Scaling Out and Scaling Up
Scaling Up Good Food Value Chains
This session brings together 4 national leaders that have helped to scale up Good Food Value Chains in their respective regions. FamilyFarmed, Greenmarkets, Local Foods, and the Santa Monica Farmers Market each has developed unique programs to expand sales of sustainable local food with a strong focus on ensuring that farmers receive fair compensation for their products. It will also look at ways these organizations help to expand access to good food.
Jim Slama, CEO of FamilyFarmed; Laura Avery, Santa Monica Farmers Market; Marcel Van Ooyen is the CEO of Grow NYC; Andrew Lutsey is founder and CEO of Local Foods
Spawning & Replicating The Redd on Salmon
Ecotrust and The Redd will lead a fun think-tank meets collaborative panel around the creation of cohort businesses where multi-party stakeholders, creative financing and equity are at play. The Redd on Salmon street is a catalyst for designing a regional food system that provides financial, social and environmental benefits to the same communities who depend on these systems for food. Situated on two city blocks in the heart of Portland, the Redd seeks to rebuild a scale of producers and connect the supply to institutional demand. The space offers right-sized processing and distribution infrastructure for these rural producers and urban entrepreneurs, creates a container for collaboration among diverse players, and provides a gathering space for convening, like NGFN, to advance thought leadership on food system reform. Together we are catalyzing the emergence of a post-industrial food system – one that is prosperous, nutritious, equitable, restorative and delicious.
Emma Sharer, Operations Manager, The Redd on Salmon Street
Equity in value chains: practical strategies for community economic development
This session will highlight innovative and practical methods for embedding equity into the development of regional value chains. Join the Corbin Hill Food Project, the Center for Social Inclusion, USDA Rural Development, and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, for a discussion on applied strategies of furthering equity across the value chain. Presenters will provide a brief overview of best practices, feature several illustrative examples, and engage the audience in discussion to examine the linkages between organizational sustainability, economic development, and equity. Participants will also be given the opportunity to engage with one another around challenges and barriers they face in this regard and brainstorm potential solutions. The impacts of highlighted approaches, including those related to agriculture and nutrition linkages, population health, and rural-urban connections will also be described. Please join us as we explore and discuss methods to align both a mission based approach, with economic needs and realities.
Erica Christensen, Corbin Hill Farms; Alex Cordova, USDA; Rachel Spencer, USDA
Urban-Rural Connections for Economic Development
Hear “economic development” and many people picture a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a warehouse, factory, or store. But what does economic development really look like? What does it take to launch and sustain successful food-based economic development projects that meet the needs of diverse groups with divergent priorities? Practitioners from rural, peri-urban, and urban perspectives will discuss strategies for effective regional food economy development, how to define ‘success’, and how equity and transparency will be crucial to developing sustainable urban-rural economic connections that benefit farmers, eaters, and everyone in between. You’ll walk away with useful tools and perspectives no matter where you live or what your region’s food economy looks like, and be inspired to tackle the toughest problems in regional food economy development.
Molly Riordan, City of Philadelphia; Sue Beckwith, Texas Center for Local Food; Todd Erling, Hudson Valley Agriculture Development Corp