Can Roaring Fork residents produce all of their own food? It’s a dream, but it may not be a fantasy.
By Trina Ortega
Carbondale’s    100th Potato Day conjured up images of days long gone — a time with fewer people and wide open spaces; a time when living off the land was the norm. Even as little as 50 years ago, no one
doubted our ability to feed ourselves through local farming. Now, however, some say that — given the population growth and available land and natural re- sources — we cannot sustain ourselves in the Roaring Fork Valley.
If more and more residents make the effort to eat locally and jump on the “loca- vore” wagon, would we have enough food?
Ask the “new age” farmers, gardeners and ranchers, and they’ll say there’s hope if individuals choose locally raised grass-fed beef, start garden programs in schools and neighborhoods, and purchase food at local farmer’s markets.
“I think the fact that in WWII Victory Gardens people grew 40 percent of the produce for this nation’s consumption gives us an idea of just how sustainable home and community gardens can make a
town,” said Illène Pevec, a community gar- den advocate whose work includes helping schools acround the globe establish garden programs.
Pevec says Carbondale’s high altitude does require a means of extending the growing season, but this can be accomplished with hoop houses, green- houses, and other means.
“We need to give up the idea of sod lawns that soak up water and very often pesticides,” she added. “We need to give that earth to growing food for our families.”
Pevec rejoiced when Roaring Fork High School launched a garden program and sustainable agriculture class this fall. With help from the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and Fat City Farms, on Sept. 14, she joined 52 students in planting a keyhole garden.
The RFHS program, an agriculture class at Yampa Mountain High and the well- known, longtime program at Col- orado Rocky Moun- tain School are “huge steps toward having young people begin to be able to think with con- sciousness about the food they eat and knowing where it comes from,” Pevec said.
The students are just some of the Carbondale residents who are harkening back to the town’s agri- cultural roots. A group of citizens is asking the town trustees for space at the Carbondale Nature Park (Delaney open space) to establish a community gardening; small property owners are providing space for neighbors to garden; and town committees are constantly barraged with input stating we need more garden space.
Additionally, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and farmer’s markets are thriving, and the Carbondale Food Co-op- erative is considering expanding into a neighboring retail space.
And local beef producers, who take the extra time to raise grass-fed cattle for con- sumption, say demand is increasing.
Felix and Sarah Tornare own 87 acres on Missouri Heights, where they raise be- tween 80 and 90 head of cattle. Felix de- scribes their venture into raising beef as a “spoof” — they needed cows to train their cutting horses. They figured, “why not feed the cows and keep them?”
Tornare is from Switzerland and he immigrated to the U.S. 27 years ago to help his brother open a bakery in Aspen. He continues to run the widely popular Louis Swiss bakery in addition to operating the Milagro Ranch.
Without a ranching background, Tornare said they had to learn quickly and be willing to make mistakes but local chefs, including Ryan Hardy at Montagna at The Little Nell in Aspen, and Mark Fischer at Six89, have helped them raise just the right cow — a calorie-efficient and small Austrailian Lowline.
“They’re buying local and they know what we feed them,” Tornare said, adding that    restaurants    buy    the    whole    animal. “It’s hard for them, too. They have to change the menu. But they’re not afraid to change.”
From rib eye and tenderloin to short ribs and tri-tip, Sarah adds that a good chef knows how to prepare the cuts.
It takes the Tornares 20 to 28 months to raise a grass-fed cow. The Tornares point out that, in contrast to current USDA standards — which require that a cow be fed grass 85 percent of its existence to be labeled “100 percent grass fed” — the Tornare cattle eat only grass. Nor do the Tornares use hormones, steroids, antibiotics, coloring, or other additives.
Felix says consumers are beginning to understand the value of a higher quality product. A higher cost for food reflects what it takes to produce it, agrees Brook Le Van, who runs Sustainable Settings south of Carbondale.
“We have a perception that food is cheap, and food is not cheap,” Le Van said.
When you factor in the cost of land, feed, animal, time, staff and actually making a living, a dozen eggs costs $7 at Sustainable Settings. And Le Van has no qualms about paying a farmer a white-collar salary for his or her product.
Prices for locally raised, truly free-range eggs vary locally, but there is no compari- son in price to the $1.20-a-dozen eggs at the local chain grocery store.
An equation for sustainability
Le Van and accountant Malcolm McMichael co-authored a study in 2007 that evaluated available land, population and resources in the Roaring Fork Valley. They estimated that to feed 10,000 people, the valley would need 6,500 acres of irrigated land and another 84,000 acres of summer range for cattle.
That’s a lot of land. But despite a lack of acreage, Le Van believes individuals can make a difference – starting with the pur- chase of local organic produce and meats. If you can’t do that, buy local. If it comes down to a third choice, buy only USDA certified organic, he says.
“We have to start investing in local food systems, as individuals, as philanthropists, as investors,” he said, referring to the Woody Tasch book “Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered” that encourages consumers to spend 50 percent of their assets on products, services and businesses within 50 miles of their home. To be sustainable, Le Van says the valleywill need: • Dairies/creamery/cheese-maker • An abattoir/meat processor/sausage-maker • More produce growers • A community kitchen • Food preservation and storage/root cellars • Greenhouses (and not have it count toward the square footage of your house as it does in Pitkin County) • Granary/gristmill • Hitch and post/livery Le Van believes people would want to do those jobs. He is designing a dairy, and he and wife Rose train farmers to raise their own crops and animals. Sarah Tornare echoes Le Van in stating that consumers have to re-educate themselves. “We’ve gotten so lazy in this soci- ety. We are such a throw-away society,” she said. “In this country, we’re spoiled. Food is very cheap.”
Agriculture is also hard work, not just as a rancher, says Felix Tornare, but as a salesman and a businessman, too. But it’s the right thing to do, he adds.
And for Pevec, it’s basic: “Once children understand how important and miraculous a plant that feeds us and animals is, and how to tend and nurture its life, I think we will see an end to much of the environ- mental degradation that industrial agriculture causes: rivers polluted with chemicals, thousands of miles of dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from Mississippi River run off, loss of soil erosion to wind due to over- plowing, animals filled with antibiotics and hormones.”
She considers it a “milagro,” or miracle.