July 2017 -- Rhyne Cureton will be a junior at NC A&T University this fall majoring in Agricultural Education, after taking a gap year to explore his interests in agriculture. During his first two years in college, he discovered that he not only loved the outdoors, but was also fascinated with agriculture and its role [...]
July 2017 -- Alex Borst is a recent graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in International Studies. This summer, Alex is helping Working Landscapes to develop a new sweet potato value chain to supply its Chopped Produce Initiative. This program aggregates local produce, adds value by chopping and prepping it, and then distributes it to local schools [...]
NCGT's 2017 Local Food Supply Chain Apprentices are about to hit the ground running. Here's a sneak peak at who will be working where. Look for a complete write-up of their experiences at the end of the summer!
Last summer, Joel Sullivan, Director of Marketing for NCGT partner Cheney Brothers, Inc. (formerly Pate Dawson Co.), had a novel idea for his food distribution business: "chef-driven agriculture".
Hosting Agriculture & Food Entrepreneurship Training at Your Community College: A Webinar for Small Business Counselors and Cooperative Extension Agents July 18, 2017 | 11 a.m. to noon | Virtual | Online Registration Presented by NCGT and the North Carolina Rural Center, this webinar features two highly successful food and farm business training programs from [...]
Mini food shows are community-led events designed to showcase local farms and food producers to a variety of audiences, including buyers like restaurants and specialty shops, food distributors, and residents. This guide outlines the planning, preparation, and marketing tasks for hosting your own event.
MBA student teams from NC State University's Poole College of Management Supply Chain Resource Cooperative have worked with NCGT staff and partner entities since summer 2013 to investigate and address food business processes and supply chain issues across the local-to-mainstream food supply chain.
The grant work will focus on two types of unharvested produce: cosmetically imperfect (does not meet USDA #1 standards for scarring, size, or shape, but is otherwise edible); and produce that meets USDA #1 standards but is left in the field because harvesting costs exceed the market price of the produce. Figuring out how to "recover" this otherwise wasted produce can both improve growers' bottom line and make our food system more efficient and sustainable..
March 2017 -- NC Growing Together's newest partner is the Charlotte-based Piedmont Culinary Guild (PCG). The PCG is working to connect the food chain in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina by providing a gathering place and hub for innovative chefs, farmers, food artisans, culinary educators, and other professionals committed to building [...]
FreshPoint, in partnership with NC Growing Together and NC Cooperative Extension, hosted two informational sessions for interested growers on February 21 in Raleigh and February 23 in Charlotte.
