SPOKANE, WASH. — LINC Foods in Spokane is connecting with farmers to practice environmentally sustainable farming and distribution.
The farmer and worker-owned cooperative distributes food locally from farmers within a 250-mile radius of Spokane.
All of the farms involved used environmentally sustainable practices.
"They don't use any pesticides or fertilizers that are derived from a non-organic source. They can only use organic approved inputs," said Beth Robinette, co-founder of LINC Foods. "The other requirement is no genetically modified organisms. We have farmers that are doing a lot integrating cover crops. They are looking at planting to attract beneficial insects to their farms and provide more food for pollinators."
"We have farms that are really focused on soil health and minimizing the disturbance of soil so that all that rich microbiota underneath of the soil surface can stay intact and keep sequestering carbon and feeding the plants," Robinette continued.
LINC Foods distributes to Gonzaga University, hospitals and restaurants. It also does a weekly produce program that you can subscribe to online.
"We have some mixed cauliflower," Robinette said. "We have parsnips from Full Bushel Farm. We have these beautiful little baby butternut squash from Urban Eden Farm. We have beautiful carrot bunches from Urban Eden Farm."
"We want the farmers to be able to have a nice, really steady order where they have predictable income week after week but the consumer gets to have a nice selection of whatever is in season," she continued.