Support Local Food and Farms
Click here to watch farmers and chefs talk about The Meaning of Berkshire Grown!
Join us to support local agriculture at the March Maple Dinner, you can be part of growing the local food economy
Thanks to Brent Wasser for producing the short film last year at the March Maple Dinner at The Red Lion Inn, join us this year, splurge on a delicious cause!
Hear about a Mobile Market in Rhode Island, and food processing in Greenfield, MA; public is welcome, First Baptist Church in Pittsfield, Monday March 11, 7:30 pm
February 25th, 3 – 4:30 free and open to the public, at the auditorium of the Berkshire Athenaeum (Pittsfield’s public library), 1 Wendell Avenue, just east of Bank Row and the city center green.
Our panelists are Jim Hyland of Farm to Table Co-packers (F2T) in Kingston, NY, and Michael Tesoro of Ooma Tesoro’s, based in Windsor, Mass.
F2T was one of four 2012 winners of the prestigious Harvest Award from the Glynwood Foundation, recognizing innovation and leadership in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems. More information about F2T is here:
http://www.farm2tablecopackers.com/
F2T is also one of two organizations that will receive a state grant of more than $826,000 as part of a $3.6 million New York initiative to develop food hubs announced today (Feb. 13) by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. According to the Governor’s announcement, the Hudson Valley Food Hub funding will expand the infrastructure of two successful food processing and distribution firms that serve New York State farms: Farm to Table Co-Packers and Hudson Valley Harvest. With additional processing equipment, cold/freezer storage, trucks and distribution depots, these two businesses will have expanded capacity to meet the growing demand for local food from customers in New York City and throughout the Northeast. The Hudson Valley Food Hub works with over 60 NYS Farms from 19 counties, farming over 7,500 acres. Products coming through the food hub include vegetables, berries, fruits, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, goat, honey, maple syrup, grains, beans, cider and eggs.
Berkshire County’s Ooma Tesoro’s continues to expand production and distribution of its marinara sauce to some 200 stores throughout New England. The New York Times called the saga of Ooma Tesoro’s “a storybook tale of small business triumph.” Michael is now planning the next phase of expanding his business to meet increased demand. He will discuss his personal experience in building a food business from scratch – from product development, regulation, production, packaging, sales and marketing, and distribution. He will also discuss new opportunities to expand value-added processing in Berkshire County.
This event is co-sponsored by Berkshire Grown, Sustainable Berkshires, and Keep Berkshires Farming.
Please RSVP to barbara@berkshiregrown.org
Hope to see you there!
Thanks for joining us at the Holiday Farmers’ Markets!
You helped us to make a difference by buying directly from a farmer
Buying directly from a farmer strengthens the local economy!
Monday December 3rd, 2012 at 7 pm
Edible Education 2012:MIKE CALLICRATE is an independent cattle producer, business entrepreneur, and political activist. He serves as an outspoken leader in addressing the rural, social, and cultural impacts of current economic trends. He consulted on several best-selling books, including Fast Food Nation and Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as the highly regarded films Food Inc. and Fresh. Since the mid-1990s, Callicrate has been actively involved in social and political efforts to improve the welfare of family farmers and to restore effective publicly-regulated markets, including participating as a plaintiff in two class action lawsuits against the big-four meat packers for anti-competitive practices. He is a founding member of several farm advocacy groups, including the Organization for Competitive Markets, R-CALF, and the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association. In recognition of his efforts, he has received the “Westerner of the Year” award from Western Ranchers Beef Cooperative; the first ever Legacy Award from the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association; and the Carl L. King Distinguished Service Award from the American Corn Growers Association. In 2000, he formed Ranch Foods Direct, a value-added meat company, which markets his high quality, all-natural Callicrate Beef and other locally produced meats along the Front Range of Colorado and over the internet at ranchfoodsdirect.com. The Ranch Foods Direct system of beef production includes several humane handling innovations, including mobile meat processing, which allows animals to be processed at the ranch and eliminates the stress of long-distance hauling. Earlier this year, he was named to the Colorado Agriculture Council for the Humane Society of the U.S.
BOB MARTIN is the senior policy advisor for the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) and a senior lecturer in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. For the past seven years, Martin has focused on issues affecting food system policy, including leading a special commission on how industrial food animal production impacts public health, the environment, rural communities, and animal welfare. Martin was previously a senior officer of the Pew Environment Group, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts, where he advised issue campaigns aimed at eliminating the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in industrial food animal production and increasing Environmental Protection Agency oversight of industrial food animal production waste. Before joining Pew, Martin served in management positions in the offices of two U.S. senators and a congressman. From 1999 through 2005, he served in the office of U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), first as Communications Director, then Deputy Chief of Staff, and lastly as Sen. Johnson’s Special Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. As Deputy Chief of Staff, he was a member of a senior staff management team that was responsible for the Washington, D.C. Senate office and three state constituent service offices.
tDo YOU Support Local Farms ?
GOOD! Get involved and help identify strategies to build a strong local food system in the southern Berkshires!
Keep Berkshires Farming (KBF) is group of local volunteers working together to understand our regional food system and identify strategies to improve the agricultural economy, local markets for and access to local food. The Great Barrington Agricultural Commission initiated and supports KBF with guidance provided by the Glynwood Center and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
Food activist Mark Winne will speak at Williams College at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct 10, on The talk will take place in Paresky Auditorium and is free and open to the public. There will be a book signing and refreshments after the talk.
For more than four decades, Winne has been involved in food and hunger issues as a community activist, writer, and trainer. As executive director of the Hartford Food System from 1979 to 2003, he organized community self-help food projects that assisted lower-income and elderly citizens in the Hartford, Conn., area. Winne has been involved in a number of policy groups, including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut!, and the Community Food Security Coalition. He received the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plow Honor Award (2001) and a Food and Society Policy Fellowship from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2002).
Winne received a B.A. from Bates College in 1972 and an M.S. from Southern New Hampshire University in 1984.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Environmental Studies and Williams College Dining Services.
