Just a note of thanks to the Farm Impossible team.  I've been getting feedback from the grapevine that your project is making good progress and is really appreciated by the farms you're helping.  Let me know if there's anything the Agroecosystems Management Program can do to help and we'll try our best.

Best wishes, Casey

Interesting NY Times article about Pittsburgh area chefs using local foods.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/dining/replanting-the-rust-belt.html?_r=0

Great story in today's OCJ about how an advertisement turned into a new supply chain opportunity. Rye to  Whiskey . Relationships like these can be identified and developed by placing a business case on www.localfoodsystems.org. After harvest of the rye and straw, the question for Greg McGlinch is what's the next crop?

Is anybody working on a GIS data model for local food systems?  In other words, a list of the features and feature attributes that would be useful in a map of the system. For example, you would have farms, farmer markets,  grocery stores, distributors, processors, institutions, etc.  A draft list of features is attached.

 Also, I'm wondering about using open source mapping, or 'crowd sourcing', of the data.

 I'm aware of Marketmaker.

NEO Ohio Farmer (and Blogger) Mike Haley featured in One Meal at a Time article

We recently received word that the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) has awarded the Institute $15,000 to support the Institute's management, the hosting of 30 Mile Meal Discovery Days in Central Appalachia, and to help underwrite our 2nd Annual Real Food - Real Local conference this May 14th -17th in and around Athens Ohio.  Stay tuned for more conference details.

Help us market a price class that’s exclusively for food access programs--offering below distributor pricing to schools, food banks, church groups and others that feed those who are food insecure.

Help us market a price class that’s exclusively for food access programs--offering below distributor pricing to schools, food banks, church groups and others that feed those who are food insecure.

Granville, OH—American Meat, a documentary film about the U.S. meat and poultry industry, will be shown at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s (OEFFA) 34th annual conference, Growing Opportunities, Cultivating Change, on Saturday, February 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Presented by Chipotle Mexican Grill, American Meat takes a pro-farmer look at chicken, hog, and cattle production in America.

I have reached out to both Ashland University and Kent State University for assistance in the video production of Farm Impossible.  I have heard back from Ashland and should have an appointment to discuss the project this week.