The Challenge is to develop a complete bio-regional Food system for central california which can serve as a model for creating such systems throughout the nation and the globe.

Why is it important to create a complete bio-regional system?

• For the health of humans and other life systems within the bio-region
• For the health of humans and other life systems outside this bio-region whose resources are currently being used to support this bio-region
• Because a bio-regional food system will require less transportation of all related goods
  Which will lead to:
  • reduced energy use
  • less required heavy transportation infrastructure
    Which will lead to:
    • less air, water and soil pollution
      Which will lead to:
      • Healthier life systems
      • Reduced health care costs
• A stable food supply during energy descent and beyond (note: it is important to realize that as petroleum becomes increasing scarce less energy will be available for human activities and while we can design more efficient uses of energy we cannot create energy)
• Food Safety - food which has been handled less (fewer hands, fewer containers) and which has not been mixed with food from around the nation and the world is statistically less likely to be contaminated than food which has been handled more and been mixed with other food from around the nation and the world.  This make a bio-regional/local food supply statistically safer from a food safety standpoint.  It can also be argued that it is safer because the producer is much closer to the consumer with respect to human interconnectedness (i.e. they live in the same or neighboring communities), therefore the incentives to produce safe healthy food are greater because the producer can actually be in communication with the consumer.  The disincentives for producing unhealthy, unsafe food are also greater because bad word of mouth could ruin the producers business.

Goals

• Produce 70% of the food for Manzanita Ridge's inhabitants at Manzanita Ridge, acquire the rest of the necessary food from sources within the bio-region.
• Research and implement a completely closed circle system ( in terms of physical resources) of food production and native forest restoration for central california. This closed circle system includes all products and waste products generated by the systems acting within the bio-region. I.E. composting organic wastes from grocery stores and restaurants to provide fertilizer for plants.
• Produce all the energy for domestic and farm needs on site using renewable energy sources.
• Utilize the organic waste stream from urban/sub-urban areas to provide food for plants and animals through composting and other innovative methods.
• Change regulations and laws in order to make a bio-regional food system viable. Two areas of regulation that are especially pertinent to this goal are food processing and waste disposal regulations.
• Redirect government subsidies and funding away from the current global industrial food system and towards networks of bio-regional food systems.
• Alter the diet of persons living in this bio-region to fit this bio-region. I.E. People eating peppers and carrots not bananas and mangos.
• Link urban and rural areas in all resource areas. Food and fiber come from the rural areas into the urban areas, organic waste products come back to the rural areas from the urban areas. Human labor is pooled between urban and rural areas to complete necessary work towards a sustainable bio-regional system. Human ingenuity, knowledge and experience is pooled between urban and rural areas to determine best methods and practices in all areas of human endeavor.
• Develop an understanding in both rural and urban dwellers that healthy eco-systems are the filters of the air and water. This is the same air and water that sustains and supports all our human endeavors.

Actions

• We have attained the first goal of producing 70% of our dietary needs (and wants!) from Manzanita Ridge and acquire another 20% of our food from sources within the bio-region. We are still sourcing 10% of our food from outside the bio-region. Action is needed in further changing our eating habits and desires to fit the bio-region in order to achieve the final 10% of this goal.
• Changes to regulations and notions of waste are needed to return organic wastes from grocery stores, restaurants, slaughter and food processing facilities to agricultural producers within the bio-region so that these 'wastes' can be 'recycled' into food, fiber and medicine.
• Changes to meat processing regulations which provide exemptions from certain USDA rules for small scale meat producers selling within a local area are necessary in order to make ranching and its associated support industries viable activities.
• Government subsidies must be removed from large scale corn, soy, cotton etc and invested in bio-regional food and fiber systems. These bio-regional systems will need incentives and funding to start up but will not require the long-term subsidies that our current food and fiber system requires.
• Education on and savvy marketing of food and fiber products from the bio-region must be carried out on an ongoing basis in order to educate people on why it is important both for their health and the health of ALL others to eat a bio-regional diet.
• Educate the public on the value of cooperation, healthy eco-systems and their effect on human and planetary health.
• Provide long-term economic incentives for the care of healthy resilient eco-systems which have the ability to produce human food while also acting as filters of air and water and providing wildlife habitat.

Solutions

Manzanita Ridge Water Pumping System

By Sean Kriletich on March 19, 2011 at 08:20 AM

Opportunities

No Opportunities have been added to this Challenge.

The following questions need research based answers in order to address the challenge and reach the stated goals:

Nutrition/ Human Health Science:
What is a complete diet of the Central California bio-region?  Of other bio-regions?

Natural Sciences:
How does forestland/ranchland/farmland interact with the atmospheric systems?
    to clean water?
    to clean air?
    to pollute water?
    to pollute air?

What are best management practices for food and fiber production that take into account long term human and planetary health?

What are the most effective methods of water pumping and using micro-hydro energy?
    How can effective methods of water pumping and use of micro-hydro energy be incorporated into the current energy grid?
    What kinds of incentives/education are necessary to get people with an available water energy resource to use these ‘alternative’ systems?

What are effective methods of range/farmland water catchment, infiltration and storage?

Social Sciences:
  What are the most effect methods/mechanisms of changing public opinion?
 
  How can people learn to value cooperation over competition?

  How can young people take leadership roles in the transition to sustainable human inhabitation of the planet?

  What barriers are preventing young people from taking leadership roles in our society and how can these barriers be dismantled or otherwise overcome?