Pamm Larry to Hold Food System Talk

Photo from Chico Enterprise-Record 8/19/2022

By KYRA GOTTESMAN | Correspondent

OROVILLE – The collapse of the food system and how to mitigate its impacts will be the topic of a talk hosted by the Butte County Local Food Network on Saturday.

The presentation by Pamm Larry, BCLFN director, is from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Riverbend Park, 50 Montgomery St. The event is free to the public and people should bring chairs, cold water and wear hats or bring umbrellas for shade.

“To be blunt, the collapse has already started but everything I’m reading predicts it will get really get bad starting in October and continue escalating next year with no projections when it will start to turn around,” said Larry.

Larry, who said she spends a considerable amount of her time studying the global, national and local food system, said while we won’t know exactly how bad the impact will be until September when the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases its end-of-season crop report, the early projections indicate the situation is “scary.”

“Some say food prices could double by the end of the year, for sure by next year with no end in sight. Other projections show prices could quadruple from 2015 to 2026 or 2030,” said Larry.

During her talk, Larry will cover the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that are still being felt; the impact the war in Ukraine is having on the world food supply; the effects of climate change — drought and unseasonal freezes; and the trickle-down impact of the increasing cost of fuel.

“Russia and Ukraine are the biggest producers of grain in the world, accounting for 40% of the world’s grain, and they’re at war. India, the biggest rice grower, is being impacted by drought. Locally and in Texas ranchers are selling off their beef because the cost of feed is too expensive. It takes four years to rebuild a herd so it’s not like it will be back to normal next year,” said Larry.

Larry will also be discussing how the food system operates including the time it takes for breakdowns to be felt by consumers.

“It takes about 18 months or so for problems in the food system to impact the market but, we’re already seeing higher food costs and some shortages and we’re going to see more of that particularly in animal products — butter, milk, eggs, beef etc.,” she said.

While Larry said she’s “frantic” about what’s happening and what’s coming, she’ll also be talking about the ways to mitigate the impact on a local level.

“I see what’s coming because I watch this kind of stuff. But we live in a unique place in the world because we have the capacity to grow food year round here. We can take care of ourselves. We can reach food sovereignty. We can just come together as community — support, mentor help each other. Instead of hording, we can share,” said Larry.

In her talk, Larry will discuss what people can do to help themselves and the community as the food supply worsens. She will talk about saving seeds, growing gardens, diversifying crops and other methods to “independently feed ourselves and our neighbors.”

The BCLFN, a nonprofit organization, has several projects in place designed to help establish food sovereignty locally. Among these projects are the annual spring Garden Blitz, a program that helps people establish their own gardens by providing pre-made raised garden boxes; Grown, a youth food literacy program designed to education children and youth how to be more food literate through growing in different settings and acreage from backyard, community and school gardens to Urban farms to larger farms; and the 1,000 Acres More Project, an initiative to provide resources to help people start their own gardens and register them with BCLFN to create a food network of 1,000 acres.

“Many things are in transition in our society and there is no blueprint for what’s coming but we have the capacity to achieve food sovereignty by putting aside our personal divisiveness and work toward the common goal of all of us thriving not, just surviving in these times of transition and change and to have some fun and meet our neighbors while we do it,” said Larry.

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