Farm to Fork Summit focuses on local food
Dr. Nancy Creamer of CEFS hosted the summit, which included posters of “game-changer” ideas for building local foods economies.
Photo by Becky Kirkland
How would you build local foods economies for North Carolina communities? About 400 farmers, food-service buyers, health professionals, county government officials, chefs and university representatives came together at the Farm to Fork Summit held in N.C. State’s McKimmon Center in May to ask that question as they develop a state action plan. The conference included remarks and pledges of support by N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue, U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, former U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton and other dignitaries.
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), directed by Dr. Nancy Creamer, hosted the summit, which took place after more than a year of planning and conversations. Last fall, CEFS hosted six regional summits to learn what was happening regionally to build local food economies and to identify opportunities and obstacles. Other dignitaries offering support were Dr. Jon Ort, director of N.C. Cooperative Extension Service at N.C. State University; Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, administrator of N.C. Cooperative Extension Program at N.C. A&T State University; and Maurice Totty of the Compass Group, the world’s largest food distributor.
Ort and McKinnie pledged support for local food economies in North Carolina during the Farm to Fork Summit. When Extension interviewed 22,000 citizens last summer about what they needed, local food was a key issue identified as needing support from Extension, Ort told the group. He pledged support for a Web site that would help producers and consumers with production, marketing and access to local foods. In addition, training will help Extension agents increase their skills for building local food economies.
“Extension is working on all sides of this issue,” Ort said. “A number of counties are already working on this, but there’s a lot more work to be done.”
McKinnie said the local foods movement takes Extension back to its roots — teaching people how to grow food. By working across program areas, he said, Extension can help support local foods initiatives.
Brenda Sutton, who serves as The Produce Lady for Extension’s Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture Program and is Extension director in Rockingham County, was among the Extension professionals attending the conference. “The summit provided an opportunity for so many conversations to help us all move forward with the local foods movement in our own communities,” Sutton said.
Perdue told the crowd that the Governor’s Mansion had an organic vegetable garden that contributed food to local food banks. She pledged her full support for building sustainable local food economies for North Carolina.
The first day of the summit, 11 working issues teams presented ideas that could be implemented to move their causes forward. The ideas ranged from establishing a marketing campaign aimed at getting North Carolina consumers to eat 10 percent local foods to developing a community garden in each county to creating a state Food Safety and Security Commission to help small producers deal with regulatory complexity.
Before the conference even got under way, one of the working issue teams (WIT) came close to achieving a major goal — legislative action on establishing a sustainable local food policy council for North Carolina. As a direct result of action by the Foundations and Baselines WIT, Sen. Charles Albertson introduced S.B. 1067, which passed the state senate on May 12, the second day of the summit.
Creamer told the participants of next steps for the project. CEFS is developing the State Action Plan for Building a Sustainable Local Food Economy in North Carolina, which will be presented to decision makers, policy makers, business leaders, government agencies and funders over the next few months. Many of the other ideas are being developed.
Grant funds from Golden LEAF and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will establish a position to help move many aspects of the Farm to Fork initiative forward. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program funds will support training for county teams that want to develop local foods economies. W.K. Kellogg Foundation funding to CEFS will provide mini-grants for small projects.
—Natalie Hampton
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), directed by Dr. Nancy Creamer, hosted the summit, which took place after more than a year of planning and conversations. Last fall, CEFS hosted six regional summits to learn what was happening regionally to build local food economies and to identify opportunities and obstacles. Other dignitaries offering support were Dr. Jon Ort, director of N.C. Cooperative Extension Service at N.C. State University; Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, administrator of N.C. Cooperative Extension Program at N.C. A&T State University; and Maurice Totty of the Compass Group, the world’s largest food distributor.
Ort and McKinnie pledged support for local food economies in North Carolina during the Farm to Fork Summit. When Extension interviewed 22,000 citizens last summer about what they needed, local food was a key issue identified as needing support from Extension, Ort told the group. He pledged support for a Web site that would help producers and consumers with production, marketing and access to local foods. In addition, training will help Extension agents increase their skills for building local food economies.
“Extension is working on all sides of this issue,” Ort said. “A number of counties are already working on this, but there’s a lot more work to be done.”
McKinnie said the local foods movement takes Extension back to its roots — teaching people how to grow food. By working across program areas, he said, Extension can help support local foods initiatives.
Brenda Sutton, who serves as The Produce Lady for Extension’s Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture Program and is Extension director in Rockingham County, was among the Extension professionals attending the conference. “The summit provided an opportunity for so many conversations to help us all move forward with the local foods movement in our own communities,” Sutton said.
Dr. Nancy Creamer
Photo by Becky Kirkland
Photo by Becky Kirkland
The first day of the summit, 11 working issues teams presented ideas that could be implemented to move their causes forward. The ideas ranged from establishing a marketing campaign aimed at getting North Carolina consumers to eat 10 percent local foods to developing a community garden in each county to creating a state Food Safety and Security Commission to help small producers deal with regulatory complexity.
Before the conference even got under way, one of the working issue teams (WIT) came close to achieving a major goal — legislative action on establishing a sustainable local food policy council for North Carolina. As a direct result of action by the Foundations and Baselines WIT, Sen. Charles Albertson introduced S.B. 1067, which passed the state senate on May 12, the second day of the summit.
Creamer told the participants of next steps for the project. CEFS is developing the State Action Plan for Building a Sustainable Local Food Economy in North Carolina, which will be presented to decision makers, policy makers, business leaders, government agencies and funders over the next few months. Many of the other ideas are being developed.
Grant funds from Golden LEAF and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will establish a position to help move many aspects of the Farm to Fork initiative forward. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program funds will support training for county teams that want to develop local foods economies. W.K. Kellogg Foundation funding to CEFS will provide mini-grants for small projects.
—Natalie Hampton