Buying Local: Community Preferences for Local Food
By Sustainable Solano
What does “organic” mean to you? How about “local”? How should farmers and other food producers communicate the direct benefits of local food to communities?
These labels and their interpretation have been part of ongoing research around consumer habits when it comes to food purchases, and most recently are part of a study by UC Davis in partnership with Sustainable Solano here in Solano County. This study’s preliminary findings for Solano residents and consumer behavior in general around local food were part of a recent presentation and forum hosted by the Solano Local Food System Alliance.
The Solano Local Food System Alliance is dedicated to supporting an environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially just and equitable local food system in Solano County. The Alliance brings together a variety of stakeholders, organizations and agencies that work within the local food system, from producers to retailers to food access providers. An important part of the Alliance’s work is education. It holds regular educational forums to learn more about topics that intersect with the local food system.
On April 9, the topic was about what leads consumers to make purchasing decisions around local food. For example, information alone won’t make a difference in buying habits, but experiencing freshness does. So increasing access and opportunities to experience local food can lead to increased purchases.
Alliance member and UC Davis professor Kristin Kiesel and PhD student Hyunjung Lee presented findings from surveys and a retail experiment that show what affects consumer preferences and purchasing decisions in the county. Sustainable Solano will use the research to shape marketing and messaging strategies that can increase community awareness about local food, farmers and food producers.
You can watch the presentation and discussion in the video below. Those interested can fill out this form to request the complete data analysis from the research when it is available.
You can view the slides from the presentation here. Due to some technical issues the slides in the video may be difficult to view. It may be easier for some viewers to open the slides separately while listening to the video presentation.
The spring garden tour will begin at 9 am at Avant Community Garden in Benicia with a talk on healthy soil from “CompostGal” Lori Caldwell. Itinerary pick up will be from 9-11 am.
An evolving food forest garden and greywater system installed as part of Sustainable Solano’s 2022-23 Permaculture Design Certificate course. Students transformed the front yard with a rain-capturing swale and planted berms with native and pollinator-supporting plants. The west side yard’s passionfruit vines and fruit tree guilds are watered by a laundry-to-landscape greywater system. The monarch butterfly-hosting back gardens were designed by Soilogical, nurtured with specially prepared compost, and supported by a Water Service Irrigation design created as part of a Sustainable Solano irrigation class. The site’s current steward, Heath Griffith of Grow with the Flow, cultivates edible landscapes with flowers and medicinal herbs, with an eye towards community engagement and ecological justice. An herb spiral was created with bricks repurposed from the chimney of the circa 1850s historic home, retaining walls were built from pieces of historic on-site stables, and patios were made from slate and brick on-site. The east side yard (in development) is watered with both a rain-capturing swale and a laundry-to-landscape system. Displays feature the historic aspects of the home; its background and ongoing tradition of art, design, and healing; information about the Ohlone Sogorea Te Indigenous Land Trust and rematriation of Carquin land; and various permaculture systems and landscape elements.
Visit this native plant garden and see what 30+ years of gardening dedication to native plants can create. Welcoming shade plants and green grasses abound under thriving and tall buckeye and big leaf maple trees that gain water from harvested roof rain flowing to a dry creek bed. A mature manzanita row lines the side yard walkway. Feel the intimate wildlife habitat backyard space as you find small birds flying between the branches of tall native shrubs such as the fragrant mock orange, red-blooming spice bush and the heart-shaped leaves of the western redbud. Sun-loving native perennials border a native grass lawn, and alum root hugs the shade of the understory. The owners are grateful for the relaxed and comfortable habitat that native plants provide for them.
The view of this welcoming tiered front garden begins right at street level with sidewalk appeal of a chaparral-inspired garden including evergreen manzanita, easy-to-grow buckwheat, and native grasses. Step down to the next tier to find a cozy deck space to sit within the garden and share the space with emerging caterpillars, hummingbirds and native pollinators as the seasons unfold. Tiered terraces and integrated drainage allow for meadow and sage, milkweed, and strawberry groundcover plantings to absorb stormwater while supporting plant health. View coffeeberry, monkeyflower, penstemon, and salvia which attract and support additional wildlife in this habitat-rich garden. Mature fruit trees, perennial edibles and vegetable beds combine with the abundance of native plantings for a harmonious full habitat that supports biodiversity and spills into the back yard as well. This garden family truly feels a calm connection with nature when they are in their garden space.
Come and visit this wild-like garden to gaze upon the beautiful annual flowering natives such as the yellow and white tidy tips and the purples of lupine in the front garden patch. Travel through the side yard of orange California poppies, stepping rounds and a dry creek bed that collects rainwater, to the large backyard garden that flourishes with a thriving tapestry of wildlife-supporting native plants. Verdant grasses and spring ephemerals surround a bird bath that California Towhees are happy to visit. Tall shrubs such as rosa californica or the keystone tree coast live oak have become safe places for nests of breeding small birds. Flowering colorful annuals are servicing the many pollinators such as hover flies and bumblebees that visit the flowers for pollen. This habitat refuge is where the family connects with the wonders of nature. The owner collects seeds of many native plant species to continue the annual flowering habitat year after year.
Loma Vista Farm is a program of the Vallejo City Unified School District in partnership with the Friends of Loma Vista Farm, a community-based nonprofit organization.
