Food Systems
Santa Fe Food Policy Council
The City and County passed a joint resolution to form the Santa Fe City and County Food Policy Council. The council has representatives from both the City and County and from community members involved with the local food systems. Check out the website of the Santa Fe Food Policy Council. Click here to read the Creating Authority for the Food Policy Council.
Need for Adaptation
Climate change is beginning to impact the growing of food, and these negative trends are expected to worsen. Worldwide, the advantages of growing food locally are now being recognized.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Food also creates major greenhouse gas emissions- from “food-miles” (the total miles food travels), and from how the food is grown, processed, and packaged. Local food avoids these major emissions. For example, research has shown that U.S. beef requires trucking for over 5,000 miles, and wheat processed into a product like a cake mix is also over 5,000 miles.
What's Being Done
~ Strong support for the Santa fe Farmers Market
~ Push to permit grey water reuse for watering food plants
~ Support development of community gardens
Actions Included in the Plan
- Set a target for local food
- Design and implement a City Harvest (food within the city) program to create multiple food growing, processing, storing, and selling opportunities
- Create collaborations among groups that work within the city
- Review the variety of urban harvest programs that are happening in the U.S. and elsewhere to expand awareness of multiple techniques and to develop multiple pilot research projects to determine the most productive and sustainable methods for Santa Fe.
- Identify and reduce barriers- legal, economic, educational, etc. to urban agriculture including the retailing of food.
- Work with City departments on solutions, including increasing the availability of: Land and other resources for food purposes; Water resources, including water reuse- (see section 8, Water Conservation) and; Waste conversion to provide safe inputs (see section 9, Solid Waste reduction).
- Develop a plan with targets to promote “Yard to Table”
- Map & Inventory Productive Land and other locations for food
- Create a matching program between those who have productive space and those who would like to garden/ grow food in such space, including temporary occupancy programs (TOPs) and SPIN (Small Plot INtensive growing) that allow people to earn tens of thousands of dollars using other people’s land including backyards.
- Incorporate local food into Economic Development and Planning
- Include food growing opportunities into all affordable housing as a critical component of economic and food security
- Develop programs for urban gardening for the homeless and low-income people, as well as therapy for those with mental and physical disabilities and for urban “at-risk” youth, ex-cons, etc
- Dedicate municipal water resources to food production
- Develop neighborhood centers for home economics, sustainability, and food-related processes, including shared community facilities such as greenhouses, facilities for food storage, and community kitchens.
- Provide educational resources for techniques such as water re-use from roof-tops, gray water for institutional re-use, roof-top gardens, and organic food production.
- Develop guidelines for appropriate growing in Santa Fe based on traditional and appropriate dryland gardening techniques (Waffle gardens, perennial polyculture and mulching systems using locally available materials and living mulches, careful varietal selection tailored to urban food production, etc.).
- Explore the feasibility of adding acres of ecological intensive greenhouses such as the urban model “Growing Power” after a pilot project has been adapted to local conditions.
- Develop a Foodshed (within the 300 miles range) Program in Collaboration with Regional partners.
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