Future topics for Local Food Cleveland Network Events?

[Peter McDermott]

At end of last night's Local Food Cleveland Network Event we broke out into small groups and brainstormed questions and topics for future network events. The results of our discussions are below.

• Distribution systems that are diverse and fair
• Urban composting
• Government policies that support local food development
• Food and seed storage infrastructure
• Local food and youth education
• Maintain momentum around successful projects
• Remediation strategies for urban soils
• Affordable local food/real cost of food system
• Polycultures, permaculture, and biomimicry - local food design strategies

What do you want to learn about in the next year? What questions do you have about the future of local food?

Post your ideas below and we'll do our best to create future network events that address the learning needs of the network.

[Julie Hutchison]

I want contact information for all of the projects presented last night!

[Mike]

I'd like to see an event that would help producers better understand what items (Specifically) the market needs at both an individual retail as well as a commercial/wholesale level. For example, by season, what sorts of potentially locally raised foods are individuals finding in ready supply and what sorts of things do they have difficulty finding?

At a commercial/wholesale level, same question.

Something like this would help farmers make decisions about what to plant and when to plant. Whether to invest in extending the season and what sorts of investments to make.

For example, I'm going to try and plant some more garlic this month based on the feedback I got from people at this event. I also confirmed that there is a good demand for our shiitake mushrooms (fresh and dried) as well as hops.

I think it would also be useful for Farmers Markets as well. Is there a way to extend the season (at both ends) in a way that makes sense.

Jackie and I really enjoyed speaking with everyone that stopped at our table. We saw lots of existing friends and made lots of new contacts/friends.

Mike Hammer
J&M Hammer Apiaries and Orchards