The third Land Stewardship Project Local Foods Banquet was held on September 29th, 2001. On that lovely fall evening, 140 LSP members and friends gathered in St. Paul to enjoy the bounty of our local stewardship farmers.

If you were unable to attend, or if you did join us and want to recreate the menu or learn more about regional foods systems, below you will find a check list of ways you can take action, brief interviews from farmers who provided some of the food ingredients, excerpts from Bonnie and Vance's presentation, links to recent reports about regional food system issues. Check out the banquet recipes prepared by professional chef Brad Beal.

Click here if you would like more information on how to host your own Local Foods Banquet with help from the Local Foods Dinner Planning Guide.

LSP members and guests mingle and look at farmers' displays while snacking on hors d' oeuvres.

Acoustic guitar, farmer displays and elegant appetizers greeted guests as they arrived. Bonnie and Vance Haugen, grass-based dairy farmers from southeast Minnesota, gave a heartfelt key note address about farming, food systems and grazing and showed slides of their farm.

Guests converse before dinner is served.

The star of the evening was the food, expertly prepared by LSP member and chef Brad Beal with the help of many LSP members and staff who volunteered in the kitchen. But as Brad himself has said, "a cook is only as good as the freshness and quality of the ingredients. There is absolutely no substitute for the quality ingredients that we were treated to by our local producers." The appetizers of Italian sausage, goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes and the main menu of roasted pork shoulder, stuffed squash, garlic mashed potatoes, autumn greens, focaccia bread and polenta pound cake, were created out of rich ingredients from ten local farms and three local farmer co-ops.

(From left to right) Long time LSP member farmers Dave & Florence Minar, LSP Executive Director George Boody and his wife Ann Risch.

LSP Staff and banquet organizer Cathy Eberhart (left) and LSP Staff Tara Blumer prepare bouquets of fresh flowers donated by Elsie's Farm owned Don Roberts and Joni Cash and Still Point Farm owned by Larry & Pamela Johnson.

Take Action
You can contribute to a sustainable regional food system by taking any of the following actions:

• Support the food system work of the Land Stewardship Project through your membership and other donations.

• Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.

• Buy food from a farmer on the Stewardship Food Network. Contact the White Bear Lake office at 651-653-0618 to receive a copy.

• Look for locally grown food in the grocery stores you shop in. If it is not clearly marked, let the meat and/or produce managers know that it matters where your food comes from and that local is best!

• Encourage your favorite restaurants to purchase from local farms. Support those restaurants that already do.

• Grow more of your own food.

• Eat food that is in season.

• Support state and federal policies that support regional food systems and sustainable farmers.

• Host a local foods dinner or include local foods in an upcoming meeting or conference you are organizing. Call the White Bear Lake office at 651-653-0618 for a free local foods dinner packet to get you started.

• Support a farmer's market.

Interviews with Farmers

Anderson Farm - Randy & Lynn Anderson - Arkansaw, WI
Provided Italian pork sausage and potatoes

How do you raise your hogs?
We raise our hogs on pasture and in the winter they have access to the pole shed which has deep straw or hay. Pigs eat grass and clover from pasture and excess garden produce, also organic grain mix with natural minerals and kelp.

Why?
Because this keeps the hogs and land healthy and produces healthy meat for us and our customers.

How/where did the pork get processed into the pork sausages?
At a small processor 3 miles from our farm.

Where do you usually market your pork?
The Twin Cities and western Wisconsin - mainly families and a restaurant.

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the sausages?
60 miles southeast of St. Paul.

How small or big is your farm and what else do you produce?
We own 164 acres. We also raise organic beef, lamb and chicken. Also vegetables.



Upstart Seed Project - Elizabeth Wheeler & Lisa Bergin - Spring Valley, WI
Provided heirloom tomatoes, carrots, dried peas, squash, thyme and marjoram

How do you raise your heirloom tomatoes (and other vegetables)?
We grow many of our own seeds from varieties chosen from seed savers exchange to do well in our region - short growing season, hot summers, etc. We use a lot of mulch! Small transplants, try very hard not to do any auxiliary irrigation (in our whole garden). That was not possible this year, though. We tie up indeterminate vines to wires strung between posts to keep them off the ground.

Why?
We love food that looks different - has a different kind of beauty - colors shapes, etc. We use heirlooms to help keep genetic diversity, keep varieties from being lost/going extinct and to stay free of the corporate hybrid seed world. It is important to me to keep selecting and improving strains of vegetable crops that "work" in the rural upper Midwest - ½ way between the equator and the north pole, in areas not buffered by an urban heat sink. The most commonly available varieties are not adapted to our area. I believe part of a regional food system includes regional seed production. Anyone can learn simple seed saving and selection and make it part of the process in their farm or garden. It's a skill members of our grandparent's generation were trained in; we can take it back and regain more control of our own food.

Where do you usually market your tomatoes, etc.?
We sell some to a food co-op in Minneapolis and have sold to a restaurant there. We give away many to friends, too. We also do seed production - seed is sold to Fedco Seed Cooperation in Maine and to Johnny's Selected Seed there.

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the tomatoes?
About 45 miles.

How small or big is your farm?
We have been renting a couple of acres for 6 seasons but the vegetable garden is only about ½ an acre. We just sighned on our own land in September!! - 20 acres, of which 8 or 9 are tillable. We're excited to start growing northern hardy alternative fruit crops as well as increasing our seed production and medicinal herb production.

What else do you produce?
Everything! 5 colors of carrots, heirloom squash, variety kales and cabbages, root crops, cut flowers, medicinal and culinary herbs and many items for our own canning and freezing.



Dancing Winds Farm - Mary Doerr - Kenyon, MN
Provided goat cheese

How do you raise your goats and why?
Good sanitation and keeping strong immune systems using vitamins and natural mineral supplements makes for strong stock. I raise them naturally (no growth hormones) on mixed grasses and sunshine because letting them folic outdoors, browse on a variety of plants and clean, fresh air keeps them healthy and providing quality milk = quality products.

How do you process the goat cheese?
Milk is processed 2 times per week into cheese using a vat pasteurizer in small batches at a time. We make fresh chevre (low fat/low salt) and Dancing Winds low-salt feta.

Where do you usually market your cheese?
Exclusively through the St. Paul Farmer's Market April-November. Also direct from the farm for our guests and local customers.

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the cheese?
50 miles

How small or big is your farm?
20 acre Grade "A" goat dairy, licensed farmstead cheese plant, Educational Farm Retreat

What else do you produce?
Farmstead goat cheeses, milk (Grade "A"), Chevon (goat meat), Cashmere (fiber), Goat milk soap, Goat milk fudge

Plowshare Community Farm - Erika Jensen - Prairie Farm, WI
Provided tomatoes, leeks, kale

How do you raise your vegetables?
All my vegetables are raised organically and form an important part of my CSA deliveries. I grow my tomatoes on black plastic mulch for better production. I sometimes mulch my leeks and kale with hay mulch for weed control. I start seedlings for tomatoes, leeks and kale in a greenhouse in March and April and transplant out to the garden in May. I grow a mixture of heirlooms and hybrid varieties.

Where do you usually market your vegetables?
Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) through my CSA farm.

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the tomatoes, leeks, and kale?
80 miles

How small or big is your farm?
5 acres under cultivation (rented land)

What else do you produce?
wide range of vegetables, fresh herbs, and flowers

Farming with Nature Co-op - Eric & Lisa Klein and 3 other farm families - SE MN
Provided pork roasts

How do you raise your pork and why?
Our pork is raised on pasture and deep bedding. We believe this is a more humane way to raise hogs and they usually finish in the same amount of time or faster than crowded confinement pork.

Where do you usually market your pork?
Direct to consumers and restaurants. What is not sold to Farming With Nature goes to the traditional livestock market.

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the pork?
100 miles

How small or big is your farm and what else do you produce?
We are 4 farms raising approximately 700 hogs and 100 beef per year.



Elsie's Farm - Don Roberts and Joni Cash - Ridgeland, WI
Provided cabbage, squash, flowers

How do you raise your vegetables (specifically the cabbage and squash) and why?
Organically (certified by MOSA), sustainably. That is a very complex question. No special techniques for cabbage - problem is to keep the flea beetles from taking them.. Just have to plant extra and hope for the best. Squash and pumpkins are planted in small hills of soil and composted manure within large sheets of black plastic for weed control and early heat and then we put mulch around the plants to temper the heat a bit.

Where do you usually market your vegetables?
Markets in Minneapolis and to restaurants

How far is your farm from St. Paul - how many "food miles" were on the cabbage and squash?
180 miles

How small or big is your farm and what else do you produce?
120 acres. We raise a very wide variety of vegetables, asparagus to zucchini so to speak.

Keynote Speech by Bonnie & Vance Haugen
LSP's 2001 Twin Cities Local Foods Banquet
Sept. 29, St. Paul, Minn.

Good evening, I was surprised to be asked to talk and am honored to be here. We were asked to talk about our farm, why we farm the way we do, and our vision of a local food system. First let's talk about the local food system-or lack of it.

In regards to the local food system, I'm not an expert, but can point out a few basics. Hiawatha's Pantry Project of the Community Design Center in Lanesboro, Minnesota, found that $800 million flowed out of the southeast Minnesota agricultural region in 1997. This number was arrived at by finding that $866 million of farm products were sold, but $947 million was spent in raising that food. Consumers spent $506 million on products from outside Minnesota, and $400 million was spent by farm families on inputs and credit from distant suppliers.

Another report from Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri points out that the global/agro food system continues to be restructured. The process of horizontal, vertical integration and globalization puts extra stress on farming and our local economies. This study discusses retail shift of power. For example, the top five food retailers account for 42 percent of the U.S. market. That gives them a position to dictate to food manufacturers, who then force change back through systems to the farm level. For instance, dairy imports are larger than exports and are growing fast. Further, the loss of US farmers makes little difference to transnational corporations. Economist Steven Blank's book, The End of Agriculture in the American Portfolio, concludes that consumers in the US no longer need farmers because we can import food from poorer countries cheaper than we can produce it. Certainly this could be true but recent events indicate that food security could be a national security matter. And while food could possible be imported at a low cost, what about the hidden or non-counted costs called externalities?

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University did a study entitled Food, Fuel, and Freeways. The nutshell summary is: the current conventional system uses four to 17 times more fuel then the Iowa-based regional and local systems, depending on the system and truck type. The same conventional system released from five to 17 times more CO2 from the burning of this fuel than the Iowa based regional and local systems. These points need to be pondered when nation agricultural policy is debated.

While I applaud society's attempts at keeping food affordable for all, the current infrastructure of government Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP), as well as subsidized trucking and processing costs, does not create a responsible ethical systems in my opinion. That is why I applaud this gathering of local foods interests.

It is an honor to be here. I truly encourage each of you to put your feet on a sustainable farm, use your eyes, ears to give your minds and hearts a better understanding of our farms. Then put your hands into action by buying local food as much as you can.

Some of my daydream ideas of a local food system:

A.) All consumers know the difference between sub-therapeutic and judicial use treatment of antibiotics. HOW MANY PEOPLE HERE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?

B.) County, city, township gardens are a regular part of our social landscape.

C.) Institutions such as prisons, elderly care facilities, hospitals and colleges have gardens to supply much of their own food. Residents and employees would be required to work in these gardens so many hours each week.

D.) Scout groups, 4-H clubs and youth groups paired up with elderly in their communities for "Adopt a Garden Parent" time in a garden.

E.) Surplus food is frozen, canned, etc., using the kitchens of schools or institutions.

F.) Tax credits for any institution/business doing this on a regular basis.

G.) Restaurants hiring part-time gardeners instead of paying shipping costs on food transportation.

H.) Each US citizen required to poke their hand in soil at least once a year.

I.) As local food producers network together, if a paid delivery person position is not readily available, then the auxiliaries and church groups help with the delivery system.

I farm the way I do because it made sense. Cows are born grazers, good for the land when managed, and it is low equipment time and cost. I thought it would be an economic way I could blend my home /family life with values of sustainable farming. Taking care of the land in a non-eroding, low chemical, low input, low fuel and machinery costs way while adding to the food system is a style I could be proud of. I care about people-food is a necessary part of our living. This is my contribution to society.

We management intensively graze our dairy animals. That means we plant grasses and legumes such as clover and alfalfa with grasses for the cows to eat. We fence so the cows get only a small area at a time. This allows the plants to re-grow during their rest time. This differs from the old pastures where the grasses often lack rest periods, which deplete the root reserves, curtailing available feed stores in the pastures.

Our cows are outside all year, and on the windiest winter days get a choice of staying under cover. They prefer outside unless the wind chill is too bad. The wind chill is a bigger factor than a subzero, calm day.

We have turkeys, deer, monarch butterflies, and a variety of birds, as well as earthworms, lynx, fox, and coyotes.

When it rains, we have little run-off. Our farm is seasonal; cows freshen-have their calves-at the same time of year-spring for us-and I will dry them all up at the same time, so I can get a break as well. Our earth is cyclical-why not us? Cattle are cyclical, our land is cyclical, why not eat that way?

Thank-you to each of you working on the local food issue.

I have brought winter rye seeds for you to plant now, this week. Plant them for fun; they will grow now this fall, go through a winter vernalization, then grow again in spring. In spring, when they grow again, look at them and remember growth in seasons, grazing cows, good food and us.

Reports the Haugens referred to in their talk

Finding Food in Farm Country: The economics of food and farming in Southeast Minnesota, March 2001, by Ken Meter and Jon Rosales, Community Design Center.

A report to the National Farmer's Union: Consolidation in the Food and Agriculture System, 1999, by William Heffernan, with Robert Gronskiet and Mary Hendrickson, University of Missouri.

Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas emissions, June 2001, by Rich Pirog, Timothy Van Pelt, Kamyar Enshayan and Ellen Cook, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University.

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