There’s a clear demand in the region for a marketing agency to promote local food, but is Groundwork the right place for such commercial work? Could TLD be viable as a self-sustaining business? Now, after two years of intense planning and collaboration with partners, it’s clear the answer is a resounding YES.
As we all work to build resilient communities with strong local food economies as part of the core, we’ll find no finer examples than I saw at last week’s Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit. And the food, oh the food!
The Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network (FFN) has a brand new logo and five gorgeous new fact sheets highlighting progress in building northwest Michigan’s agricultural future.
A whopping 68 percent of residents of the five-county Traverse City region are overweight. The good news is that doctors, public health experts, and employers are teaming up with small farmers and getting creative.
The definition of local food needs to include a valuation for the relationships it demands. It’s not enough now to simply say, “my food was grown within 150 miles.” We should also be able to say, “…and I know the name of the farmer.”
New businesses are working to meet the growing demand from buyers for locally grown food, and more food service directors are flexing their buying power and insisting that distributors figure out how to offer the option to buy local.