Rural Life Gathering 2007!

Hope in Action II” – Rural and Urban Life Gathering

Gathering puts more hope for city and farm into action

Talks share local tools for economy, ecology, community
S peakers and participants from 4 states want to put the 2007 Rural and Urban Life Gathering – and our region – on a DIET.
This isn’t the sort of DIET we hate to hear about until after holiday sweets and treats are over. This is the sort of talk that will make us all feel fit, trim and ready to take on the world. D evelopment, Investment, Energy and Taxes affect every one of us, but they are usually left to specialists and experts. They affect diet, health, Security Ken Meter now and in the future – in every way. Speakers for this Gathering will share practical ways and exciting examples of how we can work together to control local diets. Data is power, as the old adage goes, or was that knowledge? Ken Meter, President of Crossroads Resource Center based in Minneapolis , uses both in local economic analysis to strengthen local economies. In 2001, Meter did a detailed study of theSoutheast Minnesota region farm andfood economy. This study shows one of the more successful farm areas in the nation loses $800 million EACH YEAR as farmers raise food and consumers buy food. This staggering loss of more than $2 million per day is 20 times more than farm support programs return to the region. Meter created original analysis of regional farm and food economies in the United Nations, used nationally as a critical tool in local food system development and regional investment. He facilitated innovative business development in inner-city neighborhoods, including Latino Mercado with 35 startup businesses. He also coordinated indicators definition for the City of Minneapolis Sustainability Plan , and created "Neighborhood Income Statement and Balance Sheet" studies that shift paradigms in economic development. Meter has developed a seminal analysis of local credit sources in rural areas, with policy proposals, and he has researched local farm and food economies in Iowa regions for

• D evelopment
• I nvestment
• E nergy
• T axes
• S ecurity

D iets don’t have to mean turmoil and deprivation – unless we wait too long to act. This is true for communities and regions, as well as individuals. Our planet is too small for us to wait any longer for good local diets. If we care about loved ones, and ourselves we plan our diet. We develop strategies for healthcare. We use our time and money wisely. We’re firm about what we need, what our health needs. We respect our limitations, use our resources wisely, provide true food security. We call people of the tri-state to the 2007 Rural and Urban Life Gathering to rethink our collective “DIETS,” our Development, Investment, Energy, Taxes and Security. We convene our Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University .Jack Kloppenburg , a UW Madison Professor of Rural Sociology; will give an overview of why local food systems are important and talk in detail about REAP, the Farm Fresh Atlas, the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch farm-to-school program, the Food For Thought Festival, and our new Buy Fresh, Buy Local Jack Kloppenburg Campaign, all in Madison , Wis.He serves on the Madison Community Gardeners Coalition board; is secretary for REAP (Research, Education, Action and Policy on) Food Group board; serves on BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium project advisory panel; and is a Regent Market Cooperative board member in Madison. He authored the award-winning First The Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology, 1492-2000, published in 1988 in New York by Cambridge University Press, for which he received the Agricultural History Society's Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award for best book on agricultural history in 1988; and Robert K. Merton Professional Award from the Science, Knowledge and Technology section, American Sociological Association in 1991. He is widely published and honors include 2000 Spitzer Excellence in Teaching Award, CALS-UW; 1998 Lightning Rod Award, Madison Community Gardeners Coalition; and a 1992-95 Pew Fellowship in Conservation and the Environment. Kloppenburg is affiliated with the Gaylord Nelson Institute, the Institute for Environmental Studies and UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.
Kendall Thu , a Northern Illinois University anthropological researcher, board member of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and member of the Illinois FarmerConsumer Coalition, will speak on ways research can partner with the local public sector as agents of change. Thu is a cultural anthropologist with a strong interest in applied anthropology, food systems, public and environmental health. His research focuses on the relationships between industrialized food systems, the environment, public health, rural social dynamics, and state power and policy. He hasbeen Culture and Agriculture Section president of the American Anthropological Association, served on the Central States Anthropological Society executive board, and is a Society for Applied Anthropology Fellow. Gathering with an invitation to people from both religious and secular walks of life. It’s an invitation to rethink relationships between food and all aspects of our lives, between farmers and consumers, between global issues and reasoned responses at home. We invite our tri-state region to reflect on our diets. We ask you to pause for a night and a day to consider how faith and public communities can help meet contemporary challenges to develop, invest and power positive change. We seek as an outcome one or more working groups to shape regional security for better, local “DIETS.”

What’s at Stake? For too long, development has meant those outside our region exploit and profit off hard work, wealth and natural resources. For too long, we’ve invested, consumed in ways that bleed local economies.For too long, determining energy to warm us, power us, transport us has been left to people distant from where we live. Resulting policies have shackled us to fossil fuels and profit-driven directions with costly long-term outcomes.Our taxes subsidize a future we know spells national and local vulnerability, even danger for generations to come. All means of food and fiber production are concentrated, centralized, large-scale, specialized. Essentials depend on transit across great distances and availability of non-renewable energy & fossil fuels. Entrepreneurship, business ownership and enterprise are stifled. Economic efficiencies enrich a few in every aspect of life at the expense of long-term security and health for the many. They receive unfair priority in every aspect of planning and research. Thus, we feel powerless and vulnerable.