Love of food brings Portlanders, farmers together

Local organizer creates an opportunity for Portland eaters to connect with the farmers who feed them

By Cathy McQueeney
The Portland Upside
February 2010

Michele Knaus coordinates the InFARMation (and Beer!) monthly gatherings to educate and build relationships between family farmers and the urban consumers of Portland.

Kelly Reese and Stephanie Turner are tightly wedged at a long table in the crowded community room of Roots Organic Brewery. They’re astonished at the number of people who have shown up for tonight’s monthly InFARMation (and Beer!) event hosted by Friends of Family Farmers. A diverse group is enjoying food and beverages while talking animatedly. Many gather at tables set up by Slow Food and The Oregon State Grange.

Permaculture design students, Kelly and Stephanie study with Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden. They have come tonight to learn about agricultural rules and regulations in Oregon and how they impact socially-responsible family farmers. Tonight’s guest speaker is Anthony Boutard of Ayers Creek Organic Farm.

Like many people in the room this evening, Kelly and Stephanie are interested in local food production, sustainability and food security.

“We’re learning how to take back control of our food sources,” says Stephanie, a 50-year-old Portland resident who is slowly transforming her landscaped yard into a thriving food forest.
“I want to do whatever I can to preserve my right to buy healthy, local food, and protect the rights of family farmers to grow that food.”

Indeed, the increasingly popular InFARMation (and Beer!) has attracted more than 200 people this evening, bringing together Oregon family farmers, urban consumers and the community in general. The topics change each month but focus on the issues facing family farmers and the connection between food and farms in our state. Attendees represent a wide range of interests, from consumers, chefs and farmers’ market managers, to new farmers, established farmers and individuals exploring the idea of growing their own food.

Just over a year old, InFARMation is coordinated by Portland resident, Michele Knaus, a former chef and restaurant owner turned food advocate and educator. She is also a grassroots organizer for Friends of Family Farmers, an organization working to promote and protect socially-responsible agriculture in Oregon.

A lively woman with short auburn hair and an infectious grin, Michele is “obsessed with good food and alternative food systems.” She appreciates the bounty of healthy and sustainable choices available to her in Portland.

“But if we want a guarantee that you and I will be able to continue to buy the meat, poultry, dairy and produce that has been raised to our standards by farmers with the same values that we have, we have to get involved with policy now,” she warns the gathered audience.

“Folks who live in urban areas are stakeholders in our state’s agriculture laws and policies, and we need to educate ourselves on what needs to happen to keep family farming viable now, ten years from now, and fifty years from now. When people talk about food issues, we want them to talk about food and farm issues.”

Michele developed an interest in local food and sustainability as a young chef in New Mexico, where she trained with Lynn Walters at the Natural Café. Walters exposed her to the concept of “farm to table” or buying directly from farmers. Michele next moved east to Nashville, Tennessee, where she opened Grins, a café on the Vanderbilt University campus featuring seasonal and local foods. She moved to Portland in 2006 and taught culinary classes at In Good Taste cooking school while earning a Master of Education degree at Portland State University, where she focused on Food System Sustainability.

After completing her degree, Michele joined Friends of Family Farmers, a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 which advocates for socially-responsible agriculture in Oregon. One of her first projects with Friends of Family Farmers was to develop a monthly event that would bring the sustainable farming community and the urban consumers of Portland together for meaningful dialogue. Thus InFARMation (and Beer!) was born.

It’s hard to get near Michele after the speaker has finished his question-and-answer session. She knows many of the people here and everyone wants a chance to chat with her and to express their enthusiasm for the evening’s meeting. Membership in Friends of Family Farmers is swelling, in part from successful get-togethers like this one.

I recognize firsthand that many new relationships are being forged as people mingle and talk about the ideas discussed tonight.

I’ve connected with Kyle Curtis, manager of the Montavilla Farmer’s Market. He would like to feature some of the produce from our small family farm. I also extend invitations to the permaculture students to come and visit. I hope to learn something from them as well as to share my own experience as a fairly new biointensive farmer. They are shocked at what they’ve learned tonight regarding the level of regulation under which small farmers have to operate and are surprised that so many things they’d thought “natural” or “normal” in a small farming community are actually illegal.

Tonight I also talk to some more established farmers who have offered me their expertise on seed saving and raising sheep. I’ve also made a date to discuss cheese making with a woman who wants to begin home-crafting her own goat cheeses.

Michele has been very happy with the response to Portland’s InFARMations.

“Many people understand ‘Eat local.’ But the next level to learn about is what all it takes to make that even possible. When it comes down to convenience versus conviction, having met the farmer and heard his or her story helps to push you more toward conviction. Bringing the farmers here and bringing the issues in from a different angle has been really helpful in putting a face on the issues. It also helps people connect with others in the community doing food-system related work.

“At almost every InFARMation I’ll see a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) urban farmer from the area talking to a farmer in overalls who drove two hours to get here. I’ll also see young urban people listening, taking it all in, and getting fired up. I get really excited seeing those connections made and light bulbs going off.”

Besides organizing InFARMation (and Beer!), Michele also coordinates the iFarm Oregon database which brings together retiring farmers and farm mentors with new or aspiring farmers. The database screens farm land for sale or lease, work experiences and investment opportunities and matches them to interested parties in order to best meet the needs and interests of a growing number of participants in Oregon and beyond.

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More information about InFARMation (and Beer!) and iFarm Oregon can be found on the Friends of Family Farmers website at http://friendsoffamilyfarmers.org Michele will happily connect with anyone who would like to contact her at Michele@friendsoffamilyfarmers.org

InFARMation (and Beer!) gatherings are the second Tuesday of every month at Roots Organic Brewery’s event space at 1530 SE 7th Ave., Portland, OR from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Cathy McQueeney owns Blue Flower Family Farm in the Willamette Valley where she raises Shetland sheep, a variety of chickens and fruits, vegetables and herbs using a sustainable, biointensive model. Contact her at cathymcq5@yahoo.com