Please note: Click here for more info on the Food and Farming Network and post-summit news.

This is our blog from the Farm Route To Prosperity Summit. We have photos, videos and more! We were there all day and there is a lot of good reading ahead!

9:13am – What a spring morning! Snowy and slick roads, but we all made it safe to beautiful Black Star Farms in Leelanau county. We are live at the Farm Route to Prosperity Summit. This is the 2nd annual gathering of agriculture leaders, farmers, and food enthusiasts. It is being put on by the Food and Farming Network which also serves as the Food and Farming working group of the Grand Vision. Hans Voss, Executive Director of the Michigan Land Use Institute is delivering the welcoming remarks.

9:20am – On the agenda for today: This morning we will be going over activities and accomplishments. After that, around 10:30am will be a group discussions on what participants would like to accomplish in the coming year. This afternoon will be what is called an "open space" discussion. These are sessions that are participant led and open to what participants would like to discuss, strategize, etc. Then around 2:15pm there will be topic reports and network discussions. And then the Summit will wrap around 4pm.

9:33am – Patty Cantrell, Senior Policy Specialist at the Michigan Land Use Institute is going over successes from the past year from various farm businesses, and the Farm to School conference that was held this past March. Here is a picture from the room.

9:35am – Bill Palladino from Krios Consulting will help to facilitate the Summit today. He is on-stage now and just said "We're trying to move from talk to action."

9:37am – Palladino said, "You're creating solutions that will change the entire state."

10:07am – Various people have been getting up to share stories from the past year and work done in the working groups. We have been capturing highlights on video and are uploading them to YouTube as we speak. They will be up as quickly as the internet will allow. Some of the people speaking have been talking about using micro-loans to help finance small projects on their farms. Others have talked about preserving farm land for future farmers, and others about starting up CSA farms (Community Supported Agriculture) in the past year.

10:30am – Michelle Ferrease from Birch Point spoke about creating reources, tool-kits, for people to know what their options are for Agriculture. Brad Kik from ISLAND talked about how they started an after-school program in a Central Lake school (Antrim county). This grew out of the Youth working group with the Food and Farming Network. Talking about this summit, Kik said "incredible things have come out of meetings like these." Diane Connors from MLUI talked about community gardening.  How monthly meetings led to network creation and resource sharing.

10:49am – Here is a video from this morning. A story about the Utopia foundation:

10:57am – Just before the break, Jim Bardenhagen said that "a lot of different things are going on in the local food arena." He then listed a lot of different actions including: using Bridge cards at farmer's markets, local foods in grocery stores and schools. Bardenhagen said, "we got fresh produce going to food banks…and Grand Vision support of Agriculture."

11:04am- We are on break right now. And we'll take advantage of it by going over some projects the FFN network did in the past year. Two micro-loan funds are currently in development and MLUI launched a savings-match program for new farmers. The Traverse Bay Economic Development Corporation adopted the FFN's 10-year goal as part of its own strategy for the regional economy. The goal is to increase the resilience and double the value of the region's food and agriculture system. The FFN raised concerns with Senator Debbie Stabenow about the costly and confusing new food safety certification requirements for farms. The FFN says "our outreach influence legislation she has introduced to increase certification training and technical assistance for small and mid-size farms."

11:11am – Here is another video clip, talking about financing:

11:29am – Here is a video clip from this morning sharing a story about farmland preservation:

11:38am – Here is a video clip from a small farmer talking about starting a CSA this past year:

12:21pm – Participants spent the last half hour or so choosing the topics they will have in-depth discussions on after lunch. Lunch is now being served and it looks tasty!! Lunch is until 12:45 and then we start up again!

12:42pm – Here is some food for thought: On a list of the top ten surprising food cities, Traverse City was ranked number 1! From the website Livability.com: "[We have] searched 200 of the most livable cities in America to find the 10 most surprisingly vibrant cities for foodies to flex their taste buds."

"Traverse City has been called “a new foodie haven” by The Huffington Post, and Midwest Living magazine recently named it second on its list of the region's “best food towns.” At the heart of the accolades is an emphasis on the farm-to-table philosophy." Read the full article here. And the cow-bell is ringing, time to start the afternoon session!

12:51pm – We are breaking up into different groups based on a variety of issues including seed saving, awareness/marketing, sustainable agriculture certificate at NMC, financing, plus a lot more. Each group has one hour to converse. The goal is to come up with specific actionable items that the Food and Farming Network can take in the next year to achieve progress in each of those issue areas.  At 2pm, there will be reporting from each of the groups.

1:07pm – Here are some photos from the current break out session:

Lots of good thinking and ideas are being discussed!

2:16pm – And we're all coming back together now to share the action items each group came up with in regards to their issue areas.

2:18pm – We've got some video coming about action ideas the Food and Farming Network can take over the next year. Please note: this video is coming from a humble camera, and there is some random bumpiness! (Scroll down below to see videos).

3:08pm – Here is a video clip on action items related to improving cooking skills in the region:

Here is a video clip about action ideas regarding Farmers Markets:

3:16pm – Now that all of the action items have been presented there is going to be a discussion on synthesizing everything, discovering connections, over-lap areas.

3:23pm – There are comments from the audience that include: focusing on what is, and not what people want things to be. There is a comment on using the Learn Great Foods publication to promote education. Another participant wants to connect the idea of regional branding with farmer residency programs and sustainable agriculture certification programs. One participant said there is a real interest in making tools locally for small farmers. For instance, using local sands to create glass for hoop houses. Another participant is talking about the attraction of a local community garden.

3:29pm – A participant asked whether this region is looking into buyer co-ops for farmers. Another participant liked this idea and suggested incorporating shared equipment lists. A participant suggested that publishing the priorities from today in the media will grow the Food and Farming Network and engage the public.

3:35pm – A participant asked if there is a social media component for the Food and Farming Network to facilitate internal communications? Another participant suggested reaching out to talk radio who have covered food, farming and health issues to promote the ideas from this conference. One participant asked about the commodity farmers and finding a way to reach out to organizations like the Michigan Farm Bureau and traditional farmers.

3:45pm – The day is wrapping up now. We want to thank you for reading this blog! Please continue to check out this website for related food and farming and Grand Vision news updates. To follow updates on the Food and Farming Network please check out the FoodandFarmingNetwork.org

If you would like to volunteer with Food and Farming issues contact the Food and Farming Network through their website. ALSO, on May 10 is the Grand Vision Citizen Action Expo. This event will kick-off a six-county wide action campaign to implement the Grand Vision, of which the Food and Farming Network is apart. We'll see you in May!

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Photo/Video Credits: John Parker