Conference touts locally grown foods

WEST VALLEY CITY — A glimmer of change sparked by an open letter from an award-winning author to the man who would be president, burned a little brighter Monday at a conference exploring ways to dramatically change the industry behind the food bought, sold and consumed by Wasatch Front residents.

Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley delivered the keynote address to about 100 participants at the Urban Farming Conference at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. Bradley, who garnered unanimous council support of his idea to use some county property for growing fruit, vegetables and bio-fuel products, said he was inspired by a New York Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan, a University of California-Berkeley professor and author of numerous books on the business and politics behind food and nutrition. The story, published last October, took the form of an "open letter" about national food policy to the yet-to-be-chosen 44th president of the United States.

"I read it, re-read it and thought, this guy is onto something," Bradley said. "He had so much to say in terms of what government policy toward food production ought to be. He made the overall conjecture that the health of our country's food system is really critical to our long-term national security."

That critical connection outlined in the Pollan letter ties food to the very topics now at the heart of national debate, Bradley said. What people eat, how they eat it and how that affects their health, and their need for health care resources. The vast amounts of fossil fuels required to get food from the farm, to purveyors and ultimately to the table, by some estimates, consume some 19 percent of the country's total energy production, Bradley said.

Growing food in Utah close to those who consume it, and using methods that incorporate the careful use of limited resources, was the focus of the daylong seminar.

While Salt Lake County pushes forward with its urban farming plan — some 35 parcels of various sizes are identified and being evaluated countywide — some Utah companies already tout the locally grown-locally sold concept.

Jeremy East got his start cultivating a quarter-acre plot near Woods Cross High School in 1997 as a sophomore. Now, he owns the 400-acre East Farms in West Point and provides produce for restaurants and grocery stores on the Wasatch Front and runs a 700-customer community sustained agriculture program each summer. The program provides shares of the East Farms bounty on a weekly basis during the growing season, allowing families a selection of whatever is ripe or ready to pick for a flat fee paid up front. East said the program has kept his family business afloat.