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For those of you who have been following the somewhat limited and not overly public goings on at the former WSU Extension site on 78th Ave. here is a link that will get you up to speed on the county's proposed plan for the site.
WSU 78th Street Master Plan
This proposed plan has had and will have opportunities for public comment. If you want to give your input on what this site will be used for, please check the web site above for upcoming meetings. I imagine you could also contact Clark County sustainability coordinator, Pete Dubois, for more info.
Pete Dubois (360)397-6118 ext. 4961 or email him at pete.dubois at clark dot wa dot gov
Current proposed uses include:
* 6 acres hosting several hundred community garden plots and a community certified kitchen
* 15 acres of organic Community Supported Agriculture 'incubators', and a working farm
* 25+ acres of wetland conservation, watershed stewardship and forest conservation & habitat demonstrations, including research opportunities and demonstration agroforestry projects
* education opportunities for public schools and colleges in ecology, agriculture, and sustainable forestry as well as sustainable business management
* continuing education, research and demonstration of sustainable systems, including construction, farm scale land use practices, and 'cradle to cradle' food systems
* community open space and recreational opportunities, heritage education
* a clear vision that honors our past while embracing a future that gives our children a knowledge and vision of how to thrive
Sounds great? Right? I think so too. I hope things move along out there. I really like the idea of hundreds of additional community garden plots and a certified community kitchen. With the way the economy is moving, having a facility like this could go a long way towards helping the families of our community feed themselves.
There is one proposed use that isn't mentioned on the county's web site that I have some issues with....the establishment of another farmer's market. I'm not saying the idea doesn't have merit, but don't we have several farmer's markets in the county that already suffer from a severe lack of participating farmers? I'm not counting the large farms from out of state that set up shop at the Vancouver "Farmer's" Market. I'm talking about farmers who are living and working here in Clark County or at least in SW Washington. I also think the folks that operate the existing farmer's markets might have some valuable input on the concept of creating yet another competing market that could possibly be subsidized by county funding. I've always felt that farmer's markets best serve their community when they are located in areas that are well suited for pedestrian traffic and convenient to neighborhoods. I wonder how the idea of a market on the commercially oriented, heavily trafficked 78th Street, which would essentially require folks to drive there, fits in with a model of sustainability?
Another thing that troubles me is the shared use of the land by community gardeners and CSA Farmers. I would think there would need to be a rather strict set of guidelines in place to deal with disease control to prevent community gardeners from potentially transmitting pathogens to the CSA plots. Maybe I'm just thinking about this too hard though...
Despite my musings, this is shaping up to be one of the greatest projects Clark County has undertaken in recent memory in my humble opinion. I look forward to see how things develop out there.
If you're looking for an opportunity to check out the site first hand, don't forget about the FREE permaculture workshop & work party taking place at the 78th Street site on March 21st.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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As a member of the technical advisory committee (TAC) on this project, I know that all of these issues were addressed in meaningful detail over a period of several weeks in late 2008 and into early 2009. Two key advantages of the 78th street site (and probably part of why it made such a good research station) are its size and diverse topography. With eighty acres and a mix of aspects and vegetation types, concerns about pathogens are actually less, as even a square-foot gardener can explain. Insects and disease do best in large monocultural situations, and not so well in "fragmented" polycrop environments such as Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm (discussed in Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma).
ReplyDeleteAs for the farmer's market concern, this also was addressed, and I argued that what the county needs is not more farmer's markets necessarily, but a more logical system to develop local infrastructure that is primarily responsive to the needs of growers and workaday consumers. The current model where a group of non-profit volunteers re-invents the wheel to try and open up a destination "carnival" market is inefficient, and will always shut out small growers and low-income folks. Most areas with the number of markets that Clark County has have some sort of coordination among them, as can be observed in Seattle and Portland. This allows centralization of key infrastructure for fundraising and governance, simplifies procedures for the farmers, allows greater coordination on behalf of growers and greatly simplifies such things as administration of programs such as EBT ("food stamps"), WIC and SNAP for low-income residents.
Well-meaning yuppies are not the best people to understand and look out for the interests of local growers, and any system that is concerned primarily with providing infrastructure for maximum accessibility will lose money as often as not. About a hundred years ago, it was this realization that led to various governments developing public markets in the first place, such as the Vancouver market at eighth and main and the (still-standing) Pike Place Market in Seattle.
It is logical for the county to consider creating an initially-subsidized space for a grower's market, which would emphasize local economic development and maximum consumer access to locally-grown foods. Guidelines to encourage this are well-established in such documents as the WSFMA "roots guidelines" and I believe that within a few years this could become a revenue-positive venture for the county: leasing space to grower-controlled groups much as the CSA incubators are designed to do. This will allow greater access to food for normal working people (who may not necessarily be able to drive to far-off places) and give a slight advantage to small local growers (who may not be able to afford to staff a booth for a full day each weekend), developing the market for other farmers markets to do the music-and-crafts-and-hot-food-and-carnival scene that seems necessary.
The growers of Clark County should be working with each other and the county to come up with a more logical system, rather than hoping that scattered, random bunches of non-profit board types can create real change.
I had the pleasure of attending the Washington State Farmers Market Association conference this January in Puyallup and I assure you, the best farmers markets in the state are the ones that are most responsive to growers and serve them first, to develop a local economy.
Putting up a half-dozen school carnivals that draw resellers from out of the area is not a sound long-term strategy. Please reconsider how the 78th street site might be used to nurture the local growers who will one day fill up fancier markets.
A couple of notes of corrections to the post above:
ReplyDelete"Most areas with the number of markets that Clark County has have some sort of coordination among them, as can be observed in Seattle and Portland. This allows centralization of key infrastructure for fundraising and governance, simplifies procedures for the farmers, allows greater coordination on behalf of growers and greatly simplifies such things as administration of programs such as EBT ("food stamps"), WIC and SNAP for low-income residents."
"The growers of Clark County should be working with each other and the county to come up with a more logical system, rather than hoping that scattered, random bunches of non-profit board types can create real change."
SW Washington *does* have a Farmers Coalition forming at this very moment, and also have the Washington State Farmers Market Assn., a state collaborative organization. Vancouver Farmers Market currently does us WIC, EBT & SNAP programs, catering to many low-income needs. Several other area markets also will incorporate these this year.
"Putting up a half-dozen school carnivals that draw resellers from out of the area is not a sound long-term strategy."
I agree completely, and I think it's important to stand up and make a change in the markets that we *do* have. This year several Vancouver-area farmers markets are making important changes that will enhance direct & local agriculture, and diminish 'wholesalers'.