Sustainability Essay

For my essay on sustainability in Athens, I chose to focus on the intricacies of the Athens area food system and its potential for sustainability.  Originally, the objective for this essay was to explore our local food system, in the context of sustainability, from the farmer to the dinner plate.  But, the more I learned about what makes a sustainable food system sustain, the more I realized I was persuading my audience to the Athens area food system was indeed sustainable, and had the potential to be a model system for similar communities throughout the United States.  For example, Athens is home to the 30-Mile Meal project.  This project was put in place to encourage vendors around Athens, such as Casa Nueva and Della Zona, to commit to purchasing food within a 30 mile radius of Athens.  By implementing this project with over 140 vendors in the area, local farmers have a steady demand for fresh, local produce that can compete with large supermarkets and distributors such as Walmart and Gordon Food Services (GFS).  In addition to local vendors promoting local farmers through marketing projects like the 30-Mile Meal plan, there are also organizations within the community that promotes local entrepreneurship within the food business such as the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet).  This organization rents out facilities and gives workshops on local entrepreneurship in order to strengthen the link between local business and local food.  In all, I concluded that the network of farmers, local vendors and restaurants, as well as the strong culture around promoting local food purchasing, Athens already has its foot in the door for becoming a model sustainable food system that other similar communities can admire.

            While Athens seems to be a golden city of sustainability based on my research of the local food system, numerous questions arose from this project.  Did you know that 1 in 6 residents of Athens County live below the poverty line and often do not have enough food to eat?  This fact may contradict my conclusion that Athens has a strong and sustainable food system.  If there is such a good network of farmers, markets, and vendors selling local food, why is the local economy allowing for 1 in 6 of its residents to live below the poverty line? This is a question that absolutely needs further exploration and the answer may not come from just one place.  Does the answer lie in the Appalachian culture, history of exploitation, or neither?  By exploring this food system and attempting to persuade my audience that Athens is in fact sustainable, these were relevant questions that came up that require further exploration and explanation.  If this contradiction within the local food system has not yet been explored or there is no established answer, then I encourage the rhetoric around this topic to create a conversation within the community on steps to better the Athens food system and eliminate this contradiction for the sake of progress.