The third Governor’s Summit on Local Food and Agriculture is set to take place Oct. 23-24 in Helena, Mont. This collaborative event aims to draw stakeholders from all across Montana’s food, agriculture and distribution industries, and from these collective viewpoints, the summit hopes to find actionable solutions that will maximize agriculture production and local food consumption across the state.
Erin Austin, director of community partners and sales for Abundant Montana, a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to fill Montana plates with Montana food, says the upcoming summit is specifically looking for ways to help accelerate that mission.
“Back in the 1950s, 70 percent of the food we were eating in Montana was grown in Montana. A study came out in 2021 that showed that number had declined from 70 percent to 3 percent,” Austin pointed out.
The irony of it all, Austin continued, is the fact that Montana is such an agriculturally rich state. Since the 1950s, technology and production efficiencies have greatly increased yields across all Montana commodities – the state is raising more food, yet its citizens are eating less. Austin is the first to point out, society in the past 70 years has shifted substantially. Trade, policy, and consumer eating habits have all contributed to the decline in local food consumption, but importing 97 percent of consumed food is a number that can be changed, stakeholders argue, and the first step to lowering it is the upcoming summit.
Abundant Montana and their partnering organizations and entities have kicked off an initiative they coined “33x33” wherein they believe that by 2033, 33 percent of food consumed by Montanans will be grown in state.
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