Enough To Go Around
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By LORETTA PARK
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lpark@standard.net
Commissioner wants Davis to be catastrophe ready
LAYTON -- A Davis County commissioner is concerned the county will not be able to provide enough food to residents if a natural disaster or pandemic flu occurs here or if Interstate 15 shuts down.
"My concern is the county may not be able to sustain itself in case of an emergency," Louenda Downs said.
Officials say Downs is right -- the county would not be able to sustain itself if a catastrophe hit, and Davis has not been able to produce enough food to feed all of its residents since the 1970s, when agricultural land began disappearing.
Shawn Olsen, a Utah State University Extension Service agent in Davis County, suspects the amount of farmland in Davis County has substantially decreased in the past five years, but won't have those figures until next year.
An agriculture census across the state is conducted every five years, Olsen said.
Despite all of the development, there were 23 more farms in Davis County in 2002 than in 1997, for a total of 582, Olsen said. Also, 2002 saw an increase in harvested cropland -- from 17,808 acres in 1997 to 17,879.
However, with the amount of homebuilding in the past five years, he suspects there are fewer farms.
"It will probably show a decline," Olsen said.
It is not just the fact that farms are disappearing, but also that residents may not be personally prepared to feed themselves during a disaster that worries officials.
"If there were a massive disruption of the food-supply chain, there is really nothing any level of government can do to prepare for that," said Davis County Health Director Lewis Garrett.
If a disaster hit only the county, Davis would be dependent on neighboring counties to help feed its almost 300,000 residents, said Brent Peters, Davis County sheriff's emergency-management coordinator.
If a disaster like an earthquake hit Top of Utah, neighboring states would be called to help.
Residents would have to wait several days or even weeks before supplies could reach them.
Officials say residents, individually, should make sure they have enough basics to get through an emergency.
The simple answer for minor disasters is to have 72-hour emergency kits of food, water and medication available for each member of a household, Garrett said.
Worse-case scenarios, on the other hand, require anywhere from a six-month to a two-year supply of food storage, he said.
"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but storing enough food for every resident cannot be done (by government entities) within a reasonable budget constraint."
Officials also say residents should not just rely on grocery stores and restaurants to feed them, but should try to grow their own food.
Fewer people are doing that, and many do not even know where their food comes from, said John Borski, owner of Borski Organic Farms in Kaysville.
He said he is concerned that less land in Davis County is being used for agriculture. About 20 years ago, 50 percent of homeowners planted gardens; now only 5 percent to 10 percent of homeowners cultivate food.
Borski sells shares of his harvest to customers along the Wasatch Front in what is called community-supported agriculture -- customers pay a fee upfront; in return, they receive part of the harvest.
It's not just the decrease in small gardens that concerns Borski, but also the decreasing number of large farms. "There is no consideration of the open spaces. It's an environmental issue."
He doesn't blame the farmers who are offered more money to develop their land than they can make harvesting crops.
Downs said she also does not want to see all of the agricultural area buried under rooftops.
"We need to look at planning the future so we have this ambiance of agriculture," she said. "We've always been known for agriculture."
Former Layton Mayor Jerry Stevenson, who owns J&J Nursery, said Utah's agricultural production is a "a drop in the bucket" compared with what its residents need.
"We've always had trucks rolling into markets, and we're still being fed by someone else."
Many Utahns are unaware that most produce in stores is not grown locally, he said. It is coming from other states -- like California -- as well as other countries -- like Chile and Mexico.
Watching farmland disappear over the years in Davis and Weber counties has been interesting, Stevenson said.
At one time, his business catered mostly to farmers who needed fertilizer and agriculture supplies. Now he sells mostly landscaping and home decorative supplies, he said.
He had to change the focus of his business as more homes gobbled up land, he said.
"An acre of houses is worth a lot more than anything else grown on it."
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