Systemic Perspective

We ship about 90% of the produce we eat in from out of state. It’s more expensive to ship that food into Iowa than it would be to just make it locally. This report from the Leopold Center at ISU estimates our current system takes between 4 and 17 times more fuel than it would to just grow it ourselves.

At the store, food from far away looks cheaper because a lot of its true cost is not on its price tag. For example, tomatoes coming from Arizona go through the I-80/I-380 interchange that our government recently spent $387,000,000 re-building. The investment in global transportation infrastructure is part of the true cost of those tomatoes, but you don't pay at the register - you pay in reduced support for schools, lost jobs, and 4 to17 times more carbon emissions for your grandkids to swelter under. 

So yeah, the Arizona tomato looks cheaper on the shelf - you’re already paying its price in other ways. For a family of four, the hidden cost of that single interchange is $480.

According to Sarah Nelson at CommUnity, we’ve recently seen cuts to government programs like TEFAP and LFPA, USDA food delivery cancellations, and the Summer EBT program. It looks like there may be no money for SNAP benefits starting tomorrow, which will put many of us into immediate stress. But because only about 10% of our food - two meals a week - come from within our state, we're all dependent on government programs for the food we eat.

If we want a resilient, sustainable future, we have to find ways to relocalize power over our food.

Local Action

Only small actions scale, so small actions are the most important to take, and we can all take small actions!

Luckily, there are many, many people who have been working on local food here in Iowa City for a long time. They have a lot of ways for you, me, and our neighbors to take small actions, even if we're just starting to understand the fragility of our food situation. 

 

Easy Ways to React To Immediate Food Insecurity

• CommUnity runs a food bank in Pepperwood Plaza. You can shop there for free, volunteer to help operate it, or donate money to it. https://builtbycommunity.org/i-need-help/food-bank/
  
  
• My neighbor Claire is making meals and delivering them through https://lasagnalove.org/ . You can too!
  
  
• Iowa City Mutual Aid runs a free food fridge and links to many other resources - https://icmutualaid.org/resources . Stop by to take or drop off free food.
  
  
• The Free Lunch Program serves free lunch Monday - Saturday every week. You can go there for free lunch, volunteer to cook, serve, or clean, or donate cash! 

 

Easy Ways to Shift Your Part of the Whole Dang System

• Backyard Abundance is helping neighbors all across Iowa City restore balance and relocalize food. Check out some of their resources for growing easy vegetables, easy fruits, and finding wild edibles near you. Or just visit one of their existing edible forests! 
  
  
• Field to Family is our local non-profit food hub with a vision of a locally-controlled, regional food system. This November they are offering a way for workplaces to coordinate - get 8 coworkers together to order food and F2F will deliver it all to your workplace so you don’t even have to go pick it up. Read more here.
  
  
• Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development (IVRCD) focuses on training & supporting farmers, building local food infrastructure, generating new markets, and communicating the positive impact that a local food system would bring. It doesn’t take that much cash to incrementally add infrastructure to our local system - here are some things you can buy for them.
  
  
• The Global Food Project brings folks from different communities together to grow food, which builds local food power but also builds solidarity - a key ingredient of systemic resilience. You can sponsor one plot for an entire season for $100. 
  
  
• The Local Food Collective is a new group that has been learning more about local foods together, coming together for potlucks and other events. Sign up for their newsletter!
  
  
• And if you’re not personally feeling food insecurity yet, but you eat at restaurants with some regularity, consider just asking which dishes have local food in them when you’re ordering. That little nudge can build up. Here are some restaurants that I know use a significant amount of local food: The Webster, Trumpet Blossom, Basta, Get Fresh, Yotopia, Nodo, and Da Flava Unit. 

 

Harder but Possible Ways to Shift Your Part of the Whole Dang System

Many of the organizations above have ways for you to join them, but you can also find your own specific way with your neighbors. Here are some projects I’ve been proud to support through RSFIC. Click the thumbnails to see the videos, and be inspired about how you might make a significant impact on our food system!

Colleen & Julie with local food & shade in the neighborhood	Bronis with Do Good Community Connections
Nasraddin with Baldadna Farm	RaQuishia with the Harvest Feast
Brady with the Cookie Swap	Neighborhood Environmental Ed

 

These types of projects require leadership and organization, but not as much time or money as you might think. If you want to do something like one of these powerful community builders, RSFIC can help you get started. Drop us a note here.

And your weekly solidarity-building event list

One of the paradoxes I often struggle with is the urgency of so many immediate crises pitted against the longer arc of the polycrisis. If you’re not affected urgently by our food system’s fragility, then you can keep working on building solidarity in other ways. The only thing I think is really not ok is actively reinforcing our current system, which we know is doomed.

Anyway, here are some events this week that might be of interest if your focus isn’t necessarily on food, but you are looking for ways to shift what’s in your power to shift.

Friday October 31st, 5:30 - 8:00ish (today! 🎃)
Bike ride & potluck, in costume! Meet at the Bike Library at 5:30, ride's at 6:00, potluck afterwards!

Saturday, November 1st, 11:00-12:30
Singing Love into Life Circle will gather to mark Samhain, the first day of the Celtic New Year and All Saints Day. Join us to sing for our ancestors and the great networks of life, seen and unseen.  Faith United Church of Christ, 1609 Deforest Ave.

Sunday, November 2nd, 1:00-5:00
Open Bluegrass Jam at PS1 Close House. $5 suggested donation.

Monday, November 3rd, 12:00-1:00
Cycling Without Age - fleet expansion! Hot cider and cozy rides in the new rickshaw at the Ashton House. 820 Park Rd Iowa City. Not at the Bike Library!

Tuesday, November 4th, 7:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Go vote! More information. 

Wednesday, November 5th, 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Esperanto Learner's Group - drop by the Public Library if you're interested in learning Esperanto!

Thursday, November 6th, 7:00-8:00 PM
Great Plains Action Society & FilmScene present Iowa's Dirty Secret.

Gratitude (& photos)

About 150 folks came out to support us last Friday at our Backyard party. Our Operations Manager Anthony deserves massive credit for working through the interminable list of projects and approvals it took to make our space more accessible to humans, improve our relationship with the non-humans in our community, and coordinating dozens of volunteers & contractors in adding an outdoor gathering space to the RSFIC building. Denise, our Event Creator, did a ton of organizing and leadership for the party itself, with help from the whole staff.

We also had help from community members from many different parts of the city - thanks to Dave & Sondra, Kalmia, Colleen, Claire & William, Audrey, Roger, Ella, Lisa, Tammy & Adam, Dan, Ereen, Andrea, Nahed, Malak, Salwa, Mneal, Sahar, Euman, Nowha, Lupe, Angie, Susan, Virginia, Fred, Martha, John, Ric, Nik, Terresa, Maryann, Jen, Hai, Kristen, Rachel, Rowan, Carter, Demi, Max, Mohammed, and more folks I’m sorry to miss in this note! Together we’ve designed, created, and enlivened the space, turning about 10,000 square feet of space for cars into 10,000 square feet of space for people.

And yet: No one was assigned to take photos! Dave sent me a great one, below, of three local heroes appreciating each other.

But do you have any other photos of the event? I’d love to see the photos folks were taking of Bronis, Colleen, our new patio & access ramp, 4-square, letter-pressing, bike fixing, portrait painting, and just the overall party vibe as well. Mind just sending them back to me at [email protected]? 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

 

PS: Happy Halloween! Candy from far away is bullshit! Give out apple cider from Wilson’s or something else local with some nutrition in it.