We kicked off the meeting with a presentation from Ken Ayars, Chief of the Division of Agriculture at the RI Department of Environmental Management. He shared A New England Food Vision:
Calling for “our region to reach a bold goal of ™50 by 60 building the capacity to produce at least 50% of clean, fair, just and accessible food for all New Englanders by 2060.”
New England currently produces about 10% of the food we consume, and this is mostly due to our dairy farms. Reaching this goal would mean that all vegetables, half of our fruit, and all of our dairy and beef is sourced right here. It would require a return to a 1945 landscape in terms of amount of land dedicated to agriculture.
As part of that conversation we discussed some ways farmers could work with their local food banks that would mutually benefit all. Learn how Foodshare already partners with several local gardens and farms to reduce waste and increase available food for our hungry neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment