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What is Initiative Locally Grown?

The purpose of Initiative Locally Grown (ILG) is to raise awareness of consumers and promote a life style based on local, biodynamic high quality foodstuffs and health promoting habits. ILG is a non-government organization (NGO) and the members are consumers in and around Järna. The concept includes acting locally and concretely to increase the consumption of local organic and biodynamic products in Järna.

Why was this initiative started?

Järna has a long story of alternative activities. Biodynamic farming started in Järna in the 1940s in order to supply curative pedagogic boarding schools with high quality food. Biodynamic high quality food was a part of the successful therapy as was participation in work with gardening, agriculture, small-scale food processing and other handi- crafts. Initially, self-sufficiency in food was an important part of the economic base for the different pedagogic and social initiatives in Järna. As the whole country industrialized and food became cheap the economic motivation was lost, but growing ones own foodstuffs continued for “ideological” reasons. However this engagement has eroded during decades of the similar trends and those who started ILG felt that a new initiative was needed.

What happened?

The initiative started in the year 2000 as an economic cooperation. Among other things bags of local vegetables were sold to members in and around Järna and research about alternative food habits was carried out. After some time it was discovered that the initiative was competing with the local producers cooperative and that the formation of an economic association had been a mistake. For this reason the Board put forward a proposal to transform the association into a non-profit organization at the annual members meeting in 2003 where it was approved. The turmoil around these changes has resulted in reduced membership. It is down from 80 to today’s 50. However the new organization form makes it easier to apply for grants and campaigning for new membership has not yet begun. The research that was begun by the association was concluded by the BERAS project (Olof Thomsson)1_.

In 2003 ILG participated in an initiative together with the Biodynamic Association and Merkur GlobeNet3 (www.gn3.se) to hold an international conference with the theme “Global Monopoly or Local Possibility”. Invited speakers included Nicanor Perlas from the

Hans von Essen

1 _{Effective recycling agriculture around the Baltic Sea. Background report, Artur Granstedt,}

Filippines, Binita Shah from India (who reported from Uttar Anchal, a state in India that has taken a strategic policy decision to promote local and organic agriculture) and John Higson from Sweden (the pioneer behind the successful Farmers Own Market project in Sweden). This meeting also proved to be an arena for global level strategy discussions among people from biodynamic and organic agriculture, small farm- ers and other alternative movements. The meeting created many new bonds and inspired a similar development in France, which in its turn, through the Confederation Paysanne Europeenne (CPE) has inspired other countries in the Mediterranean region. It was also taken to Pol- and by Jadwiga Lopata and Julian Rose of the International Coalition for Protection of the Polish Countyside (ICPPC). The cooperation between the biodynamic and the small farmers movements in Sweden has been lively and creative ever since.

Another initiative of the ILG was with local schools. In 2004 a four day course for all preschool teachers in Järna was held. The course gi- ves inspiration, practical ideas on how to cooperate with a farm, experiences of obstacles and how to solve problems. This course was highly appreciated and has led to practical results. Among other things 19 five-year-olds from two pre schools come to Skillebyholm biodynamic farm every month for five hours and participate in work and play. This is an investment in building a ground for good food habits and for understanding how food is produced. Children, parents and teachers appreciate this. This project has also led to improved communication between different groups within the Järna community (mainly: anthoroposofists, other alternative groups and “traditional” Swedes). To keep motivation up and ensure that the activities will go on and continue to develop more education of and support to the teachers is needed.

A wall calendar for 2005 was developed. With beautifully coloured photographs, this calendar has recipes for every month based on food that is typical for the season and that can be brought from local produc- ers in most of Sweden. The calendar has been sold across the whole country and the edition of 1000 has almost sold out.

Plans for the near future include helping farmers to grow their own seed, promoting vegetables with especially good taste and helping consumers learn how to differentiate these specific tastes. There is a proposal to make Järna a GMO free zone. These activities will be carried out in collaboration with the small farmers movement.

Conclusions

The natural task of the local consumers organization seems to go in the direction of strategically selecting initiatives for promoting local high quality food. This is done out of a fingertip sense of what can awaken engagement among the members and what is possible to express clearly and concisely to non-members. The pre-school initiative, the wall calendar and other recent initiatives has shown that the board of the

ILG is able to identify and focus on projects where everyone involved has something to win and it has also shown an ability to go from idea to action.

A consumer who has the skills, the patience and the ability to both plan and improvise can combine local high quality (tasty and healthy) food, a satisfying and fulfilling life style and a significant positive effect on the environment – both increasing biodiversity and minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases and leakage of plant nutrients. The po- tential of this win-win situation is very big. The great challenge for ILG lies in the art of communication.

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