The past 18 months have illuminated the tremendous unsustainable practices and social inequities throughout many sectors, including our globalized food system. We have seen food processors fall ill from lack of sick leave and protective equipment. Severely delayed global supply chains have led to massive food waste and higher food costs. Lost incomes have exacerbated food insecurity.

At the same time, we are experiencing the immense impacts of climate change on our food system: floods, droughts, ocean acidification, reduced harvest yields, diminished nutritional values, and extreme weather disasters all have detrimental effects on all parts of the food system. Currently, our food system relies heavily upon fossil fuels—from fertilizers and machinery, to processing and transportation, which contributes to climate change.

We have great challenges ahead of us, but we have the chance to transform our food system into a better, more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable one. In the future, we will take into account the true costs of our food system to help address the imbalances.

This involves assessing all impacts of food —from production to consumption—on both people and the planet.

Communities will find new ways to build decentralized local food systems, like expanded food hubs and farmers markets in every community, that support local producers and processors with good paying jobs for more robust economies. Through this lens, governments will pass regulations and policies that reduce social and environmental costs, incentivize resilience through sustainable food production, promote biodiversity, and ensure food security for every person. In the future, every farm is a Salmon-Safe farm; our food system will embody values of equity, access, and renewable energy, and be planned and operated by place-based local leadership and by the hard working farmers, fishers, and processors that keep the world fed. Our food system of the future is localized and responsive to community needs, while regenerating our natural environment.

Thank you for reading. We are able to do this work because of member support from concerned citizens like you. Please donate today to protect Cook Inlet for our future generations.