Kate has always known that food is the fuel for success while climbing. Here she fires up breakfast before a day of climbing on the Incredible Hulk in the Eastern Sierra. Land of the Northern Paiute, Eastern Mono/Monache, and Newe peoples. AAC member Ken Etzel
5 minute read
Food As a Form of Climate Activism
Kate Rutherford, Farm to Crag Founder
Climbers thrive when we have a hard objective—a project that pushes our mental and physical capacity. We love far away summits, intricate logistics, and the emotional commitment to our partners. With all of our training and strength, we are perfectly poised to be powerful advocates for what we love, and are able to apply our creative talents to finding climate solutions, protecting biodiversity, and prioritizing the health of the planet for all people.
Farm To Crag is one of those creative climate solutions. As a climber driven non-profit, we work to connect climbers with sustainable, locally grown food wherever you climb by offering an easy to use map to local sustainable food. It was born as one climber’s joyful response to the scary prospect of the climate crisis. We believe that sometimes advocacy can look like eating a delicious snack.
Author Kate Rutherford rappelling off a route in the high alpine of the Eastern Sierras. Land of the Northern Paiute, Eastern Mono/Monache, and Newe peoples. AAC member Ken Etzel
Throughout my climbing travels, global communities welcomed me, fed me, maintained the gardens at the base of cliffs, and kept the lights on late when my partners and I bit off more than we could chew. How would I find another local food community as I migrated with the climbing seasons?
How would the gardens that had fed us on those trips fare with the changing climate in the mountains? Would they fare better if climbers invested in them? In this worry, I felt like Sisyphus, rolling the boulder of this challenge up the hill every day. Finally, my friend and mentor Yvon Chouinard told me that investing in regenerative organic agriculture was “the number one thing climbers can do to reverse climate change.” This quote became my route topo, my project, the summit to train for. This was a hopeful way to confront climate change—one meal at a time.
I dove into the science of organic gardening, soil health, and regenerative farming. I read books like there would be an exam. I found mentors who helped write the Farm Bill; they explained the disproportionately high federal assistance that conventional farmers received compared to the low funding for small farmers or organic research. I began to understand the power of lobbying and went to talk with lawmakers on Capitol Hill during Organic Week. I also spent many hours sleuthing out locally raised veggies, meats, and dairy.
Then, I sat down with two amazing humans at my kitchen table. We were craving seasonal vegetables that were locally grown in the places we love to climb. We wanted a map to local gardens, handmade kimchi, hometown bread bakers, and lovingly raised lamb chops. Our bodies needed nutrients. We wanted to host dinner parties at our kitchen table, or in the van while on the road. We wanted to celebrate seasonal foods, fresh greens and sun-warmed strawberries. Thus, Farm to Crag was born.
Farm to Crag was born to celebrate locally grown, fresh, organic vegetables. These foods are the fuel climbers need to reach the biggest summits of their imaginations. Viktor Pravdica
We know that soil free of pesticides and rich in mycorrhizal fungi, protozoa and nematodes, mites, springtails, and earthworms help break down organic matter and minerals. This creates useful vitamins, hormones, and disease-suppressing compounds that plants need to be healthy. These tiny creatures also aerate the ground, allowing for deeper roots, better water retention capacity, and greater survival rates in extreme weather events. Research shows that healthy soil encourages deep-rooted plants, which draw carbon further down into the soil. There, it’s shared with diverse flora and fauna, and stored out of the harmful green-house gas cycle. Food has also become a purposeful means for climbing performance.
Food is nutrition and nutrition is performance. Organic, regenerative local food is the pinnacle of both. By uniting our community around this sustainable food practice, we believe that we will dramatically improve the health of our bodies, our communities, and our planet.
Through food, we become a part of our destination climbing areas. And with every dollar we exchange for food, we support the health of those economies—therefore ensuring their ability to cultivate healthy soil, a necessity for drawing carbon out of the ever warming atmosphere and making nourishing food for climbers.
This became the foundation for my favorite Farm To Crag mantra:
soil health = nutrient-dense veggies = climbers on summits
We believe the switch to regenerative organic farming will draw enough carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the ground to reverse climate change. But we need your help! If climbers supported local farms and sustainable businesses, would that be enough? Perhaps, but better yet would be all climbers, bikers, skiers, surfers, and runners thinking about the Farm Bill or state legislation supporting small local farmers who care about soil health, biodiversity, clean water, and healthy livestock. Then we could start making policy changes to shift the food paradigm.
Maps are one of my favorite parts about big adventures—and one of our favorite parts about Farm To Crag. We have a map of local farms, farmers’ markets, and artisan food producers near our favorite crags. You can become part of this movement! Check it out, go shop at one, and cook a fully local meal for your friends and family. If your local farms are not on the map, you can add them at farmtocrag.org/ contribute.
Join us. Connect the dots between the places we play and the foods we eat, with a soil that sustains both and provides a future for our species.