August 11, 2009

 
Food Ag Network Council Meeting Notes August 11, 2009
 
Present: Marguerite Cotto (Education/Training Working Group chair), Veronica Moyer (Infrastructure Working Group chair), Diane Conners (Health/Youth Working Group chair), Gabe Ericksen (Buyer Working Group co-chair), Bob Russell, Patty Cantrell (MLUI convener), Jim Sluyter, Anna Blight (Agri-science director at Career Tech), Susan Cochiarelli (C S Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems).
 
Agenda
1. Introductions, Anna Blight
2. Food Safety Update
3. Work Plan
4. Fall Meeting
5. Web Update
6. Tasks, Next Meeting
 
Anna Blight reported on activities at Career Tech and their interest in greenhouses for bedding plants, flowers and basic horticultural education for high school juniors and seniors. She expressed an interest in attracting classroom presenters on topics that might be useful and inspiring to this group, indicating that field trips to Meadowlark Farm had been valuable and well received. They are considering options for generating incomes from greenhouse and other horticultural operations to motivate kids and teach business skills. A CSA was mentioned as a possibility. Jim Sluyter encouraged her to send one or two representatives to the CSA mini-school, to be scheduled this fall.
 
Marguerite Cotto followed with a report on the interest at NMC to upgrade the content and curriculum of the Applied Plant Science Degree.
 
Food Safety: Gabe Ericksen reported on the Forum with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. He was able to deliver the letter from the Council to an aide. Small farmers in the group brought out many of the same points that we made in the letter, and have discussed here. The meeting got boisterous. He will be writing an article for the Oryana newsletter, which he will share with the FFN.
 
Susan Cociarelli pointed out that there are many groups meeting on these and other food system issues. She noted the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the National Good Food Network.
 
Patty Cantrell suggested some overall considerations regarding food safety issues:

  1. we should start moving form general considerations to specifics
  2. we need to get ahead of the curve
  3. we need to determine some of the specific steps that need to be taken

 
Marguerite reported on an initiative at NMC to develop virtual libraries in ‘D Space,’ which is a mechanism (software) for building digital repositories of library and training materials, accessible to anyone. Their first foray into D Space is with an online Water library, followed by Energy. Interest has already been expressed, though, in a similar effort to assemble information on GAP audits and food safety considerations.
   Governance Working Group: Patty and Marguerite have met on the topic of forming this working group. Nikki Rothwell may be recruited to pull it together.
 
Veronica Moyer suggested that her group (Infrastructure) will be surveying some of the groups they represent about their top three challenges. Food safety is expected to be one of them. They will move from that identification to identifying key initiatives for meeting those challenges. They will try to identify the simplest options (the ‘low hanging fruit’) first. Also, there should be an effort to seek synergies within and between working groups. Producers need to be surveyed, though conversations may be a better strategy than written surveys for getting information from that group.
 
Bob Russell reported on a local food problem with the Bioneers Conference at NMC: food service provider Sodexo will not allow suppliers that do not have a $5 million insurance policy to provide food for the cafeteria, effectively cutting out the small growers that supply most of the Bioneers food. They will hire a caterer and serve food in classrooms to circumvent this problem, and use the experience as a teaching moment for participants on the issue of food safety and its implications for small growers. Solutions at NMC will have to come from the Board of Trustees, which approves contracts for food.
 
Fall Meeting: There was a discussion about how to re-connect with the working groups and bring interested people into the discussions. The option of quarterly meetings was quickly discarded as too frequent in already full calendars. Twice a year – fall and spring – seemed more reasonable. With NMC invested in the group, Olson Center will probably be available at low or no charge. Marguerite will check for open dates, avoiding Grand Rapids Expo December 7 to 10.
 
Meeting with Stabenow Aide: Patty reported that a meeting with Illana Levinson, Senator Stabenow’s agriculture aide, is scheduled for August 25 at the MLUI office. She and Jim Sluyter are planning on it. Given food safety issues in the legislature, Patty asked that FFN have some representation at the meeting. Veronica will attend and Jim Bardenhagen was suggested as a second. An audio recording of the meeting to share with the FFN was suggested (not for public) and Patty will ask if that is an option.
 
Finance Working Group: Chris Wendell reported on the web site their working group set up for financial and business resources for the ag sector (upnorthfoodandfarming.wordpress.com). With the FFN website up and running, that function will probably be moved to the financial working group page. He mentioned loan opportunities through USDA and SBA, peer-to-peer lending options that are available on the Internet and micro- and revovleing-loan programs that are under discussion at SBTDC.
 
Web Resources: Jim Sluyter and Bob Russell updated the group on web site innovations, including the new tab for the Governance Working Group and the updated Home Page, now set up as a ‘story page.’ This allows addition of material, with the newest story appearing at the top of the list. The groupw was encouraged to start using the story page, as well as the working group pages. An internal contact page for council chairs and others as needed is available on the site when logged in. All Council meeting notes are posted.
   Bob set the pages up to allow editing without having to uncheck Automatic alias, simplifying the editing process. 
   Discussion of how the site could be used more effectively followed. Social networking (like Facebook, Twitter) can be effective in driving traffic to the site, but the site needs to be very dynamic and frequently updated to make that useful.  Suggestions avoid having to create content included simply watching for interesting links, stories and news and incorporating it in a ‘best of’ type of content block.   
 
Tasks:

  1. Chris will work on some sample blogging on food safety
  2. Patty will identify links to other content of interest
  3. Marguerite will check on Olson Center availability for fall meeting.
  4. Gabe will identify Oryana’s ability to provide food support for the meeting.
  5. Diane Conners will be meeting on Monday, August 17 with the education/training workgroup.

 
 
 
Next Meeting: September 1, 1-3 pm at the MLUI conference room.
 
Submitted August 25, 2009 by Jim Sluyter