Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 22, 2010
Signal Mountain Council first to pass Green Food Resolution
Stephanie Coward
Fifteen hundred miles.
That is how far, on average, food travels from farm to plate, according to Eartheasy.com, a Web site dedicated to sustainable living. Food can come into contact with a lot of unhealthy stuff, transferred both through the air and between humans, during a 1,500-mile trip – not to mention the pesticides and other harmful chemicals generally used in conventional food production.
In recent years, a sustainable living grassroots movement has been underway. Farm Sanctuary, a key player in the movement, has been campaigning for cities like Chicago and New York City to pass green food resolutions. The organization is still working on the larger cities and to date, one city in the United States has passed the
resolution.
On Oct. 12, 2009, the town council of Signal Mountain, Tenn., a city of approximately 7,000 people, passed the Green Food Resolution. This is the first of its kind and will serve as a platform for more ecologically friendly initiatives, according to Councilman Doctor Paul Hendricks. “We (the Council) just said that, ‘This sounds like something we feel good about,’ and next thing I know we find out we’re the first ones to actually pass it. So it’s brought some attention, which is good,” Hendricks said. “I like getting attention over something like this. Something positive.” It was Hendricks who, after reading a story about the resolution, written by activist David Cook, brought it up to the council in September.
Since its passage, Signal Mountain has made it onto several national news sites, to include a Dec. 28 interview with Hendricks in the Huffington Post’s Meatless Monday blog.
“The things that were attractive to me is No. 1, I know, having more plants in your diet is good for your health; fruits and vegetables, probably all of us should eat more of those. The advantages of the locally based agriculture are multiple – you’re supporting local people and small time farmers and everything, which I think are still important,” Hendricks said. Following a sustainable living process, even partially, decreases energy costs with transportation as well.
There are people right up on the mountain that have small community based farms that grow vegetables and some go to farmer’s markets and others contract with the farmers, according to Hendricks.
“The more you can do at a local level, the better,” Hendricks said. While still a firm believer in globalization, he does think that some local initiatives just make sense. “The idea of having to transport things thousands of miles when you can grow it locally, it’s just better.”
Because of the farmers on the mountain and in the surrounding counties, Hendricks is hoping that the resolution will lead to more sustainable living practices throughout the town. Implementing community gardens and a farmers’ market are two ideas that have been
discussed.
Community gardens allow residents who may not have very much land, if any, to lease a plot and grow their own garden. Hendricks already has an ideal spot in mind, if the garden idea comes to fruition. Signal Mountain recently received the deed to a 1926 elementary school that was closed about 10 years ago. The town has recycled the building into a community arts center. The Mountain Arts Community Center, or MACC, as the residents fondly refer to it, has ample land for gardens, Hendricks said.
Another idea is to start up a farmers’ market, probably in the area around the town’s recycling center. Hendricks said that the recycling center, on the town’s main strip, has become a gathering place of sorts for the town, and the location would be ideal for a market.
Hendricks and his wife, Snoda, moved to Signal Mountain in 1993. A “point in favor” of moving to Signal Mountain actually was the location of the recycling center. Hendricks, an active environmentalist since high school, felt that the town was making a statement with the center’s location. “When I saw the recycling center, I thought, ‘Wow, they’ve got this right on the main drag, right out in front where everyone can see,’” he said.
The environment was a large part of Hendricks’ platform when he ran for council. Through the years, Hendricks has continuously maintained a practical approach to environmental issues. “I’ve always been a big believer in getting out there and being practical,” he said. “We’ve come a long way in the environmental movement, we’ve got a long way to go. … You have to work with people.”
The resolution is something that is more of a statement of support by the council, and it can lead to action steps. “It sort of puts the council on record in this direction. And it also provides direction to staff,” Hendricks said. The passing of the resolution should also encourage the community to come forward with their ideas. “Some of the best ideas come out of citizens.
“One thing I’ve learned in politics is no matter how smart you are or think you are, or how good an idea you think you have, it can be hard to convince people and you have to bring people along,” Hendricks said. “And the more you tend to cram things down people’s throat, the more they tend to avoid it.”
Hendricks and his family practice sustainable living in their daily lives as well. His wife and daughter Mary Eliza maintain a garden at their home. This year, Hendricks said that he thinks they may have fed more animals than family, but that’s OK because his wife has innovative ideas for the upcoming season.
The family also utilizes the apple tree in their yard to its full advantage. The entire family, Hendricks, Snoda, their son Nathaniel and Mary Eliza, created apple preserves as Christmas presents one year, complete with homemade labels for the jars.
“Variety is a good thing, and if you can get people to convert from 100 percent purely processed to 75 percent or 60 percent (local food) over time, I think that’s a good start,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks maintains a blog about Signal Mountain that can be read at http://paulmhendricks.blogspot.com. To learn more about Farm Sanctuary and its sustainable living campaign, visit www.farmsanctuary.org.
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