Kay Williams Local Food Story: The Beginning

( I made this webpage ten years ago to share what I was doing then. 
My local food connections are not the same now, as several people have moved away.  )

true life story:
Deciding to vote with my dollars for sustainable and healthy food ways.

DECISION: 
I started with the desire - the inspiration really, to make this huge difference in the world by changing consumer habits.  I aspired to be an activist - but not the kind that lobbies congress.  I had come up with the notion that my own spending habits are the way I control our economy.  Granted, I am just one in 300 million - but in my positive imagination, I am part of a huge group of people who have decided to do the same thing - reduce destructive spending - and so I bring into myself the idea that this (spending) is powerful action.  I decided to buy organic and locally produced food.
I came up with the idea of The Homemaker’s Pledge.  This Homemaker's Pledge Card shows my “BIG IDEA” and my direction in taking charge of how I spend.  Lots of other groups I’ve seen on the internet use the idea of a pledge to change their routine spending and buy locally, sustainably produced food.  I agree with them. 
GROUP: 
I talked about this dream of mine with others.  I am lucky that I live in a farming area where progressive farmers have settled - people to turn to, to learn about farming and buy food.  These are the people who have been teaching me all about the high environmental and human health costs of factory farms,  genetically engineered foods, corporate agri-business - all that.  At the same time they showed me about progressive, sustainable methods like chicken tractors, organic CSA farming, and small batch meat from grass fed animals.
FALSEFOOD:

Genetically Modified Organisms 
Factory Farmed Meat - Egg - Dairy
Non-organic (chemical) farms
Artificial Ingredients (color, flavor)
Highly Processed
Shipped from unreasonable distance
SCORING:  To keep myself on track, I made a sort of game of my decision to change my lifestyle, complete with my own scoring system.  I keep track of how I spend, by always using my checkbook for food and categorizing those checks.  I use Quicken to balance my checkbook, so it is easy to classify the check as FOOD or FALSEFOOD, and then instantly look at my totals.  Anything like fast food or restaurant food and most things from the supermarket, since it is probably genetically engineered or factory farmed, is categorized as FALSEFOOD.
I categorize checks for both local and organic food as in the FOOD column.To replace supermarket shopping, we use Otherworld Food Co-op, home gardening (which my husband already did), also canning and freezing, (which I took up some), shopping for groceries with the organic label, we have joined a CSA, cowshares for milk, local meat and egg producers - money spent on these were the kinds of purchases I put in the FOOD column. 
FOOD:Groceries with Organic label
Local Producers - personal contact to see commitment
Community Supported Agriculture CSA
Whole foods, usually bulk ordered
Home gardening, home Processed
Cow Shares for real milk
LOCALITY: 
We live far enough away from any organic markets that the decision to buy organic was the same as the decision to start a food co-op.  There were enough interested people in our area to support the minimum order that Federation of Ohio River Co-operatives required.  We have put in an order every four weeks since June of 99.  I work as the co-op manager.
About one third of our members are food stamp recipients, so it was important to participate in the food stamp program.  We were accepted as retailers by the program by filing legally with the State of Kentucky as a non-profit buying cooperative.  It was not difficult to do.  E-mail and ask me to show the particulars if your buying club would like to serve food stamp members.
United Natural Food Inc ended up buying out FORC, so this is now the distributor who serves us.  They give us a useful software program to compile the order called Foodlink.  Because of the size of our order, we receive a 13 percent discount on all non-sale items.  When they notified me of that new discount, I was pretty excited to do something new with that. 
I made up these coupons as local currency, and I give back to the members the volume discount in this form. Several local producers accept the coupons as payments for their products.  I have been able to distribute between 150 and 300 local "dollars" every month, with the co-op order, which works as an irresistible incentive to the members to buy locally, and a support for the farmers, guaranteeing them sales from co-op members.
co-op prices                                   wild oats price
3.37        Muir Glen OG Ketchup       3.69
3.13        Ecover Dish Liquid       3.80
3.00  Red Hot Blue Corn Chips OG 3.59
1.76        Raisins OG per pound       3.49
5.47        Rapunzel Cocoa OG       5.99
2.26  Erewon OG Crispy Brown Rice 3.69
3.62        Ezekiel Bread OG       3.59
22.61                                         27.84
-2.00   Local currency rebate           
20.61                                                  

We had to form a co-op and order monthly because we are so far from any big-city stores that offer organic foods.  But even if I lived in the city now, I would want to be part of a pre-order co-op.  It costs more to buy organic, than conventional grocery prices, and big natural foods markets can be high.  Here is a list of just a few items at both prices, Co-op prices shown are marked up 10 percent over catalog price. Our prices are noticeably better. 
Another good reason to be part of a co-op is social.  Its a good way to get together with friends.  Our co-op meets every month, the night before the order is due, for a “splits meeting” and potluck dinner.  There we decide about splitting cases, on items that are only available by the case.  That way we don’t each have to buy 12 of something to get it.  The splits meeting is fun and the Foodlink software provided by United Natural Foods makes it easy to compile the group order.
Here are Todd and Sarah, of Sylvanus Farms, a certified organic CSA in our county, who brought produce every co-op day to be bought with local currency.  Our co-op also sells Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese which is made of raw milk from pastured cows in Barren County. 
I enjoyed being a CSA member, but my husband Greg felt deprived without a garden of his own.  Now we buy or trade for some of their vegetables to augment our own garden because the CSA does such a great variety of items, but for our staple potatoes, green beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers and squash, we can grow them ourselves.  Here he is mulching and planting our garden.
We are not vegetarian, and we especially aim to avoid factory farms.  We buy chicken from Willow Hills and beef from our neighbors Evelyn and Richard.  We bought a chest freezer, and over the years we have put in that freezer several steer, hogs, chickens, clean lard for pie crusts, lamb, plus vegetables from our garden.  Except for chickens, when I buy meat, I buy the live animal from the farmer, and the farmer delivers it to the meat processor.
Mattie from Fairplay Meat Processing phones me to ask how I want my meat cut.  A few days later, I go in and pick up.  I enjoy going to the processor.  She and her family have operated this business since the early 80's. They bring out on a hand truck a stack of crates filled with white wrapped packages of all cuts of meat.  I get to pile it in coolers in the back of my car and I feel rich as can be, coming home to put it all in my freezer. 
SCORES:
Here is my computer generated chart showing my personal grocery spending over the last ten years.  The 2005 totals are projected, based on the first 8 months.  Keeping track like this has been easy and fun for me since I was using the computer anyway to keep my checkbook  balanced.  1999 was the year we started the co-op.
The BIG PICTURE:  This is the picture of the deadzone that seasonally appears in the Gulf of Mexico.  This is a cumulative effect of all the Mississippi watershed. Seventy percent of waterway pollution is traceable to agriculture.  With more and more people adding their lifestyle change to mine, this unhealthy picture will change altogether.  I offer this report as an example of a personal solution for the global environmental problems of fresh water contamination.