Sustaining South Carolina Food Supplies
Workshop focus on getting local foods to local people
By Becky Billingsley
Sunday, February 7, 2010, Columbia – A workshop designed to educate and open discussions about how best to get fresh South Carolina foods in the stomachs of South Carolinians was held Jan. 29 in Columbia, and several ideas came out of the day-long event.
Held at the Downtown Hilton, the workshop was organized by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. In the morning a dozen speakers, including South Carolina Department of Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers, talked about why South Carolina needs a sustainable local food system and gave examples of some programs that are already in place.Commissioner Weathers said his department is focusing on the Three Es of local sustainable food supplies: Economy, Ecology and Equity. The total impact of local sustainable farming was $34 billion in 2008 and 190,000 jobs. But Weathers doesn’t just want to sustain the system.
“In addition to sustaining we want it to grow from $34 billion to $50 billion in the next 10 years,” he said.
During those presentations, the approximately 100 attendees learned that South Carolina has the fifth-highest obesity rate in the nation, and here in Horry County 65 to 69 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese, with body mass indexes of 25 or greater.
Getting fresh South Carolina fruits and vegetables would make residents healthier, the speakers said. Some of them represented elementary school-age programs where the students planted gardens at school and then ate or distributed the produce. At the University of South Carolina, the contracted cafeteria food provider listened to students’ desires and started providing more locally grown fresh foods.
Todd Bedenbaugh of the S.C. Department of Education said his main challenge to providing fresh locally grown foods to school children is cost. He said the average price of a school lunch in South Carolina is $1.60. Out of that $1.60, 89 cents is allowed for food (the remainder goes for labor). Of that 89 cents, 24 cents goes for milk, 40 cents is spent on the entrée and 8 cents is allowed for bread. That leaves 13 cents to spend on a ¾ cup serving of a fruit or vegetable.
Data was presented that showed implementing more locally grown farmer-to-table programs benefits population weights, the local economy, the environment and increases food safety since a local food supply is more easily traceable and accountable.After the morning session a lunch featuring South Carolina food products was prepared by Executive Chef Paul Cernansky of the Columbia Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The chef said he wishes it was easier to find South Carolina food products, because he would love to be able to make all of his banquets from local foods.
He served:
Beer Cheese Soup made with milk, butter and cheese from Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer and beer from Thomas Creek in Greenville.
Bibb lettuce from Sunny Creek Farms in Tryon, N.C.
Red Sails lettuce from Heritage Field Farms in Irmo.
Micro Greens from Tega Hills in Fort Mill.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes made with potatoes from Snow Hill, N.C.
Broccoli from Walter P. Rawls in Pelion, which was distributed by U.S. Foodservice.
Vegetable Lasagna made with goat cheese from Split Creek Farm in Anderson, leeks from Walter P. Rawls, and peppers from Heritage Field Farms. This dish was a crowd favorite.
Rosemary Chicken made with chicken from Wil-Moore Farms in Lugoff, and rosemary from the chef’s personal garden.
Pecan Pie made with pecans from Young’s Pecans in Florence (which was incredibly delicious).
After lunch the attendees broke into four focus groups that ran concurrently. The groups spent two hours finding ways to achieve:
- Making healthy locally grown and produced foods accessible to and affordable for all South Carolinians.
- Making small South Carolina farms economically sustainable.
- Overcoming challenges in food safety and food processing.
- Making sustainable local food supplies have beneficial effects on the environment.
Each focus group came up with three or four recommendations on their topics such as:
- Having more community-based farmers markets.
- Bringing local food production down to a neighborhood scale with community gardens.
- Involve schools, churches and civic groups in local food production and distribution.
- Implement food safety procedures for roadside markets.
- Supply more food processing facilities for small growers.
- Build economic stewardship among small farmers through incentives.
- Provide small farmers with their own health insurance program so they don’t have to have “day jobs” in order to provide their families with affordable health insurance.
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