The Lumberjack

Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Culture

Media Credit: Elizabeth Hilbig Dishes for the 250 mile potluck were organized on tables by ingredients, such as fruit dishes.

Media Credit: Elizabeth Hilbig Jyl Barnett (right), a volunteer with CAFF and Arcata resident, serves herself some sweets during the potluck.

Media Credit: Elizabeth Hilbig Olivia Braucher, a CCAT volunteer and oceanography/botany double major at Humboldt State, serves slices of local watermelon while Humboldt alum and Arcata resident Lindsey Clifford reaches for her slice.

Media Credit: Elizabeth Hilbig Dirty dishes and full bellies were all that remained at the end of the night.

The Chocolate on the chocolate-covered strawberries probably came from more than 250 miles away, but nobody seemed to care.

People at the second annual 250 mile potluck, at the Grange in Bayside on Wednesday, filed into the green building across from the post office, ate and left. Although there were a line of speakers, most people were there for the food and the principle.

Organizers set up the event differently this time. They directed all of those in attendance to the kitchen to layout food. There, on three long tables, were various dishes; from tomato slices, to egg loaves and fried sardines from Trinidad. Jeff Steuben, an organizer of the event and a Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) co-director said that the purpose of the event is to raise awareness about the things we eat and where it comes from.

For food to qualify, it needs to come from within 250 miles away. Bottles of wine sat at several tables, because 250 miles happens to be right in the middle of wine country. A woman with gray hair, in a white shirt and black skirt stood up from her table and called above the chatter of the room, "Does anyone have a cork screw, we have two bottles of wine at the table."

Her call for a corkscrew was not as controversial as the homemade blackberry wine in the kitchen. Three bottles of the sweet stuff sat on a table in there. Nobody doubted that the blackberries came from within 250 miles, but they did question the sugar.

This is bad news for anyone with a sweet tooth. In order to adhere to the 250 mile policy there can be no sugar, no chocolate, and no bananas. Yet Jyl Barnett doesn't think that's important. The event is a "symbolic gesture of what we're capable of," she said.

The bottom line is that there will be stuff that has to be shipped. Jacob McElderry, a 27-year-old of Arcata, says there is more to the equation. If local markets are not swamped by big corporations, the local market would open up for food that is grown locally. If more people bought locally, there would be a wider variety available, which is good for everyone. It is certainly better for the environment, but there are things that McElderry won't give up. "I love chocolate," he said, "I wouldn't want to stop shipping that around."

David Garrison can be reached at dlg32@humboldt.edu

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