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The organization coordinating the Bioneers Conference, BORN (Bioregional OutReach Network), despairs that Gallatin and Park Counties will soon cease to be agriculturally viable, despite being the home to the land grant university and to some of the most productive soils in the state. The current rate of production--the region is second in Montana for the total value of agricultural product sold, first for the quantity of potatoes, second in quantity of hay, and third in horses and ponies--is under immediate and persistent threat.
The American Farmland Trust's report "Strategic Ranchland in the Rocky Mountain West" cites Gallatin County as having 544,640 acres of ranchland at risk for conversion to developed uses between 2000 and 2020, a 235% increase in the annual loss of land. This places Gallatin Valley in first place for the greatest acreage at risk in the 263 counties throughout the Rocky Mountain West surveyed by AFT. Park County fares only slightly better--its 386,560 acres are anticipated to shrink at similar rates, placing Park as having the 6th greatest acreage at risk (in fact, of the six most threatened counties, five are in Montana, and four--Beaverhead, Madison, Gallatin, and Park--are contiguous).
This region prides itself on a rich agricultural heritage, a heritage now imperiled by explosive population growth and land conversion. The loss is particularly acute in the areas with the greatest concentration of prime soils: near Bozeman, Belgrade, and in the Paradise Valley. Fierce competition from real estate developers and recreational buyers has driven demand for remaining agricultural lands sky high: the price of land rivals nearly anyplace in the country and is well beyond the means of farmers.
Small diversified farmers and ranchers producing product for local markets are still making a viable income from their operations: as much as $20,000 per acre in some cases. But what is at stake is no less than the heritage of our place, farming as a career and economic force, and our food security.
Conference Theme
To address this challenge and to move toward solutions, BORN has arranged for a mini-summit at Bioneers, where the leading voices in the local food movement in the area will congregate to reflect on the state of local food production and distribution and to project forward--proposing real-world solutions to move the effort in productive ways.
A Gallatin-Park-area local-food group, begun as a grassroots movement which has been meeting monthly since May 2006, calls itself LOCAL (Living On Community Agriculture & Lands) has adopted the following mission statement: "LOCAL facilitates local and regional production of healthy food, helps sustain local food production, and encourages the future of family farming in our area."
LOCAL has undertaken a "land-link" project to identify local landholders with productive lands who wish to move or to keep those lands in production, and to match those landholders with trained, capable young farmers. With Gallatin Valley Land Trust, BORN, representing LOCAL, has won a Montana Growth Through Agriculture grant to initiate this plan, and is awaiting results on more private funding to sustain the effort.
What You Can Eat
All the food served at Bioneers will be produced, grown, and or made in Montana. Ideally, we would use only food produced within 100 miles (as the standard radius of sustainable, local food) but we simply cannot source enough food from this area.
We extend the radius to roughly 250 miles, and we can supply the food we need. You'll note that lots of choices are not present (chocolate, I am sorry to say) and most food is seasonal (so there will be no lettuce, for instance, but winter greens instead).
What You Can Know
Please browse the informational displays throughout the conference space, and learn the stories of our food. Be informed, be upset, be enlightened, be empowered.
These are helpful links:
www.foodsafety.gov
www.foodandwaterwatch.org
www.100milediet.org
www.worldwatch.org
What You Can Do
Spend Wisely. Your purchasing decisions may be the most important ways you can act in this realm; purchasing locally raised meats from the Coop or fish from Montana Fish Company means you support their practices--and it means you do not support industrial-scale production models that supply chain stores.
Know Your Nutrition.
Give Your Time.
Give Your Money.
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