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Rural Roots merged with the
membership organization, Updated June 2005 History of Rural Roots, Inc. By Colette DePhelps, Rural Roots’ Executive Director Rural Roots began as the Inland Northwest Community Food Systems Task Force in September 1997 following a series of farm and food system tours and a community food systems workshop sponsored by the Palouse Clearwater-Environmental Institute (PCEI), University of Idaho (UI) and Washington State University. At the community food systems workshop, participants went through an exercise of mapping out the current regional food system and then the food system as they would like it to be. With the map as their guide, workshop participants pooled their collective experience and identified priority actions to create their ideal food system. They then decided to form the Inland Northwest Community Food Systems Task Force with the purpose of connecting people in eastern Washington and north Idaho interested or working in food and farming systems. The task force leadership team included 2 people from UI and 2 people from PCEI. The workshop’s priority actions provided the first road map for Task Force’s community food system and small farm work. Between September 1997 and March 1999, the Task Force focused on creating educational opportunities for beginning and existing small farmers in the region and for citizens interested in creating and supporting local food systems. These activities included farm tours and on-farm workshops, classroom workshops, Bringing Home the Harvest Newsletter, a web site and list serve, and a regional small acreage farming conference. They also researched and organized a shared-use commercial kitchen network in Kootenai and Benewah counties and assisted with Eating on the Palouse dinner series and a workshop which highlighted locally grown food in the Moscow – Pullman area. During this time, the Task Force met about three times a year at the Kootenai County Extension office in Coeur d'Alene. In the fall of 1998, the Task Force decided to become a membership organization, and in the winter of 1999, adopted the name of Rural Roots: The Inland Northwest Community Food Systems Association. Non-profit fiscal sponsorship for Rural Roots was provided by Pay Dirt Farm School, Inc. (Pay Dirt was organized and incorporated by Mary Jane Butters of Paradise Farm Organics). Members agreed that Rural Roots needed to focus on the regional food system and involving and meeting the needs of both consumers (non-farm community members) and small acreage farmers, ranchers and market gardeners. The Task Force’s purpose and objectives formed the foundation for Rural Roots vision, mission and goals. By the end of summer of 1999, Rural Roots’ leadership team had transitioned to a farmer-community member team with agency/institutional folks becoming leadership team advisors. Rural Roots members saw this transition as an important step to grounding the organization in the community it formed to serve. The Rural Roots Leadership Team members and staff provided programmatic direction for the organization and helped to plan and implement Rural Roots’ activities. They took direction from Rural Roots members and meeting participants (whether or not they are official Rural Roots members) and sought to build collaborative relationships with other small farm organizations in the region such as Spokane Tilth, farmers market associations and the NE Washington Small Farm Association. To make Rural Roots meetings available more to farmers and community members, the Rural Roots Leadership Team decided to rotate meetings between Spokane, Moscow, Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene. At these meetings, participants discussed and planned Rural Roots projects and activities. In the fall of 1999, Rural Roots members identified marketing and small farm economics as a high priority for Rural Roots work and launched several new initiatives which ultimately evolved into the annual Farm Fresh Buying Guide and on-line Find Farm Fresh Food Directory. In the year 2000, Rural Roots’ Leadership Team, staff and members worked hard to clarify Rural Roots vision, mission and goals and to garner funding to support research, educational and marketing activities that would move the organization towards its vision. Between 2000 and 2004, Rural Roots partnered with local universities and regional sustainable agriculture organizations to create the Cultivating Success: Sustainable Small Acreage Farming and Ranching Education program; coordinate the Washington / Idaho Partnership 2020 Sustainable Food Systems Initiative; expand the funding base for sustainable agriculture through the Funding Diversity Partnership (FDP); and to improve direct marketing opportunities through the Northwest Direct: Improving Markets for Small Farms research project. (All of these programs are described in detail on Rural Roots’ website at www.ruralroots.org). As Rural Roots’ programs and activities grew in number and complexity, the Leadership Team and staff began discussing the importance of improving the leadership skills and building the capacity of the organization and its members to do sustainable agriculture and local food systems work. They applied and were accepted into a new leadership development program called Cultivating Leadership for a Changing Agriculture (CLCA) (www.cultivateleaders.org). As a result of the training and consultation they received in 2003-2004, the Leadership Team and staff decided it was time for Rural Roots’ to become and independent non-profit organization and to create a Board of Directors that would provide administrative oversight and direction to Rural Roots. With the help of CLCA consultants, Rural Roots new Board and staff re-visioned and drafted by-laws for the organization, keeping in mind the programmatic direction and priorities they were hearing from Rural Roots members and other constituencies in the region. In summer 2004, about the time the new by-laws were complete, Rural Roots and Idaho Organic Alliance entered into discussions about the potential of joining energies and forming a larger organization that would serve all of Idaho, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. The opportunities for expanding programs, improving visibility and access to local food and the ability to work as one voice to create policies that support family farmers and local food entrepreneurs that could result from creating a unified sustainable agriculture community across the Inland Northwest excited both the Board and staff. At the same time, Board members wanted to maintain the organizations’ emphasis on small acreage farms and ranches, sustainable production methods (that included, but were not limited to, organic methods) and community food systems. Merger discussions continued through the fall of 2004 and culminated in both organizations’ leadership agreeing that a merger would be beneficial for members and the larger agricultural community and that the concerns of both organizations could be successfully addressed. A special joint membership meeting was called to discuss and vote on merging Rural Roots and Idaho Organic Alliance into one organization in January 2005. Rural Roots Board and membership voted in favor of the merger and a new chapter in Rural Roots’ history began. History of Idaho Organic Alliance (IOA) By Rebecca Mirsky, Former IOA Director and Colette DePhelps, Rural Roots’ Executive Director The Idaho Organic Alliance was formed in 1989 as the Idaho Organic Producers Association (IOPA). IOPA was started by organic growers who sought to establish a viable organic industry in Idaho. Since then, the organization has helped establish Idaho State Organic Certification standards for produce, livestock and the education required for certified organic growers. In order to have a broader impact on sustainable agriculture in Idaho, in 2000, members of IOA redirected their focus and mission, including changing their name, to be an organization that included a diverse citizenry seeking to support a sustainable food and agriculture system in Idaho.
IOA
leadership and members believed that sustainable, organic agriculture is
that which builds the soil,
returns what is taken out; provides healthful food, free of chemicals and
genetically modified organisms; provides a profit for the farmers who
employ it; and supports local communities. And, as an organization, IOA
sought to put the “culture” back in agriculture by putting the emphasis on
people, not big business – meaning crop diversity and soil building rather
than monoculture; profitable small-scale farming; clean food; and
fostering relationships between growers and buyers. Groundbreaking work for the formation and initial growth of IOA was due to the dedication of IOA’s first volunteer director, Shelley Hawkins-Clark, and IOA Board members Nate Jones, Mike Heath, Fred Brossy, Janie Burns, and Jeff Rast. In September 2002, IOA received approval of their Federal 501(c)3 application, which gave them official non-profit status. Until then, IOA had been working under the fiscal sponsorship of the Idaho Rural Council in order to apply for non-profit funding. Also in 2002, thanks to the hard work of the IOA staff and Board, IOA received $35,000 in Specialty Crop Grant funding from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. This funding allowed IOA to accomplish some important projects over the next two years including the creation of their website, publication of the 2003 Local Foods Guide to Southern Idaho, and organization of four local farm tours. (The final stage of this work, research into the needs and perspectives of Idaho’s certified and registered organic producers, was completed this spring. Visit www.ruralroots.org to view the organic research reports.) At the end of 2002, Shelley found that due to health reasons, she needed to turn the organization over to new leadership. In November 2002, Rebecca Mirsky was selected to continue the exciting work that Shelley had started. Between 2002-2004, Rebecca, IOA’s second volunteer director, made it a priority to follow through on the ISDA grant projects and to keep in touch with IOA’s members through publication of the IOA newsletter and moderating the IOA email listserve. As a full time environmental engineer, Rebecca had limited amounts of time she could devote to growing IOA. Rebecca’s available time was necessarily dedicated primarily to project management and member outreach. When it became apparent that Rebecca’s time was too stretched between her job as an environmental engineer and her directorship, she and the IOA Board began discussing solutions. At the IOA Board meeting in January 2004, the idea of proposing a merger between Rural Roots and IOA was put on the table for discussion. Looking closely at both organizations, it became apparent that they shared similar organizational values and their visions for agriculture in Idaho were quite compatible. The IOA Board recognized that the experiences the IOA members shared when working with mid and large scale family farmers, with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, and the Idaho Legislature would benefit Rural Roots’ programs and members. Board members believed that IOA would benefit by an increase in organizational capacity, especially funded staff who could dedicate their time to program development and implementation to address organic issues within the state. One concern the Board had was not losing the identity, visibility and emphasis on the importance of organic agriculture in Idaho. The Board realized with the merger, it made the most sense to retain the name of Rural Roots as it was most inclusive of the combined membership (sustainable and organic producers and people committed to local food systems). They also realized the change of name would mean the combined organization would need to develop strategies to maintain the visibility of the organic community in Idaho. The Board agreed that as long as the emphasis on organic would not be lost, Rural Roots and IOA were a natural match. In August 2004, IOA opened a dialogue with Rural Roots about merging organizations. At their December 2004 Board meeting in Boise, all participants in the meeting (the IOA Board, Rebecca, Shelley and IOA member Clay Erskine) voted unanimously in favor of the merger and to call a vote of the IOA membership about merging organizations. When the merger was approved by a membership vote, Fred Brossy, Janie Burns, and Clay Erskine were elected to the new Rural Roots’ Board of Directors and Rebecca agreed to serve as a program advisor to Rural Roots. In these new roles, they are maintaining IOA’s commitment to organics while enhancing the viability and visibility of sustainable agriculture and local food in the Inland Northwest. |