No Slow Food Without Farmland April 23, 2008

No Slow Food Without Farmland
Please join us for an evening exploring the critical link between the outstanding foods we buy at our local farmers’ markets and enjoy at restaurants, and the ongoing challenges of land-use planning in the metro area.

Jim Johnson, Land Use Specialist at Oregon Department of Agriculture and Mary Kyle McCurdy from 1000 Friends of Oregon will lead us in a discussion of these issues and explore some new and innovative techniques that might help us better protect our fertile local farmland. Both Jim and Mary Kyle have been working to protect Oregon’s farmland for decades and their experience will provide a background and help us better understand the character of the diverse and valuable farmland surrounding the Metro area. Land use planning in Oregon has done a good job of slowing development on farmland but none of this valuable land is actually permanently protected.

We are fortunate in the Willamette Valley to have some of the best farmland in the world. In particular, the farmland along the edge of the Metro area provides some of the most incredible food in the region – fine wines, beautiful berries and bountiful produce for our farmers markets. Growers like being close to their markets, we like eating as local as possible. The Urban Growth Boundary has slowed the rate of development of that farmland, but it has not stopped it. If we want to keep eating local what must we do to protect this essential resource?

Date: Wednesday, April 23
Time: 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Place: Ecotrust, 721 NW 9th Ave # 200, Portland, OR 97209
Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members
RSVP: [email protected]
www.slowfoodportland.com

Official Website: http://www.slowfoodportland.com