Presentation by Don Barber, Chair, Tompkins Food Policy Council

Everyone fully participates in our food system every day by the choices we make to feed ourselves and our family. Most of us are unaware there is a strong connection between the climate crisis and our food system. The global food system releases fully one third of the annual greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn’t have to be this way, as there are food choice changes that consumers can make to significantly reduce GHG emissions. There are agricultural practices that apply to gardens up to large farms which will sequester much more carbon in soil. Join us on April 20th to learn about our local food system; its impact on the climate and climate’s impact on agriculture and the role our everyday decisions can have to reduce GHG emissions and support carbon capture.
Don Barber is Chair of the Tompkins Food Policy Council. In the 1980’s he was chair of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter’s Finger Lakes Group, then Chair of the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council, then Caroline Town Supervisor for 22 years which was the second municipality in NY to purchase 100% of its municipal energy from renewable sources and build a Town Office building powered by the sun and heated by the earth. He grew up on a family dairy farm and currently farms in Brooktondale which is fully solar powered and uses draft horses for a good share of the field work.
In 2019, he and other members of the Tompkins Food Policy Council lobbied the County Legislature to fund staffing to develop a Food System Plan for Tompkins County; and then secured funding from the Community Foundation of Tompkins County for programming costs. Last summer, they delivered a Food System Plan, from over 2000 voices, which was unanimously accepted by the County Legislature. The FPC is now in the Implementation phase.
See the Plan here

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Meeting ID: 958 6631 3240
Passcode: NYRocks