Outside / Environment
B
Food System
Brian Coppom, Executive Director of Boulder County Farmers Markets interview By Lexi Reich
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HOW DOES PARTICIPATING IN ONE’S LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM PROMOTE SUSTAINABILITY AND STRENGTHEN OUR ECOSYSTEM? Agriculture has tremendous impacts on the environment. Over 50 percent of the land area of the U.S. is used for farming or ranching. Some of those operations work to support a healthy environment. Others are strictly economic in nature and have little regard for the impacts on the people and ecology around them. Every time we purchase an item, whether it’s beef, beer or beets, we chose which outcome we support. The global food system, however, is so large and opaque that it is difficult to know
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Photos courtesy of Boulder County Farmers Markets
HONOR YOUR LOCAL
rian Coppom believes to live in harmony with the world we must support our local food systems. Regional cuisine in Colorado is plentiful, and it is essential to support local chefs and farmers markets now more than ever before. Not only does this uphold our ecosystem, it boosts individuals’ health by eating aligned with the seasons. “For decades I had driven past local farms without stopping,” he admits. But in 2011, Coppom and his wife Nancy signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where they were given the opportunity to visit farms along the Front Range. Together they discovered the sense of ease and belonging that comes with connecting the land to its food. In 2012, Nancy started selling baked goods at Boulder County Farmers Markets (BCFM). On the first market day of the season, Coppom was helping her set up a booth in Longmont and further unearthed community amongst vendors and customers who shared a love of locally grown food. “The goodwill, camaraderie and shared purpose was unlike anything I had experienced up to that point,” he says. “I was hooked.” About a year later, Coppom landed his dream job as the executive director of the BCFM.
