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King County took a big step in becoming a leader in metropolitan food systems planning in 2014 when Executive Dow Constantine launched the Local Food Initiative (LFI) to expand the local food economy, to benefit county food businesses and farms, and to improve access to health and affordable food in low-income communities.
Now, nearly a decade later, King County is launching a refresh of the LFI and King Conservation District’s complementary Regional Food System Program (RFSP).
“The time is right. Climate change is more urgent than ever, the COVID-19 pandemic showed just how fragile our food system is, and inequities can no longer be tolerated,” said Michael Lufkin, Local Food Economy manager for King County and project lead for the LFI update.
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“The point of growing your own food is to grow things that you can’t get anywhere else,” Bumblebee Farm co-owner-operator Amy White said while showing off her fields of colorful produce. Pink napa cabbage, iridescent green beans, and striped summer squash are just a few of the unique vegetables thriving under the care of White and fellow co-owner / operator Katy Bond.
Bumblebee Farm is in the Snoqualmie Valley, just outside of the City of Sammamish. In this fertile soil, Bond and White produce enough vegetables for 50 weekly CSA boxes, plus direct-to-restaurant sales, direct-to-foodbank sales, and even sales to distributor Farmstand Local Foods between just the two of them.
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Just outside the city of Kent, nestled between curves of the Green River, lies an enchanting place. With corn twice as tall as the farmers carefully tending it, distant Mount Rainier peeking through the trees, and blue dragonflies weaving around stalks of rainbow chard, Horseneck Farm looks like something out of a picture book.
The 30 acres of Horseneck Farm are owned by King County and dedicated to increasing diversity in the local food system. Plots are leased to immigrant and refugee farmer-focused organizations, as well as individual farmers and farm businesses.
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 Watch the video.
Plant Based Food Share – a nonprofit organization that started during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic – is this year’s beneficiary of CHOMP!, King County’s celebration of local food.
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 Apply for a scholarship by Sep. 1st.
For this year's Tilth Conference, October 26-28 in Port Townsend, WA.
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 Register for the 2023 Urban Forestry Symposium.
This year food sovereignty and access will be featured topics.
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Interested in learning more about the Local Food Initiative? Click here to subscribe to updates about the 2024 planning process.
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