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You could say this week’s Earth Learning’s 2nd Annual Greater Everglades Food Summit at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus had a bit of a sci-fi edge.
Among the terms thrown around — deracinated, food shed, food desert, localization campaigns, and food miles. We even heard discussion
about experiments being done to lower CO2 emissions with a certain ‘bean
pole experiment,’ but it was all very secretive.
Attended by Locavore giants from all across Florida, the summit Tuesday and Wednesday was essentially a gigantic brainstorming/networking opportunity for food enthusiasts and professionals alike to learn how we can all help make sustainability and important local food movements come to fruition.
There were presentations by key note speakers, including Woody Tasch, author of Slow Money,
an idea that investing in local farms will ultimately lead to a richer
and more profitable local economy as opposed to investing in importing
and exporting all of our goods.
We learned that as a nation we
eat only about 2% of what is grown in our own areas, with the remaining 98%
coming from imports shipped to our grocery stores. We also learned that
if all the trucks stopped delivering food to our grocery stores right
now, we would only have a three days supply of food left. Surprising?
Yeah, we thought so too.
Lunch was partially donated to the summit by LifeFood Gourmet and Green Table.
A fully organic bed of soft greens, fish, wild rice, avocado salad, and
raw sandwiches that left everyone feeling full and happy. After lunch
we broke into groups, listened to more key note speeches, and
finally went of to discussion groups.
We listened in on the Local Farmers Market group discussion led by Homestead Harvest Farmers Market
director Art Friedrich. There was a hum of enthusiasm
throughout the room, and we wanted to find out how each person would
summarize the summit in a single word.
Naomi Ross, of the Opa
Locka CDC called the summit, “collaborative, ” while Evan Kiggen, of
Back to the Roots called it, “visionary.” But when it came down to it,
Ian Wogan, of Garden of Ian and rep. for Sustain, summed up the summit
aptly in a single word, “Sustain”.
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