>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

ENTERPRISE — Twenty-six Wallowa County residents attended a recent meeting to implement a regional food security plan.

An equal number expressed interest in participating though they could not attend, said the plan’s creator, Angela Black

“Food security means taking control over the food we eat on a daily basis. But more importantly, it means ensuring that our communities can survive minor or major supply and infrastructure disruptions,” Black said.

“It is particularly important for isolated regions like Wallowa County, but given the entire country’s food supply structure, improving food security is really important for all Americans. So my intent is that this plan can serve as a prototype to be implemented elsewhere.”

The plan is structured to achieve a dramatic expansion in the local food production infrastructure over the course of one growing season by dividing the work load into a series of teams, while coordinating the efforts and needs of producers, consumers and retailers through an all-valley trade cooperative, with chapters in each town.

The teams are organized by subject area to broaden local biodiversity and develop appropriate technology, meaning small scale and low-fuel/power technologies.

“By the end of the growing season, we would like to have local heirloom seed banks with strategically selected cold hardy and medicinal varieties; a diverse set of heritage breed livestock; expanded food processing infrastructure; and multiple efforts to develop appropriate technology solutions, from biofuel production to draft horse power to microhydroelectric,” Black said.

The trade cooperatives will coordinate these efforts, while allowing producers to lower costs through bulk purchasing and develop retail venues for their products, Black said.

She is adamant about the need to get local products into grocery stores.

“As long as 90 percent of the county’s consumers are buying imports in the stores, we’ll never begin to produce enough food to serve everyone if supply lines are interrupted,’’ she said. “This isn’t just a matter of making a living, it’s a matter of survival, and we can’t just keep taking ‘no you can’t do that’ for an answer.”

She added that the trade cooperatives should be a partnership for the mutual benefit of all residents, retailers included, and that the cooperatives could work creatively to deal with regulations and ease the headaches that retailers face when trying to stock local products.

“It could be that the cooperatives rent backroom space from retailers and indemnify them from liability in order to get our small farmers into the stores again,” she said. “The cooperatives should also work to coordinate diverse harvests spread throughout the growing season and preserved through the winter. They can also coordinate accounts and billing functions, which are a main reason retailers go with one major distributor.”

Black writes freelance news articles and a syndicated column called “My Free Country” for the small acreage page of Capital Press and for the Wallowa County Chieftain.

She is author of the report “Farm and Freedom Friendly Policies for Oregon,” which recommends creating a blanket regulatory exemption for farm products sold in the farmer’s local area (http://www.cascadepolicy.org/pdf/env/200702_farm_and_freedom_friendly_policies_for_oregon.pdf).

The report was published by the free market think tank Cascade Policy Institute, where Black worked for five years, serving most recently as director of publications.

The Food Security Plan is a project of Freedom Solutions NW, a nonprofit freedom policy think tank that Black and her husband founded in 2003 to develop non-political means of advancing freedom. The primary goal of Freedom Solutions is to develop a network of independently run freedom-themed resource centers worldwide.

At Freedom Solutions NW, the Black family breeds livestock and family guardian dogs, teaches small-scale biodiesel production, promotes mycology (mushroom cultivation), participates in a home school cooperative and maintains a lending library of freedom-themed books, videos and how-to manuals.

Black said that other Freedom Solutions “outposts” might operate a Ham radio, hold educational workshops, host vocational apprenticeships or engage in a wide range of activities to promote self-sufficiency and spread freedom.

To get involved in the Food Security Plan, contact Black at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Additional information and updates to the plan will be posted to her blog site, www.angelablacksmyfreecountry.com.