Another swath of time has passed, most recently I have been traveling again to finish up some of the outstanding outreach from last year’s North Country Regional Foods Initiative (NCRFI).
November 9-11th I was in St. Petersburg, FL with Rod Howe attending the UEDA conference. We gave a presentation of the NCRFI and encouraged other folks in economic development to consider agriculture and local food as an avenue for economic development when they return to their home states. As this was a national conference we were able to also take in sessions on a variety of topics. So I was able to share as much as I learned. There are some innovative things being done to integrate youth entrepreneurship and foster this in economic development especially in locations such as Purdue University in Indiana.
I returned to NYS and Ithaca to attend the November Ag Inservice. Again, I was presenting to our colleagues around the state on the NCRFI as well as how we are moving forward in this region with respect to local foods.
I was also able to take in all the session on the local foods track. Duncan Hilchey shared his research that he is doing with Local Food Indicators–the pilot project that is being conducted in 3 counties around the state, one of which is Lewis County here in NNY. He also provided some great stats that counties can utilize to locate or determine whether there are ‘food’ deserts in their county/region. Finally, the additional resource sharing and brainstorming is always a benefit. We discussed at a roundtable lead by Heidi the initiatives that are going on around the state and how there can be more sharing around the state.
November 17th, Farm to School program at Paul Smiths College: There was a great turnout for this program and some awesome feedback. As well I was able to get some ideas for future programs and even secure a couple of speakers…watch this blog and the regional calendar for updates on that. Since this I have received interest from a school in our county interested in purchasing local and making this a stronger connection for them. Great work from the team: CCE Essex, Adirondack Harvest and other members of DMLF team.
Annual reporting time is upon us, and I will be focusing on compiling this data and dealing with local county related to local adminstrative stuff.
Until next time take care
Bernadette
