viewpoint
BY DAN ARMSTRONG
Reversing the Trend
Or, what’s up with beans and grains?
T
he concept of relocalization as a
response to peaking oil production
and climate change is by now
relatively well-known in Eugene. In the
simplest sense, it’s a decentralization
strategy aimed at diminishing our carbon
footprint. But what exactly does that mean?
Aside from the advice of the oft-repeated
slogan “buy local,” how does a community
or region go about relocalizing?
One answer is to reverse the trend
of the last 50 years of building sprawling
suburban neighborhoods. Shortening
commuter distances and building effi cient
mass transportation systems are a part
of the strategy. In Lane County, however,
relocalization begins with the farmland and returning to an agrarian regionalism
aimed at reinvigorating our rural communities and rebuilding our local food system.
Growing beans and grains is one way to get there.
Fifty years ago, the Willamette Valley agriculture was known for its production
of fruits and vegetables and a sizeable winter wheat crop. The valley contained
more than 50 fruit and vegetable canneries, and it had the infrastructure to mill
and store signifi cant amounts of wheat. Over the last 30 years, the dynamics of
globalization have changed that. Because grass seed gave the greatest return per
acre on the global market, the largest farms in western Oregon stopped growing
wheat and focused on grass seed. The south valley became the “Grass Seed Capital
of the World.” Wheat became a secondary crop. Fruit and vegetable production was
reduced. The grain mills and silos were gradually abandoned. The canneries can
now be counted on one hand. A working food system was given over to the grass
seed industry, and a region that once had considerable capacity to feed itself, now
imports more than 95 percent of its food.
Relocalization calls for reversing this trend by returning to a diversifi ed farm
model and rebuilding the lost food system infrastructure — canneries, grain storage,
distribution sites and mills. Instead of prioritizing production for the global market,
we use our foodshed (the valley) to grow to the needs of our populace, then, if
there is excess product, it goes out to the regional and then the global markets.
Not only does this strategy make sense ecologically, it also answers to local food
security issues, diminishes the distance food must travel from fi eld to dinner table,
and offers the potential to invigorate the local economy and create jobs. This is
exactly why we would want to relocalize.
The Willamette Farm and Food Coalition in Eugene and the Ten Rivers
Foodweb in Corvallis are two nonprofi ts focusing on this relocalized food model.
The Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project, the brain-child of Corvallis
organic farmer Harry MacCormack and supported by both these nonprofi ts, is at
the center of this work. For almost four years now, the Bean & Grain Project has
been working with valley grass seed farmers to fi nd alternatives to grass seed
production and encourage smaller farmers to experiment with a variety of beans
and grains, hoping to fi nd good fi ts for our valley and its climate.
Soft wheat is the most obvious choice, since it has a history in this valley, but
hard wheat, barley, oats, rye, fl ax and buckwheat are also crops local farmers are
familiar with growing. Along with the dry beans, other grains and edibles seeds
like teff, millet and quinoa are also being explored. Hard red wheat, garbanzo
beans and lentils particularly have shown early success in what is really a ten-year
experiment to bring our food sources closer to home.
Why the focus on beans and grains? These are staple crops. Beans and
grains make up something like 80 percent of our diet. If we are going to rebuild
our food system, it makes sense to start with these staples. They can be dry
stored for several years, grown with modest amounts of water, and the beans
fi x nitrogen in the soil and make an excellent rotation crop for wheat and other
grasses. For the consumer, beans and grains bought in bulk are relatively cheap.
Add the infrastructure to process beans and grains and you have a foundation for
rebuilding the rest of the food system.
The bean acreage is still quite modest, but wheat acreage has climbed from
a 30,000 acres in 2006 to more than 200,000 today. The Green Willow Mill in
Brownsville has opened and this spring Camas Country Mill opened in north
Eugene. Another mill is planned for the Corvallis area. All are offspring of the Bean
and Grain Project work.
The consumer’s part is to support the farmers who’ve had the courage to take
the fi rst step. Make a conscious change in your eating habits. Buy local beans and
grains and learn to cook with them. You can fi nd them at Hummingbird Wholesale,
the Lane County Farmers’ Market, the Springfi eld Farmers’ Market, and — if they
aren’t in your local grocery store, ask for them.
For the complete story go to http://wkly.ws/d2
Local writer and localization activist Dan Armstrong is the author of Prairie Fire. He was featured as an EW
“Happening Person” Sept. 3, 2009. See Activist Alert this week for a Bean & Grain Project event Aug. 23.
4
AUGUST 18, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
letters
TO THE EDITOR
WE STRUGGLE ON
“What are “human rights” in our
present time?
In Oregon, there is no institutional
racism or sexism, unless you count the
religions, several of which make sexism
a “gift from God.” While there are those
who fi ght racism and sexism battles on a
individual basis even today, government
and business must respect human rights as
regards skin color or gender.
It is my impression that the average voter
would vote against giving human rights to
others based on poverty. They would say
there are rich and poor and that will never
change…that there is no human right to a
public shelter if you are homeless, or a right
to a job if you cannot fi nd a private company
to hire you. If Eugene/Lane County has no
public shelter system and you are destitute
and sleeping in the weeds, that is not their
problem. Suck it up and die like the poor
have always died, with platitudes of the rich
ringing in their ears.
If the very poor have no human rights,
then neither do the rich and powerful. If the
law doesn’t do much of anything for those
without anything or anyone, except perhaps
give arrogant assessments of their character
via the downtown police, then the law is
more than an ass, it is illegitimate. If we are
not at least struggling to hear the voices of
the poor and the lost, then our own voices
are not worth hearing. And if human rights
efforts don’t work for the economic and
social needs of those in the weeds, then they
are just another co-opted series of meetings.
I look at the past and despair for the
future. Some warlord thousands of miles
away gets the human rights; our poor get the
weeds. The Eugene police get a “Country
Club” palace of a new building, the poor get
… hopelessness, unless you think the timber
jobs are coming back. Or that you think the
hearts of those in power will open to the
concept of real human rights for the poor.
Hugh Massengill
Eugene
WHITEAKER LET-DOWN
Maybe I’m just not cool enough to live in
this neighborhood — still walking on broken
glass, dodging dirty syringes in the street
(and my mailbox!), and covering my nose as
I pass by the heaps of garbage left over from
the Whiteaker Block Party (besides having
had to hose down my yard several times to
clear away the smell of human excrement
left behind after partygoers ripped my fence
apart looking for a restroom).
I thought this neighborhood was known
for being “progressive,” “green” and
“artsy.” I’ve lived here less than a month
(and maybe we got started off on the wrong
foot with the BP leaving a bad taste in my
mouth) but thus far the Whit has been a big
let-down full of pseudo-intellectual, angry
drunk/junked-up burnouts dressed up as
“hippies” because, well, it’s hip!
This neighborhood does not have soul,
nor a single original idea coming from
it. It’s simply a collection of burned out
assholes calling themselves artists because
they’re too lazy and stupid to get a real job.
Go back to Los Angeles, a-holes!
Julie Bonaduce
Eugene
HYPOCRISY
I appreciated the cover story (8/4) that
brought to light the consequences of sex
traffi cking, but was disappointed to see yet
again the classifi ed ad for “dating services”
with a thinly veiled offer of prostitution.
The well-written article made it clear that
prostitution is not a victimless crime. How
do you reconcile allowing the ad?
Thanks for thinking about it.
Lisa Fincher
Eugene
CUSTOMER DISSERVICE
Regarding “Problems with the ’PUD”
(8/11) I found this article to be interestingly
appropriate as I have just endured several
consecutive months of extremely poor
EPUD customer service including being
held responsible for my landlord’s (illegal)
auxiliary “clubhouse” bill. Also I recently
attempted to fi nd out the actual billing cycle
dates for my own rental. I have seldom if
ever been on the receiving end of such
nonsense as I have experienced from EPUD
“customer service” (dis-service probably
should be being spelled “DISS” service!)
both in person and on the phone including
being told that they cannot provide the
billing cycle dates unless I come in
and “identify” myself (not accepting that
I have the service address and my account
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