Farm Route to Prosperity participants take next steps for reaching ambitious, 10-year goal
Nearly 120 food and farm leaders gathered on Friday, April 9, at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay to plan next steps toward the 10-year goal they set at last year's inaugural Farm Route to Prosperity summit: Increasing the resilience and doubling the value of northwest Michigan's food and farming system.
The gathering brought together a broad range of people and organizations involved in the region's Food and Farming Network, which formed after last year's summit as a way to connect and focus various ongoing local food and farming projects. The Network is one of six working groups associated with the Grand Vision, a regional initiative to support citizens and communities in accomplishing a 50-year development plan that 15,000 people participated in crafting over the last two years.
Two video blogs from the event are now online at the Michigan Land Use Institute and The Grand Vision Web sites.
The gathering brought together a broad range of more than 100 people and organizations involved in the region's Food and Farming Network (FFNet), which formed after last year's summit as a way to connect and focus various ongoing local food and farming projects. Young and older farmers were there. So were chamber of commerce representatives, food distributors, chefs, and farmland preservation groups. Rounding out the many voices involved were also health professionals, educators, and childcare leaders.