Kelly Kingsland

My parents were a part of the back-to-the-land movement in the 60s and I grew up growing and eating a majority of our own food from a large organic garden in Northern Idaho. To me, a sustainable, community food system refers to a community's ability to feed itself, without destroying its environment, over a long span of time.

 I worked at the Moscow Food Coop for twelve years, and during that time I began to identify regionally producible foods that we were purchasing from out of state and encouraged local farmers to fill that niche. I am most passionate about changing people's perceptions of "expense" when buying locally produced food. I challenge consumers to total in he whole cost of a cheap head of lettuce from California.

I am also an advocate of eating seasonally and doing without things when they are not in season. Storing, canning, and putting by foods for an off season, rather than importing things is very important to me. These passions motivate and inspire my partner, Russell, and I to farm, and direct market locally on a daily basis. I am generally good at seeing the big picture and can often pull conversations away from stagnant details into more visionary, goal oriented concepts.

As I think about this opportunity to be on the Rural Roots Board of Directors, I am becoming more and more excited. I look forward to understanding more about Rural Roots and its potential effect on our regional communities.