September 2009

Check out some of the top good food stories in the media this month.

2.    DOL Lists Sustainable Ag as Green Job
3.    USDA Launches “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food”
4.    Working Conference to Build Northeast Food System
5.    Meet the ALBA Regional Lead Team
6.    Good Food Media Digest
7.    October Cluster Call: Food Safety and the NGFN
8.    What's the Latest with the NGFN? Twitter Knows!
9.    Add your profile to the NGFN Database

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Stories

1. Merrigan to Play "Match-maker" for Local and Regional Food System Development

A recent memo from Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan expresses her desire to "play the role of match-maker" between producers, businesses, and non-profits and a variety of existing USDA resources.  Some of these tools and programs may seem unfamiliar, so join us for the NGFN webinar on Thursday, September 17th, where USDA staff will introduce many of these resources and others, and where you can ask them directly about their potential role for your project or organization.  

Here is a brief explanation of some of the resources available for good food work:

• For producers and producer groups, the Value Added Producer Grants application date closes November 30th, 2009.  This program specifically encourages applications for mid-tier value chains, has reserved funding (10%) for local food system development, and also has reserved funding (10%) for new, beginning, and socially disadvantaged producers. More Value Added Producer Grant project examples.
  
• For businesses, farmers, cooperative entities, and non-profits, the Rural Business and Industries Loan Guarantee program provides banks with guarantees to  reduce their lending risk while helping to make a loan applicant’s application successful.   While good food work is already eligible, in fiscal year 2010 there is a specific section of funding set aside for local and regional food systems equal to about $100 million in loan value.  Project beneficiaries can be in urban areas, however the project minimally should be headquartered in a rural area (50,000 or fewer people – see if your community is eligible).  Significant funding was provided for in the Recovery Act, with higher funding levels available until August 31, 2010
• For local Governments, Indian Tribes, and non-profits the Community Facilities Program can provide grants and loans for projects in rural communities (in this case 20,000 or fewer people) for “critical facilities.”  This can include food-related projects – even those designed to have a primarily urban beneficiary, such as a rural warehouse to aggregate food before shipping it to an urban are for retail.  It can support a wide variety of projects including but not limited to farmers markets, community-kitchen and food processing centers, food banks, cooking schools.  Loans are more easily awarded than grants applications: awarded grant funds are often part of a match or combined with loans.  Here too, significant funding was provided for in the Recovery Act, with higher funding levels available until August 31, 2010.

(Also see our story on the USDA "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program in this issue.)

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2. DOL Lists Sustainable Ag as Green Job

It took knocking on doors and dropping seeds of ideas into the federal government's grant making for the staff from the National Good Food Network and others to succeed in getting a recent Department of Labor solicitation to specifically include "sustainable agriculture" and "healthy food production" (Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 120, p. 30139) among industries eligible for green job training funds.

The opportunity now for good food advocates nationwide is to work locally on fully establishing this DOL seed so that it grows to support the work of training and equipping the new farmers this nation needs.

DOL and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have set a 2011 deadline for more succinctly defining what a green job is. Interaction and information from people and organizations in the good food field can help ensure that sustainable agriculture, arguably the greenest of green jobs, is fully defined and included.

Key contacts to make in this work of establishing good food's green job status are state-level workforce development agencies and local workforce boards, says NGFN manager Marty Gerencer. "Already, organizers in two states -- Iowa and California -- have leveraged the DOL listing in conversations with state agency leaders. The response has been very positive."

The NGFN is working this issue and is ready to help you, too. Send comments and questions to contact@ngfn.org. Information about the steps you've taken and any results are welcome, too!

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3. USDA Launches "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food"

Designed to raise awareness about local and regional food systems, and to identify USDA resources which can advance such systems, the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative is being launched with a series of events during the week of September 14th.  More than window-dressing, staff at USDA has been working to improve the coordination and delivery of existing resources across its internal agencies (for more information about USDA funding resources, join our September NGFN Cluster Call, which features a Q&A with grant program managers from throughout the agency).  Highlights of the launch include a “soup to nuts” web portal for farmers, businesses, potential buyers, and consumers to learn more about funding, technical assistance, and regulatory information affecting all actors in regional food supply chains and greater internal and external promotion of Rural Development programs for local and regional food systems. 

Events during the week of September 14th will cover different themes: rural revitalization, farm to institution purchasing, healthy eating and choices, and direct-marketing.  Also, look for gardening to appear in the news as well.  The Wallace Center has been involved with other NGOs, such as School Food FOCUS and the National Farm To School Network working to develop an action plan oriented in how USDA, with NGO support, can improve the technical assistance available to institutions interested in scaling up their food purchases from local and regional producers. 

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4. Working Conference to Build Northeast Food System

Good food advocates, planners, farmers and more will gather November 13-14 at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany, NY, to work through the meaning and mechanics of building a regional food system.

As Kathy Ruhf, coordinator of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) describes it: "We want to get beyond the jargon, myths and fuzzy concepts and come away with a coherent strategy and concrete plans toward our shared vision."

Through in-depth working sessions, homework, provocative debates and exercises, conference participants will tackle questions such as:

• Why regional? What does a regional food system look like?
• What do we want?  What will it take to get there?
• Who needs to be at the table? 
• What are our realistic milestones? What do we need to know, measure and monitor?

The event is NESAWG's 17th annual conference. For more information, visit ItTakesARegion.org, or contact Kathy Ruhf at kzruhf@verizon.net.

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5. Meet the ALBA Regional Lead Team

Based in Monterey County, California, the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) is a regional hub of activity around building a food system that nourishes farms and farm workers, as well as the people who eat the food they produce.

ALBA operates two incubator farms where aspiring operators can start their own ventures, and established farmers can innovate. In particular, ALBA focuses on building a path to economic success for families from the area's large farm worker and underserved Latino farmer population. Among ALBA's services are business and farm production training, along with ALBA Organics, a distribution arm of the incubator farms.

As a NGFN regional lead team, ALBA is bringing businesses and organizations in the region together to share their experiences with the work of moving and marketing Good Food. Case studies from this work to collect and share knowledge will soon be available through the NGFN. The case studies will include:

• The story of strengths and challenges that the organic wholesale produce distributor Veritable Vegetable has faced in its 35-year journey.
• The real-life learning of Jacob Farms and Del Cabo Produce, a farm and produce distribution company working on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border;
• The story of the Monterey Bay Organic Farming Consortium, an effort to aggregate and distribute produce from area farms to University of California-Santa Cruz. 
• Learning from People’s Grocery, an urban farming and Good Food distribution initiative based in the food desert of West Oakland .
• A presentation of the ALBA Organics, business model, which supports the market access needs of beginning farmers by aggregating their produce with other family farm produce and distributing it through diverse market channels.

All of these value-chain innovators are at the roundtable that ALBA convenes as a regional lead team, along with: 

• The California Institute for Rural Studies, which is helping the group define, understand, and communicate fair labor practices
• Cultivo Consulting, a consulting group that provides strategic support to community-based initiatives trying to move a policy agenda forward, with a particular focus on farm worker communities
  
• El Pájaro Community Development Corporation, a communitiy development corporation based in Watsonville, operating the only retail business incubator in the region, and a Women’s Business Education and Loan Program for Monterey County.
  
• National Rural Funders Collaborative, a collaborative of national funders committed to asset-based rural development.
  
• The Network for a Healthy California, with leadership from the Monterey County Health Department on public health outreach and policy development. 
• Growers Collaborative, a virtual farmers market moving local and sustainbly produced food from California farmers to hospitals, schools, restaurants and more in California. Growers Collaborative is a project of the California Association of Family Farms <http://www.caff.org/>
• PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by Lifting Up What Works®.
  
• Melanie Wong, a health care consultant and street food aficionado with a fierce commitment to connecting food producers and foodies to enjoy flavors and make positive change in the process
  
• ... and many other food, farm, business, and community partners in ALBA's extended network.

Brett Melone, ALBA Executive Director says “I am a firm believer in the value of networks. But the beauty of them is that you can never accurately envision the outcomes of connecting people because the synergies are only realized once people begin to exchange ideas and strategize on what’s possible now that they are working as a team. ALBA has experienced the virtues of “networking” in the name of Good Food on multiple levels through NGFN, including a 100% increase in sales at ALBA Organics in 2009, the development of new funding opportunities, documentation of best practices and challenges, vetting of nascent regional projects that deserve national attention, and simply, bringing people together, the benefits of which we will only know with the passing of time.

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6. Good Food Media Digest

Spotlight on Retailers and Distribution Hubs

A recent Washington Post article reports on yet another local food hub business underway and notes many others in what the article recognizes as an emerging sector.

A national contest to redesign farmers markets as urban food hubs lists finalists and winners.

News wires have been lit up lately with stories about encouraging retailers to start up or expand access to healthy foods.

• CBS News and others report on Michigan's pilot Neighborhood Food Movers initiative to help small, mobile food retailers get underway. The pilot is now operational in Detroit with the launch of three new businesses modeled after the success of local entrepreneur Peaches and Greens.
• Michigan's WKAR public radio reports on a new state tax credit designed to spur grocery store expansions.
• Supermarket News reports that Oklahoma's state leaders are studying how to incentivize grocery retailers.
• A new report on solutions to childhood obesity includes recommendation that states encourage grocery store development, as reported in USA Today.
• See the Healthy Corner Stores Network for more on local, state, and national work to increase neighborhood access to good food.
  

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7. October Cluster Call: Food Safety and the NGFN

On the third Thursday of every month the NGFN brings you Cluster Calls - webinars lead by the top people in the world of scaling good food. This month, the focus is on the very timely topic of food safety.

Steve Warshawer, Enterprise Development Manager, La Montanita Co-op is the NGFN Food Safety Coordinator. Join him as he reports on the state of food safety regulations and legislation. He'll be joined by some guests from partner non-profit organizations National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and National Organic Coalition (NOC). Learn the current status of food safety legislation, how it might effect you, and how you as an NGFN member can have a voice in the process.

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8. What's the Latest with the NGFN ? Twitter knows.

The National Good Food Network wants to give you the most up-to-the minute news, information and updates about network activities, and we'll be using Twitter to do it. You can now follow the NGFN by going to http://twitter.com/ngfn (or tweet to us by sending to @ngfn).

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9. Add your profile to the NGFN Database

Are you part of a food and farm initiative that more people should know about? Are you skilled or knowledgeable in an area of this work and ready to be part of it? Do you have some research to share? Then create your profile on ngfn.org to make sure your work shows up in the National Good Food Network's database of experts, organizations, and information. The database is just starting. Help it grow into the comprehensive clearinghouse we could all use!

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