Can we get some guidance and overview on issue 2 from those in the know on this site? Here are some recent articles.

I am going to try to do blog posts here and at other sites where we are part of an on-line community around regional food security and business. Here's a start.

Since we returned from a Permaculture Certification course on August 31, we've been busy getting ready for harvest and the opening of Shagbark Seed & Mill Co. We've been pushing to get our seed cleaner and mill in place in early October and equipment in place to harvest crops in the coming weeks.

The following is a brief summary of the House version of comprehensive food safety bill that passed in July. If you are involved in grain or livestock at farm level, direct marketing to farmers market, restaurants or grocery stores, you might want to follow what is in the House version and what is being proposed for the Senate version. A comprehensive food safety bill that gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) additional new authorities to take preventative steps to stop foodborne illnesses passed the U.S.

We are looking for contacts, agencies and reguations that oversee the processing, milling, storage and sales of staple seed crops like flour, beans, oil seed, oil, etc. If anyone can point us to the right people so we can start accumlating data and regs (i.e. weights and measures, state dept of ag, etc), please post a reply here.

Michelle & Brandon

Greetings. In the adventure of introducing and supporting alternative grain agriculture in Southeastern Ohio, I am now in the
processing infrastructure research phase, and I keep hearing that both
buckwheat and spelt require a special de-hulling process that is
somehow more complicated than other grains and pseudo-cereals.

Leslie Schaller, Consultant and Director of AceNet's Food
Venture Center will be presenting at a state level meeting next
Wednesday, February 18th from 10-12:00 at the Ohio Department of
Agriculture

If you are in any stage of the process of developing
a Food Business Incubator - or "shared use commercial
kitchen". please join us.--see attachment

Kellogg funded this on-line course about how to frame the work of promoting local food systems. It's a commitment to sit through, but there are some key findings in the research that can inform how we talk/write/communicate about the benefits of local systems and the consequences of the mega systems that dominate our food sources.  Check it out at---http://www.hollyworks.com/frameworks/course/