Putting Buffalo first
By Cynnie Gaasch
Amy Kedron is very close to having a waste-free home, and it’s no wonder, since she has built the organization Buffalo First around her beliefs in living a sustainable, environmentally friendly life. “I was exposed to PETA brochures at an early age,” she says. “I feel fortunate that I can get paid to take care of those things.”

Kedron founded Buffalo First in 2006 in order to actively engage Buffalo small businesses in building individually sustainable operations and a sustainable community. Behind the ideals of the organization is an emphasis on community, looking back to when our products, food, homes, and work places were all closely located. She believes bringing back some of these “old fashioned” practices—even small moves like living closer to work or buying food that is grown on a farm within 30 miles of your home—can impact the region’s health. Kedron draws a pretty shocking picture: “It is a well-established fact that the average plate of food travels over 1,500 miles to get onto our tables. That is literally the equivalent of someone traveling to the southern tip of Florida every time they eat. If we can source our meals within a hundred-mile radius, it significantly impacts the environment.”

Buffalo First educates businesses on how to localize, and now offers sustainable business consulting and evaluation of inputs and outputs, emphasizing green practices. They also practice what they preach. They partnered with UB Green for their annual outreach and fundraising event, the Buy Buffalo Bash, to make it (possibly) Buffalo’s first waste-free event. All waste went to a waste station, where it was divided into compost, waste, and recycling. A paper supply company donated compostable corn starch/potato utensils for eating, and the entire evening produced only one bag of garbage. But, some might ask, doesn’t that make the event much more expensive? Kedron says no. “The garbage was separated by volunteers, and compostable products are priced pretty competitively. At Wegmans, compostable plates are usually the same price as standard disposable utensils.”

Amy Kedron, founder of Buffalo First, with
Jonathan Welch, owner, Talking Leaves
Photo by kc kratt.
The assumption is that growing green costs green. She emphasizes that eco-friendly practices actually save money. “Eventually, a community ends up paying for waste and coping with mercury leaching from a landfill into a water supply, or higher taxes to pay for medical costs. Eventually we pay for that.” Buffalo First envisions a public valuing green, local, and fair choices. “We see retailers relying on one another much more. We want restaurateurs and grocers to know the names of the people that produced their foods. This makes a healthy community, which is the sum of all its parts.” Regarding Buffalo’s embrace of the organization, Kedron says, “There is certainly a need for what we are doing. The timing couldn’t be any better; we’ve been at capacity since we started in terms of people wanting to be members. We stopped actively recruiting, because we could not handle the influx, but we are still accepting new members.”

There is still a piece of the equation that troubles her: “It is really essential that social justice go hand in hand with environmental justice. If something has a price, if that price is unattainable by half of our community, then our goal is not attainable. You don’t have to have green to be green. We are the second poorest city in the United States, so it is crucial for that fact to be part of our equation. In a city that is poverty stricken, environmental and social justice can go hand-in-hand.”

Learn more about Buffalo First at www.buffalofirst.org and in the article which follows.

Cynnie Gaasch uses all plastic bags at least twice, uses cloth napkins, enjoys pre-loved clothing, donates above tossing, walks when she can, eats at least two meals a week made with vegetables and beef from Native Offerings Farm located fifty miles outside Buffalo, and makes sure to recycle.


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