Ecotrust's Food & Farms Program
Overview
How many of the foods that you eat are grown on local farms? (Photo by Andrew Daddio)
Ecotrust works to create a vibrant regional food system where sustainability is the underlying value of the mainstream food system — the norm rather than the exception.
Food & Farms Friends
The Food & Farms program enjoys the support of numerous private philanthropic organizations as well as corporate sponsors. We’d like to extend a special thank you to the following Friends of Food & Farms.
Annie’s, Inc.
Burgerville
Cooking Up A Story
In Good Taste
Kettle Foods
New Seasons Market
Olsen Family Vineyards
Organic Valley
Organically Grown Company
Stahlbush Island Farms
Truitt Brothers
For more information on our corporate sponsorship opportunities, please contact Deborah Kane or Ericka Carlson.
Make an Individual Donation to Food & Farms
Individual contributions also make our work possible. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution directly to Ecotrust’s Food & Farms program.
Telling Our Story Through Video
Thanks to a partnership between Ecotrust and the Portland-based film company Potter Productions, Inc., food and farming stories come to life through Cooking Up A Story. Cooking Up A Story, Potter Production’s online television show, is about real people and their special connections to food and sustainable living. The stories are shot unscripted and are told in the voice of the subject. Click here for Food & Farms videos.
Food & Farms Key Objectives
Our key objective is to improve public understanding of local agriculture and increase the market share of locally grown food. Whether by introducing a farmer to a chef or a local food processor to a school procurement manager or a consumer to the pleasures of eating with the seasons — we make connections that result in positive change. Our work creates a sense of place and a taste of home. Our key initiatives include:
Farm to School
We’re thinking outside the school lunchbox by helping districts in our region source local, seasonal, sustainable products for the lunch line. For this we’re called a "Benevolent Broker." We also provide respected research of on-going programs, conduct systemic tracking of the growing "farm-to-school" market, and advocate for policy changes that support better school food. As the Western Regional Lead Agency for the National Farm to School network, we also support our colleagues working on garden-based education and healthier lunchroom options. For more information, click here.
Edible Portland
Edible Portland, Ecotrust’s award-winning quarterly magazine, is part mouthpiece, part soapbox and all celebration of the local, seasonal foods that abound in our region. Edible Portland is available in our lobby, at advertiser locations, and at select distribution spots throughout the greater Portland-metro area. Want to be sure you get one? Consider a subscription and we’ll deliver Edible Portland to your door.
Guide to Local & Seasonal Products
Well-used, dog-eared copies of the Guide — used to both buy and sell product — have become an indispensable part of doing business for producers and buyers alike. For the first time ever, the 2007-2008 version of the Guide includes listings for school food service directors. For more information or to order your copy, click here.
Market Connections
Whether by introducing a farmer to a chef or a local food processor to a school procurement manager — we make connections that result in positive change. Our market connections work is often as involved as a multi-day conference geared toward creating business relationships in specific sectors, or as seemingly simple as introducing two key players to one another, knowing that change often happens one handshake at a time.
Building Local Food Networks Toolkit
Ecotrust’s new toolkit synthesizes many years of experience building local food networks in the Pacific Northwest. Interested in hosting a "Farmer-Chef Connection" inspired event in your area? The toolkit and interactive learning community assist organizers by fostering peer-to-peer exchange of ideas, questions, and lessons learned around the topic of building local food networks. Learn more here.
Special Events
From Michael Pollan, to Michael Abelman, to the Portland Thursday farmers’ market and standing room only conversations about issues such as genetic engineering or feed crops being used in biodiesel production, numerous authors, lecturers and organizations frequent Ecotrust’s Natural Capital Center for thought provoking conversations and dynamic events. To make sure you are invited the next time we host a spicy debate or run-of-the-mill educational presentation, please sign up for our mailing list, Ecotrust Food & Farms Updates.
Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions
Look for a list of at-risk foods in Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions by Gary Paul Nabhan. It may be counterintuitive, but the best way to conserve these at-risk foods may be to eat them!
Vivid Picture Project
Tasked with creating a change agenda for a sustainable food system in the state of California, Ecotrust developed a comprehensive vision that provides energy and direction, has more winners than losers, reinforces sustainability values, and appeals to a large number of people and organizations that are vested in the outcome.
