias.
11:07:48 All right. Now I'm getting into my favorite part.
11:07:54 Community-based food systems.
11:07:56 So these have all the aspects of the food system from production to distribution that are geographically
11:08:04 integrated. So thinking a lot of our food, most of our food when you shop at the grocery store, it's coming from all over the world, right?
11:08:12 But we have the ability to grow a lot of our own food.
11:08:17 right here in our communities.
11:08:19 And benefits of this is that it enriches communities.
11:08:23 by providing potential jobs and income.
11:08:27 provides resilience and redundancy and safety nets. So what happens when there's
11:08:32 a recall or there's a supply chain disruption with these
11:08:35 with our dominant food system, it's nice to have community food systems to rely on.
11:08:42 They can be better adapted to the unique needs of a community
11:08:46 For example, say you have an immigrant community who can't access culturally appropriate food through grocery stores, so they're able to use a garden site.
11:08:55 to grow the food that they're familiar with that's relevant to their culture.
11:09:00 So the concepts also related to the ability of communities to practice
11:09:04 If you've heard the term food sovereignty and it's basically autonomy or our ability to eat
11:09:10 and what we grow and grow our own food and distribute it within
11:09:14 within our local communities.
11:09:16 This, I think it's important too because the dominant food system has certainly left many communities behind.
11:09:22 There's a lot of neighborhoods that are food deserts where they lack
11:09:26 Or I've heard the term food swamps, where there's plenty of food available, it's just low quality. It's fast food, right? And you don't have access to fresh
11:09:33 nutritious fruit and vegetables.
11:09:35 So that's a result of that.
11:09:39 of our dominant food system working in the way it was designed. And so food, community-based food systems are
11:09:46 an alternative approach. So several examples happening
11:09:50 Right now, in the Twin Cities metro, so the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute Farm, so East Phillips is a neighborhood in South Minneapolis.
11:09:57 It's very racially, ethnically diverse neighborhood.
11:10:01 Also zoned for heavy industry. And so there's this legacy, there's a metal foundry, an asphalt plant, roofing company. So there's this legacy of
11:10:09 air pollution, asthma rates are higher in this neighborhood.
11:10:13 health indicators are lower in this neighborhood because of that mix of the heavy manufacturing. So the city of Minneapolis wanted, they had this big roof depot
11:10:22 And they wanted to demolish it.
11:10:24 The land under the depot
11:10:27 has arsenic and a lot of heavy metals. The neighborhood was really concerned with what was going to happen with the demolition of this building, and they also thought that this building could be recovered and repurposed.
11:10:37 And so they came up with a plan to build a cooperatively owned community hub
11:10:43 that would have an indoor aquaponics farm. It would have housing.
11:10:47 The idea is it has a community kitchen, a skills training center, a place for cultural education, local business space.
11:10:54 And they estimate it would provide 570 jobs. So this was a hard-fought battle.
11:11:01 The neighborhood won, and now I think they're in the fundraising kind of aspect.
11:11:06 a stage of this. So it'll be really
11:11:09 really interesting to see what happens in the near future with this.
11:11:13 effort. It's exciting.
11:11:16 I've been working with some friends at the urban farm and garden alliance. So this is a
11:11:23 an organization that's been around since 2014. It's a collaboration of eight to 10 community gardens.
11:11:28 in the Rondo neighborhood. And so they
11:11:30 They grow food together.
11:11:33 share resources, they network, they share knowledge around gardening.
11:11:37 They do a lot of educational events, things for youth.
11:11:40 cooking together, sharing of food.
11:11:43 It's important because it's important because
11:11:46 the Rondo neighborhood in St.
11:11:51 In the 1950s, it was 85% of St. Paul's black community was in Rondo.
11:11:55 And it was a thriving black community that was bulldozed to make way for I-94 in the late 50s through the 60s.
11:12:03 And a 2020 study found that this cost former residents at least $157 million in lost equity, 700 family homes were demolished, and 300 businesses were closed or torn down.
11:12:13 in this black community.
11:12:15 There's a lot of restoration work that needs to be done, a lot of healing.
11:12:20 a lot of recognizing that that
11:12:22 injustice that took place. And so here's a way the community is coming together around that.
11:12:31 Michael Chaney, founder and director of Project Sweetie Pie, and
11:12:36 food justice activist.
11:12:38 This is his calling card here. Project Sweetie Pie is a not-for-profit organization in North Minneapolis.
11:12:45 They've been working since 2011.
11:12:48 with individuals and partner organizations to achieve justice in the environment, food, climate, and economics. So it hosts a lot of
11:12:55 community garden sites and they do a lot of youth programming. So they partner with the Step Up program from the city of Minneapolis, which is a youth force kind of development program.
11:13:03 that provides funds for
11:13:05 young people to gain job skills.
11:13:08 So North Minneapolis has been designated as a promise zone.
11:13:12 Which is an initiative launched by former President
11:13:15 Obama. So these promise zones are high poverty communities where the federal government partners with local leaders
11:13:22 to increase economic activity, improve educational opportunities.
11:13:27 reduce violent crime, enhance public health, and all of these other good things in the community.
11:13:32 This has been one of the local partnerships that is working towards that.
11:13:35 kind of initiative.
11:13:38 These are just a couple examples. There's so many more.
11:13:42 people doing really good work in this space and I think that this is a perfect opportunity for
11:13:47 for faith-based organizations to kind of work hand in hand because we have
11:13:51 so many of these shared values, right?
11:13:54 When I asked…
11:13:56 students in my class, though this is a word cloud they generated when I asked them to think about the role community-based food systems can play.
11:14:04 So sustainability was really big in there. Community education.
11:14:09 production of some of these.
11:14:11 new ways of growing, new ways of
11:14:13 producing food, bringing food back to the people.
11:14:17 Yeah, so that's all I have to share with you. And I think that right now it would be a great opportunity for me to ask
11:14:26 Maybe there's the things that you're all doing or this fellowship is doing
11:14:30 that align with some of this
11:14:33 of this work.
11:14:36 Thank you.
11:14:44 Well, I'll just mention the…
11:14:47 No, I'm going to forget the name of it. The Good Acre is located very close to here, down on the edge of the campus, and it's a congregator for small farmers, basically. They buy food.
11:14:58 The contract with small farmers and then put together different types of CSAs and different types of community architecture
11:15:05 bundles you can kind of put together. Like I subscribe to a summer CSA, so I get a box for 18 weeks.
11:15:12 for, I don't know, it's about $25 a week or something. And it gives me enough fresh food for me and my husband.
11:15:19 All through that period. And I learned about things like Celeric.
11:15:24 And odd-looking vegetables too. But, you know, it's familiar stuff.
11:15:29 So that's like, you know, kind of in our backyard because they can guarantee farmers income versus like going to a farmer's market where it might rain out.
11:15:38 You know, you might not have the, you know, the kind of people showing up to buy it.
11:15:45 And then we also in the Twin Cities have a really nice network of
11:15:51 co-op type supermarkets, you know, and they're, you know, once again, yeah, it's a little more expensive and my husband will say, well, that's kind of ugly.
11:16:00 Get you just brought home. But, you know, it tastes the same. So anyway.
11:16:05 But that's my bid is I really have enjoyed being a member of the Goodacre and going to farmers markets in general.
11:16:14 Does anybody else have a question or a comment?
11:16:17 Got some?
11:16:22 Oh, here, I'll get you this here. We have to do this for our Zoom people here.
11:16:31 Yeah. Our son Jake was involved with this East Phillips project.
11:16:35 And I understand that it was almost funded in the legislature at the very last minute.
11:16:42 didn't act on a whole bunch of
11:16:44 projects and the funding lapsed but but are they still are a million dollars short
11:16:51 The last I heard about it, so has there been anything new? Because it seems like they're a long ways. This is kind of what I've heard too is that they still have
11:16:59 quite a bit more.
11:17:03 To make, yeah, okay, so there's no…
11:17:06 Nothing about maybe scaling back the project to make it a little more
11:17:10 Yeah, I'm not privy to any of those, but that's a good, I mean, they might have to. Maybe some things get rolled out in stages, right? Yeah.
11:17:19 It seems like that would be, yeah.
11:17:31 Hi, my daughter is a graduate of the University of Minnesota CFANS. She's an egg
11:17:37 graduate, but grew up here in the Twin Cities.
11:17:40 And I'm happy about that because my mother was from South Dakota, from a farming community.
11:17:47 My comment is about I spent quite a bit of time living in Japan.
11:17:52 And in Japan, they use…
11:17:56 a good bacteria that they put in animal feed.
11:18:00 So we live near a pig farm, but this bacteria would eliminate the odor. So we didn't have any issues with the
11:18:08 stench of having a farm down the street of pig production.
11:18:14 And what this good bacteria does is it
11:18:18 takes the manure and it has an aerobic
11:18:22 reaction so it breaks it down. So when the manure is broken down, it becomes like potting soil.
11:18:29 And then it's reintroduced to the soil.
11:18:31 for nutrients, but
11:18:34 I'm kind of curious why the US hasn't adopted some of these friendly
11:18:39 Especially for pig production, to eliminate some of that stench.
11:18:45 That's a really good question. I mean, I…
11:18:48 I think…
11:18:49 There's a lot of these practices that we know work, and it's frustrating sometimes when you don't see adoption or commercialization happening.
11:18:59 So, yeah, I think it's kind of, it's a little complex. I was working with this
11:19:03 biological control company
11:19:06 that produces insecticides that are based on fungi and bacteria. So essentially they work by causing disease of the pest.
11:19:15 And then the idea is that they could
11:19:18 be self-spreading in the environment once they sort of get established and provide biological control.
11:19:23 But they were saying that they have a great product for beetle control, but they didn't have enough
11:19:29 they weren't going to make enough money marketing it, right? And so this is one of these things that are a little frustrating is that there's this kind of
11:19:36 economic and commercialization kind of component that sometimes restricts it. With those forever green crops
11:19:41 I think that there's so much being done on the agronomic side. We can develop these really great crops.
11:19:47 But the challenge then is commercialization, marketing, working with the farmers to grow it when they're used to doing what they're doing.
11:19:55 So there's a lot of complexity there in changing. But I sense that frustration of.
11:20:02 Why is it so slow to adopt new practices and technologies?
11:20:08 Yeah.
11:20:09 I think these are all really exciting ideas and it gives us hope for the future. The only thing sometimes when I hear this
11:20:15 I worry about unintended consequences or things people haven't thought about, you know, bringing the mosses to control the rats or whatever. Right, right. Are there more controls in place now than there used to be to make that
11:20:28 less likely to happen.
11:20:30 as far as introducing
11:20:33 new biocontrol agents. Yes, absolutely. There's a very…
11:20:37 So I study a lot of the work that I've been doing in invasive species biology. So trying to figure out, working with growers to manage when we have a new invasive insect pest.
11:20:47 And we don't know a lot about the insect maybe and how it works. And we were at the same time not wanting to spray everything.
11:20:54 So it can be a real challenge. But there's pretty…
11:20:58 arduous regulatory systems in place. So for this insect that
11:21:03 I was working with called the spotted wing drosophila. It's like a little fruit fly.
11:21:08 And it's from Southeast Asia.
11:21:11 They've identified a very specific
11:21:15 biological control wasp from its native habitat.
11:21:18 And it went through a 10-year process of screening.
11:21:21 And we've just gotten commercial permission to release it.
11:21:25 on farms based on the environmental assessment and saying, okay, it's not going to affect anything else, just this one species.
11:21:32 But now there's other advantage populations of
11:21:36 generalist parasitoids out there that have arisen are out competing it. So all of that work went into, oh, it's not
11:21:43 there's something better that happened to get here somehow that is doing a little bit of a better job.
11:21:50 I would say this is the result of a globalized food system is that we're importing and we're exporting
11:21:58 problems.
11:22:00 And so that's another challenge is invasive species.
11:22:07 One of the things that I think we as a fellowship do is we get involved in political action.
11:22:14 And individually, especially.
11:22:17 We used to have a member that actually gave us postcards to fill out and send off.
11:22:23 But I think we still all watch the legislature. And for the East Phillips Project.
11:22:29 The bonding bill.
11:22:32 is under consideration for this legislative session. So maybe you all would like to contact
11:22:40 Because I know that you all do contact your representative and your senator.
11:22:46 and push that.
11:22:48 as a worthy project.
11:22:51 And then also.
11:22:53 In Minnesota, we do have that sales tax business where we give money.
11:22:59 So that's coming up for renewal soon.
11:23:01 And I would challenge all of us to get involved in that one as well.
11:23:08 That's great. That's great.
11:23:10 Here we go.
11:23:13 This question is kind of focused
11:23:16 on a family farm
11:23:19 or as opposed to corporate farm.
11:23:26 And I guess the scenario is…
11:23:28 How long does it take if you go out
11:23:33 And if a family farm is using
11:23:36 kind of taking a monocultural approach.
11:23:38 If they make a decision to…
11:23:41 switch from that.
11:23:43 kind of a monoculture approach to
11:23:46 one of these more sustainable, diverse
11:23:49 agricultural approaches.
11:23:51 How long does it take to
11:23:54 convert that.
11:23:57 soil and that farm into soil
11:24:01 an ultimate, much more
11:24:03 biologically diverse.
11:24:05 and sustainable.
11:24:07 acreage. Yeah.
11:24:08 That's a great question. I think it can take years.
11:24:16 I work a lot with growers who follow organic practices, and USDA has certification rules around what it means to be able to label your products as organic. And they have a three-year minimum
11:24:29 transitional period between when you stop you
11:24:33 You stop using prohibited substances and three years after that then you can be
11:24:39 certified organic.
11:24:40 So I think that three years was
11:24:44 not necessarily based on what's happening ecologically, but based on trying to heal the soils, get into a practice of
11:24:54 start doing things, start learning how you're doing this whole new farming system, which can take some time.
11:24:59 And a lot of knowledge and expertise.
11:25:01 and mentorship. But I think I've seen farms, it can take decades
11:25:09 Soil organic matter.
11:25:11 It takes years to build up into the soils and it can take a long time for those
11:25:19 for the microorganisms to come back.
11:25:26 Mary? Yeah. Thank you for…
11:25:30 being a woman in agriculture. I'm so impressed with the large staff
11:25:36 of young people and women with no rural background particularly coming into it.
11:25:43 I'm very fond of CFAN.
11:25:48 I think if I were a young person today, I would not have majored in what I did because I do agriculture. I come from a family farm, but it's very diversified. They do not plough anymore. They haven't done anything.
11:26:02 It takes a lot of money. Yeah.
11:26:06 the equipment they have, the air drilling. It's just phenomenal. It costs as much as my house did.
11:26:14 So thank you for doing that. And I was glad to see Kernza. I am a fan of Dr. Wise. Yes, we miss him. You certainly do. We miss him in our neighborhood, too. So thank you. I should bring you some Kerns. Thank you. I'm going to do one more question, Michelle had one here.
11:26:35 Again, thank you. My question really was around that education piece in terms of
11:26:41 how do we better educate not just the farmers because I know that it's not
11:26:46 it's not always the person who's living on the land who owns the land. How do we educate
11:26:55 urban people to better understand what these kind of programs can do for us.
11:27:04 I think we need to reconnect with our food where it comes from with farmers
11:27:12 I think it's really hard to be a farmer. And I have so much respect for the people who grow our food and are doing such an important job.
11:27:22 I think it's easy sometimes to judge and demonize too based on practices, but not understanding
11:27:29 what forces are at play and how difficult it can be to change and do something new.
11:27:36 But I think getting young people, it all starts with the young people, getting the kids
11:27:41 involved in gardening, bringing them with you, championing for schoolyard gardens, championing farm to school.
11:27:47 getting farmers into the classroom, getting students out on the farm.
11:27:50 I think there's a lot we can do. There's another group, Spark Why, who's doing really great work with bringing aquaponic systems into classroom and having students study science and nature and biology using this
11:28:01 enclosed kind of farming system.
11:28:03 So there's really cool things happening here.
11:28:06 We know that when kids grow their own food, when they take part in gardening, that they're more likely to eat those foods then too, right?
11:28:14 And I think it can't stop. It needs to be continuous. You can't just do elementary and not middle school or not high school. I think we have a lot going on with elementary and there's a big gap.
11:28:24 when it comes to high school. So how are they continuing on their education and environmental studies?
11:28:30 And learning these things. I certainly…
11:28:32 didn't. We didn't have 4-H. Now we have urban 4-H. And so I think those programs like that are super important.
11:28:39 Okay, well, why don't we thank Mary? That's been really nice.
11:28:51 I'm going to post a link probably through our email site to a documentary film, and I'm not going to remember it's something like the
11:29:01 Best Little Farm. But it is a story of a depleted farm in Southern California.
11:29:09 that did some high-tech things, but how they brought back
11:29:13 the life of this land within a cycle of about five years.
11:29:17 It goes from this barren, baked environment to a lush farmscape. So you can kind of
11:29:23 You know, it's like I think a whole lot of money went into this particular project.
11:29:28 But the documentary is interesting and it's just kind of joyful.
11:29:32 So I'll post that for you.
11:29:36 Our last…
11:29:37 Our last song today is Inch by Inch. That's kind of an old popular
11:29:42 It's projected. Yes. This is one of my favorite songs. It's by David Mallett.
11:29:49 And…
11:29:50 Judy and I were lucky enough to, and David came through here a few years back
11:29:56 And gave a house concert.
11:29:58 at Creek House in New Brighton and we were able to attend it
11:30:03 When I think about the question that was just raised about how long does it take to
11:30:09 to move forward. Well, maybe it is inch by inch. I'll do a real short introduction here.
11:30:27 And you're spy inch.
11:31:02 Made up.
11:31:12 Pray for rain, sun, and rain.
11:31:18 Agents changed.
11:31:34 I'm sorry.
11:31:56 First verse again.
11:32:16 Please.
11:32:31 We'll extinguish the chalice with these words.
11:32:34 We extinguish this flame.
11:32:36 Let not the light of truth.
11:32:38 the warmth of community.
11:32:41 Or the fire of commitment.
11:32:43 These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.
11:32:55 There we go.
11:32:59 So…
11:33:00 Mel mentioned that next week our program is Holiday Jazz and Broadway Music with Kate and Bradley Beechan.
11:33:06 So it's going to be pretty, so it's all kind of a music
11:33:10 program, so that'll be a nice kind of holiday program
11:33:13 Thanks today for our volunteers including
11:33:16 music with Bill Rohde, Ellen Shelton, Carol Gross, and Michelle Gardner.
11:33:20 Our greeter was Mary Eccleson.
11:33:23 Coffee. Excuse me.
11:33:27 It was put together by Deb Magnuson and Paul Kirstst.
11:33:30 Our special family celebration was thanks to the Connections Committee.
11:33:35 And then our tech support, Wayne LeBlanc, and Fred Green.
11:33:39 Thank you.