With roots firmly embedded in the pro-health, pro-environment, and pro-economy principles of a local food system, the Groundwork Food and Farming team creates markets for local farmers, and helps connect locally grown food to school children, food pantry clients and families across the state.
While much of our work begins locally in northwest lower Michigan, one of our guiding missions is to inspire a statewide culture of healthy, locally raised food.
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Food & Farming News
Cooked’: We all need to get back in the kitchen
If you read “Cooked,” you’ll salivate. You’ll learn interesting history and science and anthropology and philosophy. Cooked, in many regards, is about getting back to the enjoyment inherent in preparing our own meals, and the sense of self-sufficiency that comes when we know how. It’s about realizing how important cooking has been in our evolution as humans, and what we might lose as a culture if we continue our trend of “outsourcing” our cooking to industrial food companies.
Extension staff member receives leadership award
Michigan State University Extension program instructor and MSU Product Center innovation counselor Wendy Wieland received the Food and Farming Network Chapman Award for leadership in building a robust community food system in northwestern Michigan.
Our View: While not perfect, Farm Bill is a step in the right direction
While there are measures we wish would have made it into the just-passed Farm Bill, we’re pleased that it includes renewal of funding for programs that only started to see serious funding in the 2008 Farm Bill-renewable energy, beginning farmers, organic farming, local food economies, and support for farmers who grow the food we really need to eat, fruit and vegetables. While still a small slice of the Farm Bill spending, it is a positive direction.