Sarah Bodnar and Gowan Batist are the women who put eating locally to the test for an entire year in 2013. They went entirely off the “industrial food system” and ate only those foods they could procure locally. As noted in an article in the Ukiah Daily Journal in February 2014, the experiment challenged the “inner pioneer woman.”
Bodnar and Batist will speak about the experience at the Kelley House Sunday, October 23rd, at 4:00PM, as part of our series of Sunday Afternoon With…presentations. This program is offered in conjunction with our current exhibit, “When Farm to Table Was Every Day.”
Bodnar, is owner and marketing consultant for Social Media Sisters; she helps businesses and organizations tell their stories online. She is also the manager for the Mendocino Farmer’s Market. “Hunger is not the real problem; there is plenty of food to feed the world and the idea of scarcity is manufactured. One of the reasons I did this is to show that it is possible to embody abundance and food security in the place where I live. I think history shows that power is commensurate with a people’s ability to feed themselves,” she said.
Batist, lives on a 40-acre farm that her family purchased with the North Coast Brewing Company; she is also the farm manager for Noyo Food Forest, a non-profit that feeds school children. She makes compost from spent grain and hops and uses it for species remediation and grows produce for the restaurant and other local restaurants and for direct sale to the public.
Kelley House members pay $5 at the door; non-members pay $7.