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NorthEast Region SUMMIT breakout session notes

Strengths/ Assets

  • Beautiful farm and water resources
  • Knowledgeable farmers, fishing and forest producers and communities
  • Markets- tourists, retirees, people living there, large urban population not too far away (Norfolk/Virginia Beach)
  • Strong local food heritage- gardens
  • East Carolina, ECSU, community and private colleges
  • Diversity- urban and rural, ethnically, economic levels
  • Community action and engagement in issues relating to social justice
  • Viable Cooperative Extension with strong 4-H, ANR, FCS and CRD programs, master gardeners and other programs as well as other agencies such as Public Health and P.A.N..

Challenges

  • Distances
  • Infrastructure- water and sewer systems and pressure from development on people who have loved there for many years
  • Need to integrate in-migrants from north and elsewhere so that there is a shared process of moving forward on issues facing communities bringing expertise from within the community there and the new-comers
  • Traditional agricultural production practices, difficulty of seeing the value of organic and alternative market interests
  • Poverty and educational disparities,
  • Education needed in terms of working together, nutrition, organics, jobs and economic viability, artisan and specialty training in areas such as artisanal meat cutting, fish handling, restaurants and chefs
  • Lack of jobs and things for young people
  • Lack of processing and post harvest value adding- distances to Siler City chicken processing

Opportunities and focus

    1. Addressing issues of regulations and bureaucratic impediments to local foods- lack of understanding, communication among agencies, interest in accepting local and safe practices Build a regional focus on this using the university, reaching out to the School of Government and other partners so as to reduce the conflicting, incompatible and unnecessarily adversarial approach to rules and regulations in the various governmental entities (cities, counties) and the various agencies who are all not on the same page in terms of interpretation of rules and regulation and do not put support for safe local food systems on their agenda.
    2. Develop local branding and appellation aspects to food of the region to be celebrated by local communities and communicated to visitors and folks traveling through the region.
    3. Education of the value of social justice and nutritional health and well being issues for the citizens of the region; education of mutual respect and valuing participation of traditional members of the community and newcomers so that they recognize the contributions of each and all.
    4. Community food handling facility such as Blue Ridge Ventures.
    5. EBT and other tools to connect with lower income, senior and other potential participants in local food systems.

Further Notes from one of the tables

Strengths/ Assets

  • ECU Health Center- focus area for medical/ health initiatives
  • Lots of farm land
  • Strong heritage- cultural connection
  • Varieties of farm sizes- large to small
  • Roanoke Valley eco-tourism
  • Tourism base coastal and tidewater- productive inlands.

Opportunities

  • Inland connection to coast dollars and visitors

Challenges

  • Vastness- regional differences- lower piedmont and tidewater are quite distant and different;
  • Long distances and low population
  • Lack of meat slaughter and distribution
  • Early success- around Snow Hill, Greenville, Kinston, New Bern, good chefs, buying clubs, lots of activity.
  • Local policy needs to support land use, fishermen can’t sell direct to public, land zoned strangely- can’t have farmers market because of land zoned residential.
  • Chefs at good restaurants don’t understand seasonality, use of whole animal, localness of produce (whereas chefs in Triangle get it more).

Chefs and Farmers Market Local Action Ideas

  • Chef-to-chef training to understand menu planning, training of meat cutting
  • Consumer education
  • Get to figure a better way for local branding of seafood sourcing- which bay or river, seasonality understanding, marketing local product, media to customer (more like Carteret Catch)
  • Unexploited market- Greenville- ECU Health Systems, Nutrition Department, environmental groups are strong. Link land use planning, economic development and agriculture.