Tammi Riedl: Regenerating our Local Food Systems

Tammi Riedl

PECA celebrates the work of Tammi Riedl, an innovative leader in the regenerative agricultural community. Tammi is the Founder and Executive Director of the Gold Country Food Hub, a local non-profit. She also passionately devotes her time as the owner/operator of The Farmers Marketplace, a community grocery store and gathering space in downtown Auburn, CA.

If you are looking for local, pesticide-free goods, then look no further than The Farmers Marketplace, located at 195 Elm Ave (in the strip mall at the corner of Elm and Harrison). This store is committed to building a local, equitable and regenerative food system and economy. On offer there are a variety of goods, all of which are locally sourced - farm fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, eggs, cheese, pastured meat, wild caught fish, fresh baked breads, pantry staples, and more. Everything in the store comes from a network of local family family farmers and artisans. Stop by and check it out! You also can do your shopping on-line (with Thursday pick-up or delivery options) giving you access to local, healthy food options every week! Remember bu

The Gold Country Food Hub, which Tammi founded and directs, is a non-profit that provides a variety of programs in the service of regenerating local farm systems. These programs include:

  • Healthy Groceries: provides locally sourced seasonal goods to local under served communities

  • Small Farm & Artisan Food Producer Resourcing: provides technical assistance to small-scale, beginning farmers and artisan food producers.

  • Outreach Education& Resourcing: hosts workshops and events that invite our community to gather, learn, and grow together in building a regenerative local food system and economy.

  • Farm to School: Provides services and resources to support school programs that connect students to farmers and chefs that grow and make their food.

Thanks you Tammi for your tireless support of our local farmers and artisans!

Some reasons that buying local matters to climate change:

  1. Food grown closer to home makes a region more resilient to climate change effects on food systems, keeping the shelves full when non-local resources are not available.

  2. Diversified farms, with a mix of crops and livestock, often adapt better to climate change. Regenerative agriculture can also build soil that stores carbon.

  3. Local food helps to preserve green space.

  4. Buying locally may reduce CO2 emissions by reducing the distance that the food travels from food to consumer. Although, there is evidence that food grown farther away may be more sustainable if it is grown responsibly.

Auburn Sustainability Advisory Committee

PECA salutes the Auburn Sustainability Committee, which serves the City of Auburn and nearby Placer County by making recommendations to the Auburn City Council related to sustainability and the environment. Some of their projects include planting canopy trees, finding healthy alternatives to harsh chemicals (such as glyphosate-based herbicides), reducing waste, supporting clean power (such as erecting solar shade structures and switching the city’s energy the Green100 program), and advocating for cleaner transit (including more bike lanes and more EV chargers).

The Auburn Sustainability Advisory Commitee working to make a difference in the City of Auburn and nearby Placer County (June 20, 2023 meeting).

Annie Bowler, pictured to the left in the photo above, is leading a project to visit restaurants to discuss converting take out containers from Styrofoam to more sustainable alternatives, and to inform them about free County implementation of food waste composting as well as new opportunities to sell food that would otherwise be wasted (including PECA’s support of the app, Too Good To Go)

The Auburn Sustainability Committee meets the third Tuesday of every month at 4 pm in the Auburn City Hall. Community members are welcome to attend; public comment is open at the start of every meeting. You can even live stream their meetings if you want to reduce carbon and attend virtually (click here to access the link to the live stream).

Ramps for Auburn Sidewalks

Sue Ingle at a recent Fridays for Future event. Stop by Fridays for Future outside of the Auburn City Hall any Friday between 12 and 1. Maybe Sue will be there, and you can thank her in person!

A big shout out to Sue Ingle for relentlessly advocating to make Auburn more accessible and “walkable” for everyone. Sue’s efforts through public comments at both the Auburn City Board of Supervisors and the Placer Union School District Board meetings were pivotal elements in getting ramps installed on High Street and around Placer High School. Citizen action can yield results and benefit everyone in the community!

Walking, rolling, strolling, skateboarding, or biking instead of driving are behaviors we can do more of to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions!

THANK YOU SUE!

Placer High Environmental Club

The President and Vice President of Placer High Environmental Club speaking at PECA Presents on March 5, 2023.

The Placer High School Environmental Club is a vibrant group of young people educating themselves and others about environmental issues that affect us all (while having fun at the same time). They meet weekly over their 30 minute school lunch break discussing the issues and planning events such as their E-Waste Drive. Once a month they do trash clean ups and invasive species removals at Auburn School Park Preserve.

Fridays for Future Climate Strikes in Auburn

Thanks to Shirley Ballinger and Mike Davis for organizing Climate Strike Fridays in front of the Auburn City Hall. Every Friday, rain or shine, a passionate group of folks concerned about how climate change is affecting EVERYONE, gathers outside of City Hall from 12-1pm. Anyone is welcome to join and bring the conversation both to the drivers who pass by this busy intersection and to each other! This friendly crowd will even provide you with signs if you don’t have one yourself!

Shirley Ballinger, founder of Auburn’s Climate Strike Friday

The climate Friday strikes began in Auburn in 2018 when Shirley Ballinger came by herself on a Friday to strike in solidarity with Greta Thunberg (in 2018, Greta began spending her Fridays outside of the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change). Mike Davis stepped up to help organize others who come each Friday. Thanks again Shirley and Mike!

Here are some photos from the Jan 20, 2023 Friday for Future event:

High Hand Cafe

Thanks to the High-Hand Cafe on Taylor Rd. in Loomis for providing a sustainable leftovers box! We try to remember to bring our own containers, but it is still good to find that sustainable packaging it being attended to when possible.

For more about food waste and its links to climate change, click here.