Food security in Multnomah County

I asked my friend Biohabit about food security in Portland and he pointed me to Multnomah County Food Initiative. They list the following on their About page:

• Oregon is ranked second in hunger by the United States Department of Agriculture.
• About 36,000 Multnomah County residents access emergency food boxes each month.
• Half of all adults in Multnomah County are either overweight or obese.
• Chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are on the rise
• Half of all Multnomah County children will be on food stamps at one point in their childhood.
• Only a small percentage of the food that we consume is grown locally (estimates indicate 5-10%).
• We lack a coordinated strategy to ensure the vitality of our local food system.

I think it's pretty clear that our biggest short-to-medium term food is poverty and unemployment - Portland's unemployment rate is 10.6%. I was surprised to see that Oregon is 2nd in hunger in the US.

The obvious longterm problem is that only 5-10% of our food is grown locally. Black swans in the food shipping system or even gradual long term increases in fuel cost or availability could lead to severe shortages.

It seems, however, that the long term and short term problems could play off each other to create a solution to both.

One such solution already underway in Multnomah County is this farm.

Interestingly, Multnomah County Food Initiative is planning a summit quite a bit like what I'd envisioned being the "first step" in Tokyo in my Klintron 2020 post.