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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Can local food movement prove a broader economic engine? well...duhhhh
  • Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:56:29 -0700


"With good jobs hard to come by and rural communities struggling,
capitalizing on the love of local food seems like a natural fit "

Farming for jobs
US (WI): Can local food movement prove a broader economic engine?
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=89814

Marathon County entrepreneur Tony Schultz is bubbling over with thoughts on
growing Wisconsin's economy. "Honestly, I've got about got 10 micro-food
enterprise ideas in my mind right now," says Schultz, a third-generation
farmer who, with partner Kat Becker, runs Stoney Acres Farm near Athens,
about 30 miles northwest of Wausau. Schultz and Becker grow a variety of
vegetables and fruits, along with raising pasture-fed beef and pork. They
also run a successful community-supported agriculture business, or CSA, where
customers pay in advance for boxes of fresh produce during the growing
season. Their latest brainstorm involves making wood-fired pizzas featuring
garden produce. They're remodeling an old barn into a commercial kitchen to
test out different combinations, with plans to rent space to other farmers.

"The way I see it, every little business we can create is something Dean
Foods or Kraft or Monsanto doesn't have," says Schultz, 32, who fired up the
crowd with a local food speech at a progressive political rally, Fighting Bob
Fest North, in May. From Fifth Season Cooperative in Westby to Will Allen's
Growing Power urban agriculture initiative in Milwaukee, there is
unprecedented interest these days in local food. It's hard to find a
community without a regular farmers' market. Dozens of restaurants boast of
their commitment to using local ingredients. Businesses like Chicago-based
City Provisions offer farm tours and dinners to committed "locavores," which
was named the best new word of the year in 2007 by the Oxford American
Dictionary. With good jobs hard to come by and rural communities struggling,
capitalizing on the love of local food seems like a natural fit — especially
in a state like Wisconsin with deep agricultural roots, varied topography and
plenty of water. Local food devotees envision the state as part of a regional
"food shed" running from Minneapolis to Chicago. Some 35 million people live
in the area, offering the ideal combination of urban and rural landscapes to
support local food production and "value-added" products that come from it:
turning strawberries into jam, for example, or making milk into cheese or
converting grains into liquor.

There's no need to convince Dane County economic development specialist
Olivia Parry of the growth potential. Parry is heading efforts here to
develop the Southern Wisconsin Fresh Mart Packinghouse, a large-scale
processing facility for local food items. Plans call for a 15,000-square-foot
refrigerated operation where produce can be delivered, sorted, washed and
prepared for distribution on a wider scale to large institutional buyers or
retailers. Dane County is currently seeking proposals for the facility, which
would be located somewhere in the Madison area and could eventually provide
30 or more jobs. Parry notes that some $1 billion is spent on food each year
in Dane County alone. "If we can capture just 10 percent, you're talking $100
million," says Parry. "That's a lot of ka-ching."





  • [Livingontheland] Can local food movement prove a broader economic engine? well...duhhhh, Tradingpost, 12/07/2011

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