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Va. meeting to discuss community food systems
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The largest used equipment inventory in the Mid-Atlantic is only a click away. Visit our website by clicking here or visit us at one of our 11 locations throughout MD, DE, VA and PA.
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Va. meeting to discuss community food systems
3.25.2008
By Jane W. Graham
AFP Correspondent
Virginians will have a chance March 27 to learn about local community food systems during a conference at Weyers Cave.
Fred Kerschenmann, a distinguished fellow at Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, will deliver the keynote address.
His presentation at the Community, Farm and New Food Systems Conference is titled “Integrating Farming, Food and Health in the 21st Century.”
The conference is from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Plecker Workforce Center, Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. The cost is $25.
The sponsor, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, is inviting farmers, food entrepreneurs, local government, economic officials, institution food buyers and community members interested in the topic, a Virginia Tech news release said.
The conference is designed to let these people learn and engage in discussion about integrating Virginia’s agriculture, local economies and health communities.
“There is an emerging movement for fresh, locally produced foods and farm products,” said Eric Bendfeldt, community viability specialist for VCE, in the news release.
“This conference will address key issues related to community food systems, including how to integrate farming, food and health in the 21st century; create better direct connections between growers and consumers; and how community food systems fit into a social and economic development strategy.”
Noel Levan, a participant in the conference, pointed to the price of gasoline as a factor in the cost of food, in a pre-conference telephone interview.
“As we all know with the price of gasoline, getting your food from far away is going to be more expensive,” Levan said.
He pointed to books about “the 100-mile diet” which he said teaches that people are generally healthier if they eat food grown within 100 miles of where they live.
“Many of us have come to recognize that the many values of supporting our local economy.” Levan is the vice president of the Friendly City Food Co-op, which is planning to open a full-service grocery store serving local food in Harrisonburg, Va., in spring 2009.
He noted that the Shenandoah Valley has four of Virginia’s five largest agriculture-producing counties.
This is all the more reason to support agriculture in the valley and eat the food grown there, he said. The conference will have a segment on marketing, Levan said. It will look at “market table food” and compare such things as how many people have handled the food sold in grocery stores and how many people have handled the food sold at farmers’ markets.
He said there are hidden costs in food from afar, such as fertilizers, pesticides, heribcides and additives that consumers cannot learn about.
Levan said the farmer and consumer are the only ones to handle the food at the local farmers’ market. There the consumer can ask if the food is organically grown or how it is grown.
He said the conference will focus on what organic means, knowledge that both farmers and consumers need.
“Farmers want to know how to produce the best food at an appropriate price,” Levan said. “The consumer wants this to.”
He believes the conference holds the promise of helping all segments of the local population in decision-making about food and keeping it and local resources local.
David Ward, co-chair of the Association of Family Farms in Washington, D.C., and Kanyar Enshayan, local food coordinator for the University of Northern Iowa Local Food Project and a Cedar Falls city council member, will join Kirschenmann as speakers at the conference. “Values-based Value Chains: Changing the Way We Feed America,” is Ward’s Topic. Enshayan will talk about “Community Food Systems as a Social and Economic Development Strategy.”
Two panel discussions are planned for the conference.
They will be about distribution, infrastructure, local procurement, and university food and farm initiatives.
The panel participants include:
• Sarah Roussos, co-owner of Green Alchemy Herb and Mercantile, Loudoun County
• Philip Ackemerman-Leist, director of Food and Farm Project at Green Mountain College in Poullney, Virgina Tech
• Steve Yetzer, owner of Cavalier Produce in Charlottesville
• Charles Martin, farmer and board member of the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction in Dayton
• Noel Levan, vice president, Founding Team for the Friendly City Food Co-op in Harrisonburg
• Carl Miller, vice president of merchandising for SYSCO in Virginia
• Christopher Carpenter, special projects coordinator for Dining Services at Washington and Lee University
• Dr. Wayne Teel, associate professor of integrated science and technology at James Madison University
Lunch featuring local foods from the farmers in the area prepared by Chef Ian Boehn of the Staunton Grocery and music by Adrienne Young, a singer-songwriter who uses her music to nurture awareness about local foods systems, will be part of the day’s activities.
Young’s album, “Plow to the End of the Row,” was nominated for a Grammy. She is an advocate for Buy Fresh Buy Local and the American Community Gardening Association.