An Intro to Rural Eating and Living

Over the last month, I have debated long and hard about having a blog. My hesitation comes from knowing that everyone shares their thoughts in such a manner these days, and from the fear that I may not have worthwhile wisdom to share with my followers. However, I have decided the first reason is irrelevant, and that my second fear is blatantly wrong. From daily discussion with all types of people about living and eating in rural Montana, I realize I have a great deal to say about all aspects of eating healthy, the broader food movement and government agricultural policy.

I am living in Forsyth, a town of less than 2,000 people in Eastern Montana. We have one grocery store, three bars, four restaurants, two hardware stores and a movie theater. The main industry is cattle ranching, but there is a significant amount of wheat, barley and sugar beets grown here as well. We are 50 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart and 100 miles from the nearest Starbucks. Forsyth epitomizes rural America in the extreme.

Forsyth, Montana, is perhaps one of the most bizarre places in the state to encourage the growth of a local food movement, but also one of the places where it is most necessary. In my two months of living here, I have learned that promoting local food is a much more complex process than I could have ever imagined. How we get our food is influenced by Forsyth's remote location, the distance from any food processing facilities,the struggling economy and a lack of interest in change. I cannot emphasize enough the complexity of the process which brings food to our tables in rural Montana.

For the next year, I am volunteering as a member of Foodcorps Montana, an Americorps VISTA position dedicated to promoting and bringing local, fresh food into schools through the Rosebud-Treasure County Extension Office. This includes helping build school gardens, increasing procurement of local foods in the cafeteria, and teaching nutrition to students. Although I am based in Forsyth, my main projects are in the towns of Rosebud and Hysham, communities with a population under 1,000 on either side of Forsyth. Both lack grocery stores, and Hysham qualifies as a food desert due to its distance from a store, and both suffer from high levels of poverty.

With this blog, I hope to enlighten you on some of the major issues I encounter during my year in Eastern Montana. I will try to explain some of the major challenges with local food as well as my reflections on how greater governmental policy has influenced production in the area. I find that the local community is perhaps not yet prepared to listen to my arguments on food and food policy, and thus I bring the discussion to this online venue. Enjoy!