Sustainable Food System

Lettuce understand what’s at steak!

There’s no getting around it: The foods we eat have a huge environmental impact and they contribute to global warming. In fact, food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth. To create a truly sustainable community, Boulder needs to address many issues around how we eat, what we eat, where it grows and how it gets to our plates. Not to mention what happens to everything that doesn’t make it into our mouths. It’s a complicated issue involving factors from nutrition to chemical fertilizers & pesticides, water use to transportation, inputs to outputs, and microbes to CO2. We are focusing on food waste, food choice and sustainable agriculture. Doing it right will take some serious changes. But every one points to healthier people, healthier soils, air and water, and a more just and equitable society. So what’s holding us back!

Local Organizations Addressing Sustainable Food

boulder farmers market — nonprofit organization operating producer-only farmers markets in Colorado since 1987

BoCoSustainabilityLogo — To ensure Boulder County's operations and decision-making reflect…

Boulder Food Rescue — Sustainable, Just-In-Time Food Rescue in Boulder, Colorado!

boundless-landscapes — turning the world into a garden by converting lawns and underutilized spaces into thriving food gardens to combat climate change and build more resilient communities

coalcreek-meels-on-wheels — providing a home-delivered, hot, nutritious meal to anyone who needs one in Lafayette, Louisville, Erie and Superior

community food share — Eliminating hunger in Boulder and Broomfield Counties through engagement, collaboration, and leadership.

community-fruit-rescue — Dedicated to harvesting and distributing the surplus urban fruit growing throughout Boulder, Colorado

earth-love-gardens — designing and creating edible and pollinator-friendly gardens and leading communities of volunteers to create connections with the land

falling fruit — Celebrating the overlooked culinary bounty of our city streets and quantifying this resource on an interactive map

FlatironsFarmersCoalition — Boulder County farmers, ranchers, and local food advocates working to co-create a more inclusive and regenerative agricultural community

flatirons young farmers coalition — Supporting Young & Beginning Farmers in Boulder County

garden to table — providing children with engaging educational experiences that connect them to food, how it’s grown and why fruits and vegetables are essential to their diet

Growing Gardens — non-profit with the Mission to cultivate community through sustainable urban agriculture and Vision of people experiencing a direct and deep connection with food, the land and each other

harvest of hope — Providing healthy supplemental food to Boulder families and individuals in need of food assistance within a safe, welcoming and non-judgmental environment

kilt-farm — local farm using compost tea to build the soil biology selling produce to Lucky's Markets, Boulder restaurants and thru CSA programs

lineage seeds — Seed company that aims to bring seeds back to the people - organically grown, often heirloom, locally grown when available and only open-pollinated

longmont-food-rescue — Redirecting Perishable Food – Just in Time!

mad agriculture — Driving an agricultural revolution that restores our relationship with Earth so all of life can flourish for generations to come.

a full-service grocery store and the easiest way to shop for zero-waste, local, and organic groceries

OllinFarmsLogo — Producing top quality farm products while continuing to regenerate surrounding ecosystems

Restore Colorado — improving resilience and tackle climate change through food and healthy soil on local farms and ranches

bvsd-school-food-project — Dedicated to improving the health of each student by providing healthy food and offering nutrition education programs to grow young bodies and minds.

bvsd school gardens — Providing many hands-on learning opportunities for students, including tips, tools and resources for starting, maintaining or expanding school gardens in the BVSD Garden As A Classroom Manual

BPL-Seeds-Gardens — Providing seed packets from the seed library for growing flowers and edible plants at home and organizing The Edible Learning Garden

the-golden-hoof — a 27 acre “Regenerative Slow Food Farm” managed using methods inspired by nature’s self-sustaining ecosystems

Working to manage surplus agriculture and reduce on-farm food loss statewide through gleaning, experiential education, research and legislative advocacy

yellow barn farm — Building community around regenerative and sustainable practices in agriculture, education, and collaborative play

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Hungry for Knowledge?

Start by Devouring These Tasty, Filling Resources

This first of its kind report describes the current state of food waste in the City of Boulder.

EAT-Lancet Scientific Commission Report on Healthy diets from sustainable food systems.

Find out what your diet’s carbon footprint is with this climate change food calculator.

This climate-friendly food guide will help with choices to cut your environmental impact.

Food is being wasted at an alarming rate, but we can do something about it. Learn how.

Join this community group to discuss ways to reduce food waste in our everyday lives.

Michael Pollan Answers “Why Eat Local?”

The average item of food in America has traveled 1,500 miles from the farm to your plate and burned up an incredible amount of fossil fuels just to get there.

Animal Agriculture and Climate Change

Feeding livestock creates more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector and uses ¾ of our planet’s agricultural land.

Turnip the Volume on these Recent News Stories

Global food system is broken, say world’s science academies

If one considers the entire food chain, it’s also necessary to include emissions from the food industry, transportation, packaging and distribution. Emissions vary widely from one continent and country to another, depending on their level of development and societal attitudes. In the developed nations, emissions from the field to the plate account for at least 30% of total anthropogenic emissions, which means that the food system contributes as much to GHGs as transportation and housing… Read Story on The Guardian

How Reducing Food Waste Could Ease Climate Change

Producing the food we throw away generates more greenhouse gases than most entire countries do. Read the National Geographic Story.

Food Waste Audit: Why Retailers Don’t Donate

If you haven’t checked out the Boulder Food Waste Audityet, now’s your moment! It’s a study released by the Boulder Food Rescue (BFR) in collaboration with researchers at CU Boulder. Read article from Boulder Food Rescue

Boulder entrepreneur launches national ranking system for ‘sustainable’ eateries

The Good Food 100, the brainchild of a Boulder entrepreneur and her partner, launches today with a list of the top restaurants and institutions nationwide working to make the food supply more sustainable. Read on the Daily Camera

Boulder FoodTech’s up-coming meet ups

Boulder FoodTech is a community of entrepreneurs, innovators, professionals, investors, and others passionate about the intersection of Food and Technology. Check for Events on their Meetup site

Support our local farms and farmers!

Take advantage of tasty, nutritious local foods while contributing to a healthy local economy. Boulder has one of the best farmers markets in the country. And you can probably ride your bike there! Learn more about the Boulder & Longmont Farmers Markets here.

Start Your Own Food Stand

Want to sell fresh produce and cottage foods from your home within the City of Boulder? The Colorado Cottage Foods Act allows small-scale residential preparation and sales of food products without state or county food licensing. Check out this Guide to Getting Started

Become a Yard Carbon Farmer

Building healthy soils may be our best hope to draw down and safely store atmospheric carbon dioxide. Eco-Cycle and the City of Boulder are working together on a 3-year study to explore a range of carbon farming approaches on urban landscapes to sequester carbon in the soil and help reverse climate change. Learn how to participate.

Say “Sayonara!” to meat!

Yeah, yeah, yeah—we’ve heard it before: eating less meat can significantly decrease our carbon footprint. Well, we’re saying it again because it’s true! Make 2018 your year of Meatless Mondays (or…meatless everyday!). Here’s the why, and here’s the how.

Hey stranger! Do you have anything to add to this section? Is there an awesome organization that we forgot to mention? A scientific study, or a newspaper article that everybody needs to know about? Is there a better way to organize all of this information and make it more useful? Anything at all, don’t be shy, let us know!

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