Help Preserve Local Farms

Have you ever visited a farm?

Would you like your children to see a real farm and to know that a carrot comes from the ground and not a plastic bag?

Would you like to keep San Diego green?

Do you want to support our local farmers and economy?

Rising land values and pressure from housing development in southern California have made it increasingly difficult for small farms to survive. Yet access to quality food is crucial to the health and well-being of our communities. Food now comes from farther and farther away—1500 miles on average—strung out on a tenuous food distribution system dependent on cheap oil.

This long-distance transportation chain requires that food be picked early, before the development of flavor and nutrition; refrigerated for days or weeks; shipped from grower to packer to distribution center to centralized warehouses and, finally, to your local market. This system has been called the agriculture-industrial complex, and it views food as merely a commodity.

Locally grown food is different. Fruits and vegetables are grown with taste in mind and picked when deliciously ripe and ready for eating, not for shipping. When you buy from a local farmer, nearly all the money ends up in his or her pocket, rather than going to middlemen or distributors. Most farms in San Diego are family-owned, and those families, in turn, spend their money in our community.

San Diego has an ideal climate, capable of growing food year-round, yet our local farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. To ensure a quality of life in our area for generations to come, we must make preserving local farms a priority and share the knowledge of food production far and wide.

San Diego Roots Projects

The Willow Glen Farm Project

San Diego Roots, along with other community partners, is in working to purchase a piece of property on the city's edge to function as a working, sustainable farm model and education center.

To learn more about Willow Glen Farm, click here.

To visit the Willow Glen Farm Blog, click here.

Terra Nova Garden at
Morse High School

For the last three years San Diego Roots has been helping establish and operate an organic garden at Morse High School in Southeast San Diego. Now, with grant funding from the San Diego Women's Foundation, a summer internship and school-year after-school program are underway.

To learn more about the Terra Nova Garden, click here.

Upcoming Events:

Open House @ La Milpa Organica Farm | Escondido

Saturday, May 17 @ 3pm

9928 Protea Gardens Road, Escondido California 92026
Potluck & Pizzas: 4pm-dusk; movie under the oaks after dark

The next monthly "third Saturday" potluck/open house at La Milpa Organica in Escondido is scheduled for May 17, a perfect opportunity to visit this little agricultural gem. Farms are nice places to hang out, and what Barry Logan has created here is a perfect example of how beautiful things happen when a community embraces a farm -- and a model of what we intend Willow Glen Farm to be. It's likely that there will be freshly made, wood-fired pizzas to eat, and after dark they'll show a movie under the oak trees. Rain cancels.

Slow Food Nation

August 29 - September 1, 2008
San Franscisco

The inaugural Slow Food Nation will take place in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend 2008, a time when produce is at its peak.  The event, a major project of Slow Food USA, has received the support of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office and the Fort Mason Foundation and will be held in partnership with both the City of San Francisco and Fort Mason Center.

Slow Food Nation will celebrate, explore, and educate about food that is delicious, ecologically sustainable and socially just – furthering “good, clean and fair food” according to Slow Food founder and visionary, Carlo Petrini. Slow Food Nation is expected to attract tens of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.

Slow Food Nation will show how food and agriculture are interwoven with the larger issues of the environment, health, education, creating community, the global economy and long-term sustainability. It will include tastings, forums, workshops, films, exhibits, music and talks by such luminaries as Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Alice Waters, Vandana Shiva, and Carlo Petrini, as well as hundreds of the most respected farmers and food artisans from across the country

For more information, including ongoing updates, visit their website: www.slowfoodnation.org