Food Summit!!!

The following was sent out to the list serve of Slow Food Columbus. This is a big deal for Columbus. I hope that this really comes together and brings a lot of people to the table to talk about and take action in creating food systems that work towards bringing quality food to everyone’s table.

Dear member of the Central Ohio food community,

Thanks for expressing an interest in a food summit later this summer. While we had tentatively scheduled the event for July 2, a variety of considerations, including the availability of some of the groups that we hope to see there, the time-consuming process of broadening our network of contacts, and the need to ensure some lead time before the meeting, have prompted us to aim instead for a date in the fall. You don’t need to do anything at this point; this note is just to let you know that things are progressing and that we’ll be letting you know more as the date draws near.

In the meantime, we’d like your input regarding how we might make this gathering most useful for you. The meeting was prompted by our observation that many groups in Columbus had common goals but lacked the information about one anothers plans that would enable them to coordinate their activities usefully. The core idea was that, if someone provided a forum in which they could do so, these groups could not only get to know one another better but explore ways of leveraging their comparative advantages to achieve their goals. We also thought that community groups with food-related agendas (ourselves, Wild Goose Creative, Green Drinks, Students for Food Sovereignty) should be involved in the discussion as well, to facilitate communication with the broader community. Our idea, then, was a meeting that was part informational (with everyone discussing their organization’s plans for the coming year) and part unstructured (with time alloted so that people
whose organizations had similar plans could touch base, exchange information, and explore ideas for collaboration).

Since then, we’ve started to realize that mid-Ohio food organizations may be more coordinated than we had realized, but the overall picture that we’ve been getting has not been very clear. Some of the individuals we’ve contacted have been very enthusiastic about exactly the sort of meeting that we’ve just described. Others have cited existing meetings at the state and local level among representatives of many of these groups and pointed out that, to a degree, one aspect or another of the coordination we’d hoped to achieve is ongoing. This news is quite welcome to us, of course, since it means that our original goals are being achieved, but the fact that only some groups are responding in this manner is puzzling.

Above all, we want to be useful to you. So this is your opportunity to tell us how we can best do that. We will set aside, most likely, two or three hours in which representatives of food organizations and food-related community groups will be in one place. Do you see the informational/unstructured format above as being the best way to spend that time, or would it be covering ground that’s already been covered (exhaustively) in other fora? If the latter, what would you most like to talk about or hear about in that time, and why? We’re happy to read your thoughts, and we appreciate your time.

Best regards,

Bethia Woolf
Bear Braumoeller
Slow Food Columbus

ODA New Cottage Rules

It’s official. The new Ohio Dept. of Ag Cottage food rules were released. The rules now allows for a variety of new foods to be home produced, without the need for an inspected commerical kitchen.  This opens up opportunities for small food producers to expand into new areas with little overhead cost.  It also expands new products available to consumers at farmers’ markets and similar venues.

The new rules are available in (pdf document) at the ODA web site: New Cottage Food Rules.

The current food saftey rules ORC 3715 can be found here.

What’s in your Future, Foodie?

Food production is in full force in central Ohio. The pick-your-owns are finishing up on early strawberries and asparagus, newly created community gardens are full of leafy greens and more gardens are added every day. For those really into local food, you could even plan a trip to a produce auction in Amish country up north. Perhaps you would buy a pressure cooker or dehydrators. Units start at $30-$40 and are well worth the effort to put up scads of produce for winter when they are at their peak.
From the commercial point of view, I foresee that as more farmers come into being, that more local produce auctions might spring up as side lines to farm markets that become more permanent in other parts of town. I mention this because of how important it is to mom and pop stores and restaurants to have access to local produce that is at a negotiable price. Supporting and understanding the supply and demand marketing factors of food is a major part of getting nutritious high quality product directly into sustainable walking communities. This will empower a lot of small businesses and communities to take control of their own destiny. It will strengthen the local tax base by creating more jobs for more places that don’t currently have grocery stores within walking distance. Perhaps even the corporations will need to restructure so that they can buy smaller quantities on demand from local farmers. Some corporations such as Chipotle’s and Whole Food have found that a 300 acre local farm can supply the quantities they need to do this. First we need to train enough farmers and create the infrastructure to support this economy of scale. Many young aspiring farmers have done the internship for little or no pay. We need to get them on their own land now. Communal plots of several families (shades of Amish business plans) are probable, too.
The following organizations need your support to accomplish this: OEFFA, 4H, Ohio Farmland Preservation and as many groups that would duplicate the efforts of AceNet in Athens. So keep buying local anywhere you can. There’s a new movie out that sounds good. Check it out if you can Food,Inc. Well, that’s it for now. Kareng

Veggie Van is Around Town

Local Matter’s Veggie Van will be making the rounds around town with their fresh local veggies in underserved neighborhoods.

See the schedule of Veggie-Van-Sites-Summer-2009 (pdf)

Food Chain Meeting in July

A Food Chain Meeting  that will take  place early the morning of July 16th in Bellville. It will  be at the Dutch  Heritage Restaurant just off of Interstate 71 (four exits  north of Polaris).  This bi-monthly meeting has proved to be a great networking  opportunity for  growers, processors, buyers, and others to meet. The topic  next month is  OSU’s Eat Global, Buy Local initiative, and the speaker is  OSU Dining  Service’s Sous Chef Patrick Murphy. Details are on the Flyer(pdf).

Waxman Food Safety Bill Introduced

On Wednesday, May 27, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (CA-30) released a discussion draft  of his food safety bill, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill is largely based on provisions in H.R. 259, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009, introduced by Representative Dingell earlier this year. House Energy and Commerce Committee staff has said they plan to mark up the Waxman food safety bill and report it out of Committee during the month of June and prior to the July 4 congressional recess.

Read the draft bill. We will comment on this bill after analysis.