Food and Agriculture

Richard Larochelle

By 2030 Fredericksburg can be a national model of how a city can achieve massive benefits by successfully fostering local food and agriculture. This can be achieved through a vibrant, proactive and intentional local foods initiative that builds on what has already been accomplished in our wonderful City.

Fredericksburg already has several of the key elements needed for a robust local food system. These include:

• A thriving farmers market at Hurkamp Park as well as a number of farmers markets in the surrounding counties and several CSAs;
• The Fredericksburg Food Co-op that opened in April, 2021 after 5.5 years of community-based efforts and whose core values include prioritizing buying from local producers, giving local farmers a year-round venue to sell their products, and making healthy foods accessible to all;
• The recent purchase of 56 acres of greenspace by Downtown Greens which is planning to open an agricultural training center on this land;
• A successful community garden that has been in existence for years on the corner of Grove and Littlepage Streets and a new community garden that is being planned for a neighborhood off of Fall Hill Ave;
• Important relationships that have been built between local farmers and organizations committed to food justice and food access, including entities like the Table at St. George’s and the Virginia Community Food Connections (VCFC).

The time is ripe to build on what has already been accomplished, The benefits of local foods have been well documented by many. See, for example, “Ten Reasons to Buy Local Food”  from the University of Vermont. What is needed is an intentional focus on supporting local food production by: (1) supporting local farmers and (2) encouraging City residents to grown some of their own food. Such a local food initiative will bring substantial benefits to Fredericksburg, including:

Environmental: A focus on local foods is a key component in reducing our carbon footprint. The more local foods we consume, the lower will be our “food miles” – the distance that our food is transported from the point of production to consumption. Also, by supporting local farmers we will help them keep their land in agriculture and thereby foster a healthy balance between development and open spaces.

Health: Local foods can enhance the health of our community. They are fresher because they can be picked at their peak and harvested closer to the time of consumption. Local often tastes better and that fresh deliciousness encourages the consumption of more nutrition dense foods.

Economic: Purchasing from local farmers keeps our food dollars local. We can buy from a local farmer whose children are in the same elementary school as our kids or grandkids, rather than spending our dollars on products grown on massive corporate farms on the west coast, in South America or elsewhere. Also, according to studies by the American Farmland Trust, farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas most development contributes less in taxes than the cost of required services.  Why_Save_Farmland_1-03_1.pdf (pcdn.co) The economic benefits of local food production are substantial. Food is big business and localizing the food system can have major community wealth building benefits.

Food Accessibility and Justice: We can reduce food insecurity by intentionally facilitating, educating, and encouraging City residents in supplementing their diet with food grown at home or in a community garden, and by more proactively sharing information about the Virginia Fresh Match program that allows those with SNAP/EBT to get free fruits and vegetables at farmers markets and at the Fredericksburg Food Co-op.  Virginia Fresh Match. Get more fruits and vegetables when you spend your SNAP dollars at participating farmers markets. (leapforlocalfood.org)  That the benefits of reducing food insecurity are huge is clear from “An Examination of Food Insecurity and Its Impact on Violent Crime in American Communities”. The benefits include direct benefits to the individuals and families affected as well as to the overall community because of the correlation between access to healthy food and a significant reduction in community conflict and crime.

What specific actions and policies would help Fredericksburg to achieve these goals?

1. Access for everyone who wants it to a space to grow food within their own neighborhood. Proactively seek to identify open spaces including existing City-owned property and additional land that can be purchased or leased and where City residents can be allocated a plot of land (at least 10×10 feet) to grow a garden.
2. Increase education on “how to” succeed at backyard gardening and the financial and health benefits of growing one’s own vegetables and fruits.
3. Micro-loans and grants to existing and new farmers to start or expand their operations and proactively connect new and existing farmers to needed resources.
4. A commitment from City institutions, such as City schools, the University of Mary Washington and Mary Washington Hospital to purchase as much as possible from local farmers and to pay farmers a fair price for their products.
5. Support the creation of a non-profit farm in our region that would donate all or a substantial portion of its production to our Food Bank and local food pantries while also providing education on gardening and proactively helping neighborhoods start their own community gardens. This could be modeled on the successful Fauquier Education Farm that was started in 2010. (www.fauquiereducationfarm.org).
6. Continued support to grow what is already working – such as the Farmers Market, the Fredericksburg Food Co-op, Downtown Greens, the Table, VCFC, the Food Bank and others.

These are just a few ideas. We can learn much from other communities that have successful local food initiatives. One example is King County, Washington that, through a variety of programs and partnerships supports the promotion of “sustainable farming by using underutilized land and transforming it into vibrant community spaces that can generate ,,, food and income for growers.” Our vision is that by acting intentionally, the Fredericksburg of 2030 will be a model of successful local food initiatives that enhance access to healthy local food for all while reducing our “food miles” and our carbon footprint.