Humboldt Integrated Pedal Power (HIPP) - Pedal Power Produce (farm-to-market bike-trailer hauling) below, Library Bikes, bike cart/trailer construction, Kinetic Sculptures, Human Energy Converter (sound system), pedal powered appliances, workshops and more!

Pedal Power Produce: non-oil transport for organic food security! 

Our Mission
Founded in 1997, the mission of Pedal Power Produce has been to demonstrate sustainable transport of food without pollution or dependence on fast diminishing global oil supplies.  Food security must be enhanced, instead of reduced as is the case in the overpopulated U.S.  Truly organic food must not be fraught with petroleum for transport and thousands of miles of roads.  Exercise and convivial cooperation in bringing food directly to customers are additional features of Pedal Power Produce that aid health and community spirit.

Pedal Power Produce farm
The idea for this project came when Jan Lundberg (photographer of above picture) found the chance to combine his friend Jan VanderTuin's Eugene-based application of work bikes and PedEx, with VanderTuin's previous development of Community Supported Agriculture (a "subscription" food service).  

In Blue Lake, California, 9 miles up the Mad River from downtown Arcata, Humboldt County, northern California is a farm that initially was co-purchased by members of the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium (APM).  APM is a project of Sustainable Energy Institute whose website you are visiting.  The 1997 season, the first, had the previous farm owner providing the produce to riders who made the weekly round trip from Arcata to bring over a hundred pounds of fresh-picked organic produce to the Saturday morning Farmers Market on Arcata's central plaza.

The project seemed it could only grow.  The picture above, from the 1997 season, shows riders some of whom rode only that day, and it was no trouble to find interested volunteers who enjoyed the ride.  Some of us also biked veggies up to the Bioregional Congress north of Trinidad, and we were lustily cheered by the conferees clasping hands in a circle under the redwoods.  Our weekly rides to and from Arcata had safety enhanced on the country road by riding together, and using helmets and flags.

The 1998-2001 seasons were managed by new farmers who formed a community at the farm and who rode the veggies into market.  The communal aspect at the farm attained prominence over the project, so that the lives of the residents (as activists, artists, what have you) did not involve much pushing of the project for expansion or exporting the concept.  However, the group's faithful appearances at Farmers Market ensured that dedicated customers could always support pedal-powered, sustainable food distribution.  

At first, some bystanders and truck-oriented farmers occasionally pointed out that the tires of the bicycles and carts were of petroleum most likely.  Such comments were mean-spiritedly designed to justify truck hauling.  The farm was also not pedal-powered, indeed a gasoline tractor was employed.  (In 1998, plans were for the farm to become the Fossil Fuel Free Farm, but concern over Y2K prompted emphasis on production instead of purity).  Today, as in all years past at Pedal Power Produce Farm, the hauling of manure and new trees is done with a gasoline powered truck.  Yet, compost is also enhanced and augmented from a nearby brewery's spent grain.  For the first article on Pedal Power Produce from the Auto-Free Times, issue 14 (now Culture Change), click here.  For the 2000 update, see issue 18, or check back at this website.

Costs
Almost anyone can obtain a bike, and if one is fit, one can also borrow a cart, hook it up and haul in the veggies.  If a bike or cart has trouble en route, it is almost always fixable, unlike motor vehicles which may need towing.  Some of the carts have in the past been generously been provided by ByKaboose (www.bykaboose.com).  Danny Franks, a cart-maker and former APM staffer/photographer, provided one cart for Pedal Power Produce for large capacity.  Franks assists at the Humboldt Integrated Pedal Power facility (see our webpage for the HIPP Spot by clicking here.)  

The Future
One does not have to own a farm to participate in pedal power produce projects, but it helps to have people skills to obtain the cooperation of growers and volunteers.  With oil virtually running out in the USA and globally, as world oil production peaks soon, it is past the time to institute sustainable non-polluting trade solutions.  Global warming is getting out of control mainly due to oil's and other fossil-fuels' combustion.  A significant solution to crises of energy, environment and economy is represented by Arcata's Pedal Power Produce. 

To export the concept from Sustainable Energy Institute and Arcata's HIPP Spot is a funding opportunity which should be taken up almost anywhere by any environmentalist interested in food, exercise and sustainable fun!  Contact us in early 2003 to see if we can help you get a pedal power produce program started in your area; we have done so in the past by providing free bike carts and giving tours of local farms in Humboldt County.  Good luck, and if you go it alone or have done so, please let us know of your progress.  - JL

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For more information on Pedal Power Produce, email us with the subject "PPP", at info@culturechange.org, or write to us at P.O. Box 3387, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 USA.  Volunteer opportunities for farming and biking will be resuming next spring and summer.  Grant writing for disseminating the concept is needed, and if you can help at our Santa Cruz office or from your location, call 1-215-243-3144.

For Culture Change Letter editions on food security and land use, click here.  See our page on Bicycling News/Issues/Culture

For Jan VanderTuin's Center for Appropriate Transport website, click here.

Culture Change mailing address: P.O. Box 3387 , Santa Cruz , California 95063 USA
  Telephone 1-215-243-3144 (and fax)
Web: http://www.culturechange.org
E-Mail info@culturechange.org

Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit organization.