Northeast Ohio Local Food Mini-Congress

Can we achieve a 25% shift in spending on local food products grown, processed, and consumed in Northeast Ohio in the next 10 years? Such a shift could potentially create 28,000 jobs in Northeast Ohio along with benefits for public health, environmental sustainability, and more vibrant local communities and neighborhoods.

Join this mini-food Congress and learn some of the practical tools and pathways for achieving this shift. The schedule of events will include:

10:30-Noon Workshop on community food development for processing, aggregation, and distribution with Leslie Schaller from the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACENet)

Noon-1:00 Lunch on your own. Bring a lunch to stay and watch films on NEO local food or a list of local restaurants will be offered.

1:00-2:00 Primer on "meta-business" tools that can be used for local food system development, from local currencies to purchasing cooperatives with Michael Shuman, author of Going Local and co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

2:00-3:00 Interactive session. Meet and network with local food leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators and help shape regional priorities in local food systems

3:00-4:00 "Is Northeast Ohio Poised to Become the Tuscany of the Mid-West. Brad Masi, founder of the New Agrarian Center will share what we can learn from the best examples in the Northeast Ohio region.

4:00- Gather for a happy hour at the Greenhouse Tavern.

This event a concluding event for the Northeast Ohio Local Food System Assessment and Plan, a project initiated in April of 2010 to assess the current state of Northeast Ohio’s local food system and develop a strategic plan for increasing local food activity in the next decade. For more information about the assessment, go to www.neofoodweb.org

Urban Affairs College-Cleveland State University
1717 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113

For more information, contact Brad Masi at bradmasi@earthlink.net or 440-935-3106