Local food movement gains momentum with new website

West Elk Foodshed Alliance promotes local foods

Locavorism—typically defined as eating food grown within 100 miles of consumption—is a pretty simple concept. Support local farmers, keep more dollars in the community, and spend less energy transporting food. But how do you define local in a high alpine community like Crested Butte, smack in the heart of ski country and not agriculture? And what local food options exist in October, when wind blows the golden aspen leaves from their branches and snow blankets the valley until April? The West Elk Foodshed Alliance, a growing volunteer-based effort, is answering some of those questions for Gunnison Valley by fostering communication between local food producers and consumers with a comprehensive new web site. 

“One of our goals is connecting producers and consumers, and also bridging connections between [local food organizations like] nonprofit advocacy groups, the farmers markets, and the farm to school program,” said Meike Meissner, one of the volunteers helping shape the alliance.
The West Elk Foodshed Alliance grew out of a January meeting of local food consumers, farmers, restaurants and nonprofits looking to generate more local food opportunities. Projects like Farm to School and the Crested Butte and Gunnison farmers’ markets all speak to the increasing prevalence of local food in the valley. But bringing agricultural and local food groups together seemed like the best way to start creating a sustainable, local food system for a valley without a significant agricultural base—as organizers point out, ranching provides some local meat, but fruits and vegetables come from over the pass in Paonia.
 The hope at that first meeting was that a single organization might be created to spearhead local foods projects. But as Jennifer McGruther, founder of the Crested Butte Farmer’s Market and West Elk Foodshed volunteer, explained, it quickly became clear that lack of effort was not the issue.
“What we found was that there had been a lot of needs expressed in the community, for example, we need more [local foods] involvement from restaurants,” said McGruther. “But what we found talking to leaders in the local food movement was that needs are being filled and solutions are in effect. There just wasn’t a single source of information people could go to.”
The biggest need, it turned out, was to define the valley’s foodshed and foster communication within that region. So at the group’s latest meeting in March, attended by about a dozen local restaurants, college students and nonprofits, participants focused on the ways its latest tool—a web site—can serve what is now known as the West Elk Foodshed: 100 miles around Paonia, Crested Butte and Gunnison.
It’s a tool many see the need for. Chris Schwartz of Delicious Orchards in Paonia was one of the first regional producers to join the web site, which provides a new and needed source of marketing.
 “The alliance is a great collaboration of these different agriculture and food support groups, and I think from a standpoint of a producer or processor, it’s super helpful to have a single point to disseminate information,” Schwartz said.
The concept of a foodshed alliance as an information clearinghouse is gaining momentum throughout Colorado. The Central Colorado Foodshed Alliance serves Buena Vista and Salida, including farmers markets in both towns and a web site directory of local foods. And the Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado food project serves La Plata County with similar initiatives. These alliances have served as a model for the West Elk Foodshed Alliance as it determines how to best serve the Gunnison Valley.
“The web site is our biggest tool right now, along with social networking through Facebook and Twitter,” says Meissner. “Our next step is getting producers on the site so local consumers can type in eggs, and all the producers and vendors that sell eggs come up.”
Web site visitors will also find a directory of food producers and restaurants, message boards, a community calendar with educational and volunteer opportunities and a newsletter. But the site is intended to do more than connect consumers to producers; it’s also intended to connect producers with each other.
“I have a small homestead,” Meissner said. “One of my personal challenges as a small landowner with multiple species on my farm is that I need a stud for my goat or lamb, or help processing chickens.” The new site could help her connect with other small homesteaders to split the cost of processing.
But really, the opportunities are endless. Schwartz hopes it might foster new methods of buying and selling local foods.
“In general, there’s an opportunity in how we can get more food sold locally and bio-regionally between places like CB and Telluride,” Schwartz said. “The biggest advantage of [the Alliance] to me, other than education, is that maybe a buying club will come out of it.”
Connecting through the web site, individual consumers or families could join together to order large batches of produce—like 400 pounds of peaches or 500 pounds of onions—direct from farmers at wholesale prices.
But the goal right now, according to Meissner and McGruther, is to let such outcomes form naturally. The alliance will provide the framework, and the projects will form organically based on local interests.
“This is a true alliance,” McGruther says. “So we have representation among everybody involved in the foodshed. It truly is a collaborative effort with no single umbrella group or overseer, because the goal is that everybody has their needs met and no function of the foodshed is ignored. The local food movement is much more than a farmers’ market, than a community garden, or than producers.”
The web site, they hope, will mobilize people beyond the weekend trip to the farmers market and build momentum around the local food movement. Visit www.westelkfoodshed.org to get involved today.