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Triangle Region SUMMIT breakout session notes

Strengths/Assets

  • Market
  • Location
  • Strongest Ag climate in USA
  • Support of state governor
  • Talent present today! Different sectors
  • Enthusiastic & educated consumers
  • Proximity to farms and leaders
  • Area diversity
  • State based orgs
  • Experienced & successful farmers
  • Farmers acting as role models
  • Networking opportunities
  • Farm tours and programs
  • Higher education acting as advocates
  • Food coops
  • Food bank and IFS, Society of St. Andres
  • Creative & opportunistic land trust

Challenges/Needs

  • Cost of land
  • Development pressure
  • Policy barriers
  • Absence of coordination and collaboration
  • Rural areas lack comparable enthusiasm
  • Overcoming knowledge gap
  • Transportation- access
  • More farmers needed
  • Connecting successful farmers to new ones
  • Redefining farm to include public
  • More incubation opportunities
  • Permanent and accessible farmers markets- indoor
  • Access to community kitchen for all
  • State based arts

Opportunities- Local Action Idea

  • Incorporating farm-school and school-farm curriculum (Liz_driscoll@ncsu.edu & Spencer Dickinson- Spencetm@aol.com)
  • Preserving office of environmental ed
  • Regional Farm Link Program (ncffn.org)
  • Build on existing farmers markets
  • Building relationships with communities- all encompassing
  • Connecting with other movements
  • Educated talking points
  • Creating permanent indoor market houses in walkabout locations- Betsy Megalos
  • Marketing campaign (Courtney Tellefsen- 604.1688)
  • Incorporating TROSA- Susan O’Neill 919.932.4398
  • School & library gardens- educating location (liz_driscoll@ncsu.edu)
  • Veggie Bus- Mobile Market (Camille Sampino FVMMcamille@yahoo.com)
  • Roadside stands- emphasizing rural connectivity
  • Comprehensive list of community gardens- Diane Beth and Lucy Bradley- will send out through CEFS listserv
  • Educating local officials about public land use for community gardens- SpenceTM@aol.com

Next Steps

  • Triangle Area Strategic Plan (Debbie Roos, Diane Beth, SpenceTM@aol.com)
  • Inventory of personal and community ‘next steps’ and events (Rachel Smith Rachel.g.smith@ncdenr.gov, 919.733,0711- office of env. Ed calendar- eenorthcarolina.org)
  • Asset Mapping
  • Yahoo group/online forum- use NCSU majordomo- Debbie Roos can create if needed, or if we feel we have too man list can do it web based like WIT groups- Tes can help? Courtney Tellefsen- the produce box- 604.1688
  • Bridging the gap between low income and healthy foods- business plan
  • Helping health-risk populations- Camille Sampino- Frmmcamille@yahoo.com (or FVmmcamille@yahoo.com)- 596.9898
  • Regional areas within CEFS website
  • Trianglefoodcommons@ning.com
  • Connect with faith-based orgs- Lisa Tolley- lisa.tolley@ncdenr.gov

Table Top Strengths

  • High demand for local/sust. Food including LEED certification
  • Debbie Roos
  • Over 250 farms, farmers markets, and CSA’s
  • Educated and affluent market
  • Support organizations
  • Debbie Roos, Noah Ramiles, Mike Lanier
  • Talent/organizations/groups
  • Farms and farmlands somewhat available
  • Urban populations/proximity to farmers markets
  • Climate growing season
  • NC State, A&T, UNC, research
  • CCCC- sustainable ag program
  • Experienced successful farmers serving as role models
  • Farmers markets galore
  • Co-ops national models
  • CSA’s
  • Farm tours
  • Conferences & workshops
  • Mini mobile markets at worksites
  • Restaurants that promote local food
  • Promotional efforts- eat local month film festival
  • Lots of groceries sell organic/local
  • Good farmers markets
  • Chefs using local products
  • Clientele in urban areas pay for loc/org
  • Lots of passionate people doing great work
  • Motivated consumers
  • People with money
  • Access to politicians (statewide)
  • Great extension agents like Debbie Roos
  • Research institutions and state based institutions
  • # of farmers markets/coop markets/great restaurants who buy local
  • Size & popularity of farmers markets in triangle
  • Historic preservation walk
  • Faith community involvement
  • Schools & universities & research & teaching- smart people
  • Lots of restaurants featuring local foods
  • New farmers markets
  • Accessibility of urban markets to rural producers
  • Close to governor & legislature
  • Value added to processing center in orange county
  • Extension is moving in a good direction- so much potential
  • Piedmont bio fuels
  • Farmers & farmers markets- presence
  • Farmer advocacy organizations
  • Growing consumer awareness and demand
  • Innovative distribution channels emerging
  • Support of state governor
  • Diversity of stakeholders collaborating
  • Diversity of products/resources/client
  • University system
  • Health and human services
  • Food banks
  • Voracious market, easy access
  • Already have lots of grass fed beef
  • Universities as a resource
  • Large population of institutionalized individuals that are a potential market
  • Strong interest in community gardening
  • A lot of interest
  • Increase in school gardening
  • Interest from faith based community
  • Committed audience/market diversity, Non NC Natives
  • Large # of people who want to serve
  • Agnomic studies, opportunities, resources
  • Farmland protection programs, planning land use
  • Sustainable agricultural program of CCCC
  • Land trust (TLC)
  • Crop Mob (young farmers
  • Growing interest in youth gardening and farm to school

Table Top Challenges/Weaknesses

  • Cost as barrier
  • Affordable land, credit
  • Infrastructure
  • Regulations setting barrier between consumer and farmer
  • Not enough farmers
  • No local slaughterhouse for grass-fed beef
  • Development
  • Loss of farm land, fragmentation
  • Getting new farmers
  • Cost of land
  • Need to educate urban electorate and public
  • Convenience
  • How to work together but not overlap
  • Durham has no ag extension
  • Difficult to know who to go to- need directory
  • How to act as an industry without losing non industry folks
  • How to work collectively to be able to lobby
  • Figuring out how to reach various groups
  • Need coop in Raleigh
  • Growth of market
  • Lack of education
  • Organic farms
  • Not aware of everything going on, what government is doing, or what universities are doing
  • Large diversity of attendance, new types of markets, times and locations
  • Connecting to food justice issues- restoring markets
  • Stronger connection between local foods and hunger relief- access and affordability
  • Bringing local foods into the schools
  • Lacking appropriate infrastructure
  • Need more collaboration
  • Networking people who want to garden and those who have land
  • Populations not represented at this conference and in organization meetings
  • Students could have more opportunities to engage
  • Need to educate government employees and older generation at why we need to move in this direction
  • Educate our politicians
  • State farmers market wont feature local or organic- its pretty backward looking
  • We need more farmers
  • Need for education about cooking and eating seasonally
  • Extension needs to focus more on sustainable
  • Access to affordable land
  • Sprawl and rapid development
  • Develop a coherent, cohesive plan
  • Keeping together on education
  • Funding to support the work
  • Food still a non issue for 90% of populace
  • Education, education, education
  • Processing and distribution; greater accessibility
  • Regulatory and policy barriers
  • Insurance
  • Awareness/support of state/national legislators
  • Lack of knowledge about value, nutrition, preparation, organic
  • Location and schedule constraints
  • Population is decreasing available farmland
  • Lacking infrastructure & processing
  • Processing competition
  • Perception of public, education, accept less than perfect looking good, create demand
  • Restrictive demands- regulations/standards
  • Available, affordable farm land
  • Community methane bathroom- challenge in getting approved
  • Support for struggling farmers
  • General knowledge & interest in farming
  • Food coop near Raleigh
  • #’s are too large, communication
  • NCSU dining system slower than UNC CH and Duke
  • K-12 system
  • Not a lot of technical extension support for community gardens
  • Continue working on community garden list

Table Top Local Action Ideas & opportunities

  • Include A6 in regional growth plans
  • Community gardens
  • Local foods subset for a further organization and leverage for organizations
  • Finding ways around budgeting problems
  • Developing local ideas list for community builders
  • Land now and for future generations
  • Fraudulent use of the word ‘local’ we need to address- piedmont grown or triangle grown
  • Campaign to get consumers to approach their grocery stores and ask about their local foods
  • Education- change values and perceptions of consumers
  • Asset mapping
  • Permanent market house- Betty Megalos
  • Action plan for the triangle
  • Umbrella org for farmers markets
  • Incentives for farmland preservation
  • Scale appropriate regulations
  • 10% local
  • Grass-fed beef and local products in schools
  • Community gardens on county land
  • Education- incorporating food into curriculum
  • Waste to wealth
  • Reduce horticulture size
  • Limit to 2 acres
  • Connecting restaurant people who use local ingredients
  • Connecting people who cook in their homes with local ingredients
  • Confronting social justice/racial issues that are in this field
  • Relationship building, strengthening communities
  • Farmland protection petition for Durham NOW
  • Regional farm link resource- linking people who want to farm with available land- maybe through NC Farm transition network
  • Research into local farm impact- to use for lobbing and education campaigns
  • Save the office of environmental education
  • Working with agricultural community to get more on board with sustainability
  • Monthly breakfast
  • Neighborhood coops/buying clubs
  • NC State set up program for students with ag, etc to work with community groups
  • Scholarship program for low income people to buy at coops- coops could accept food stamps
  • Leadership program for minority and low wealth populations to promote local foods that are affordable
  • TROSA, SEEDS, One Durham, Everybody eats
  • Central place for all information
  • Identify all foundations who support local food
  • Educating future food system leaders- students matched with community groups
  • Youth food corps- set aside % of places for minority and low wealth folks
  • Find out about community garden space at libraries- how get it and create it
  • Get information to school parents thru PTA
  • Develop model fundraiser based on CSA or other distribution models: produce box, papa spuds
  • Growth of market
  • Map of farms
  • Get other counties to merge
  • Direct contact & farmers
  • Public transportation
  • Language
  • Triangle growth
  • Lack of education
  • Legislative advocacy- prepare talking points
  • Interview governor & select legislators- write an article
  • Community kitchen
  • Engage the community of artists (musicians, visual arts, etc.) in this movement
  • Local foods subset for A
  • Further organize and leverage organizations like seeds and crop mob
  • Finding ways around budgeting problems
  • Developing a local idea list for community building events
  • Land for now and for future generations
  • List of vacant spaces for farms/gardens and working with local government to have access to these lands