PORT TOWNSEND — Fort Worden State Park will be a center of a discussion about natural food production as it hosts the North American Gathering of the Northwest Earth Institute this weekend.
The biennial conference has more than 70 participants from the U.S. and Canada.
This year’s theme is “If Not Me, Then Who? Building Healthy Communities and Local Food Systems One Conversation at a Time.”
Keynote speaker is Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc. and one of Time magazine’s Top 100 in 2010.
His presentation is FortWorden’s McCurdy Pavilion at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets to Allen’s talk are $12.
They are available at http://tinyurl.com/3qmbhue and at both the Chimacum Farmstand store and the Member Services Desk at the Port Townsend Food Co-op, where they are $10 for Co-op members.
Tickets also will be available at the door.
Costs of the full conference, which will have activities in Building 204 DS, are online at www.nwei.org/north-american-gathering.
The website also provides details about speeches, seminars and movie screenings.
There are seminars today. The conference runs through Sunday.
It is sponsored by the PT Co-op, with proceeds benefiting the Northwest Earth Institute.
“Now is the time that people need to pay more attention to where their food is coming from,” said Co-op Outreach Manager Brywn Griffin.
“People don’t realize what a small percentage of our food is actually grown and how efficiency can be increased by integrating food production in their own greenhouses.”
Allen’s message
Griffin said Allen’s message — to take the best advantage of available space for food production — is one that can benefit small farmers and gardeners alike.
Son of a sharecropper, a former professional basketball player, an ex-corporate sales leader and now a farmer, Allen is recognized as one of the top thinkers on agriculture and food policy.
Allen’s address, “The Good Food Revolution,” will focus on the power of community agriculture.
It will include stories of inspiration and success from his work in Milwaukee.
Through Growing Power Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee, and community food projects around the world, Allen promotes the belief that all people, regardless of economic circumstances, should have access to fresh, safe, affordable and nutritious foods at all times.
Using methods he has developed over a lifetime, Allen trains community members to become community farmers.
“To truly change our food system, we must have 50 million new people growing food in their local communities,” Allen has said.
“This will take time and patience, but we must commit to action now.”
The food co-op has set up private workshops with Allen to offer specific instruction about how to maximize available land for food production.
Allen has built his expertise as an urban farmer.
Port Townsend issues
Port Townsend doesn’t have the same space issues, Griffin said, adding that the efficiency of local farms has more to do with available water.
“In our case, the best land for farming isn’t always close to where the water rights are,” she said.
She said all farmers can benefit from Allen’s space-saving techniques, which include the installation of tilapia tanks in greenhouses that provide small “fish farms” while recycling water to grow vegetables.
Griffin does not believe that true local sustainability is possible.
“Even if we were using every bit of local farmland to its maximum efficiency, we still would not be able to feed the entire Quimper Peninsula with locally grown food,” she said.
“But there is a big difference between affordable, fresh food and food that is highly processed.”
Attendees and instructors come from all areas of the country, but Port Townsend is represented in the program.
Seminars
A seminar about neighborhood activism will begin at 9 a.m. today and will feature local food experts Judy Alexander, Peter Bates and Dick Bergeron.
At 10:40 a.m. today, food co-op produce buyer Brendon O’Shea and Griffin will speak about Partnering Locally for a Food-Secure World while Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval, Finnriver Farms owner Crystie Kisler and Deborah Stinson of the Local Investors Opportunity Network, or LION, will talk about developing a local investing ecosystem.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.