Columbia Sustainability Partners

Steph Larsen at Grist.org has a good article about some of the often overlooked aspects of developing a truly sustainable local food economy.  Here in Columbia we are lucky to have grocers willing to stock some local food options.  However, this is likely not enough for long-term sustainability of the market.  Producers are subject to the whims of local buyers, which makes investment in the production operation risky.

It is my hope that within the year and with the City’s sustainability efforts real progress can be made to further develop the local food system.  My personal target is for at least one of the elementary schools to develop a menu that relies on the use of local foods.  The advantage of going with a school is that the needs are predictable, and many of the distribution avenues created may be scalable.

The Missourian has a story this morning discussing the efforts to allow Columbians to have chickens.  I totally agree with Adam that they seem to making this much more complicated than it has to be, and getting the permissions of neighbors seems to be a bit much and would likely only serve as an obstacle.

The Columbia Daily Tribune has an article up today about the last meeting of the Energy and Environment Committee.  The main topic was the determination of the duties of the forthcoming sustainability manager.  Sadly, I see no indication that there is any desire to push for the hiring of the position prior to the awarding of funds later this year, despite the allocation of funds for it in the 2009 city budget.  As its our mission to advocate for sustainability in Columbia, we can’t emphasize it enough that we ought to have a sustainability professional hired as soon as possible.