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Levi read me a quote the other day from Barbara Kingsolver’s Book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” It was talking about cities as places that produce their own food versus having to import the food into the city– a reversal of the Global Agricultural phenomenon we’ve seen in the last 20 years, where more and more of our food travels half-way around the globe before landing on our plates. I remember him mentioning that Moscow grows 90% of its own food within the city. Wow.

Food Mileage
Shortening the distance from the earth to the table (food mileage) is Google search is any kind of indicator, the UK seems to be leading the charge in contending with food mileage issues. A Grocery chain in the UK, Tesco, is trying to find a way to calculate the carbon footprint of its products, for labeling purposes.

The information…would go beyond the mere question of food miles - how far the produce has been transported - to include indirect greenhouse emissions given off during its production and processing.

Food grown in cities for city dwellers also translates to more diverse plant-life and a healthier city environment. Food grown locally supports a local economy, so there’s immediate economic benefits, not only for the city itself but for our whole nation.

And then there’s the community connection. From my own experience, I’ve found that narrowing this distance is a powerful community-building catalyst. I’ve had oranges dropped on my front porch from anonymous neighbors. My back yard borders two other yards, each with veggie gardens that prompt “over the fence” conversations throughout the week. My beans are doing great, but theirs aren’t producing. Their basil is taking over but mine doesn’t get enough sun. Swapping and sharing becomes second-nature.

The Locavores
One such urban-food community in San Francisco– The Locavores– has sprung up and is getting some deserved attention. They have a pretty cool vision:

We are a group of concerned culinary adventurers who are making an effort to eat only foods grown or harvested within a 100 mile radius of San Francisco for an entire month. We recognize that the choices we make about what foods we choose to eat are important politically, environmentally, economically, and healthfully. In 2005, we challenged people from the bay area (and all over the world) to eat within a 100 mile radius of their home for the month of August.

This year, they are extending the challenge into September, so if you’ve ever wanted to try and go completely local, this might be a group to tap into. You can also track with the EatLocalChallenge Blog and get lots of great information and support.

Sacramento’s Potential
Sacramento seems like a perfect location for the lines between city and food source to blur. I think one of the components to make this city “The Most Livable City in America” needs to be raising the % of locally produced food consumed in Sacramento households. And while Farmers Markets and CSA’s are truly wonderful expressions of this, you can’t get more direct than your backyard and neighborhood.

I know I’m always amazed at the number of fruit and nut trees within a short walking distance of our house. On walks with my daughter, we’ve personally harvested oranges, grapefruits, lemons, kumquats, blackberries (which featured in our 4th of July breakfast two weeks ago), figs, avocados, apples and walnuts, mostly from alleys, but occasionally from friendly neighbors.

Sadly, I don’t think our urban food source assets are being maximized. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there are a lot of trees in yards that go unharvested. The forager inside me just cringes every time I see a rotting pile of apricots or stains on the sidewalk from unpicked plums.

Urban Eggers?
Anyone heard about chicken coops in the urban core? When I first moved here a couple of years ago, I heard about some “renegade” eco-urbanist gourmands who were so into fresh eggs, they had small chicken coops in their back yards (in Midtown).

A Foragers Kitchen
More than once I’ve thought of starting some kind of local “urban foraging” group that would identify fruit and nut trees and volunteer to harvest them. The owner of the tree would of course be given part of the harvest but the rest could be dispersed among the foragers and given to food banks or shelters.

Lately, this idea has begun to morph into a kind of an community-based, volunteer “urban garden shop” like the bicycle kitchen: a place where people could come and help each other out with various gardening projects: building planters and raised beds and hives, organize “neighborhood harvesting” days, borrow gardening and canning tools, help people new to urban gardens, or just talk shop about gardening and food preservation in an urban setting.

Maybe this already exists: I know about Sustainable Urban Gardens– the urban gardening education and advocacy group– but I’d like to see something a bit more structured and “real time” with a location and specific kinds of targeted activities. Not sure if the “bicycle kitchen” model fits or not, but it sounds fun to me.

Jason