This Monday, a few of the Minnesota food faithful trudged through the snow to talk about a potential unconference on food. What kind of food? Well, that was one of the items up for discussion, but the general idea was that we wanted to talk about the groundswell of interest and activity in the area of food that is among other things, organic, locally grown, and lovingly made.
Below is a summary of the meeting, kindly put together by Kristi Hamilton. We agreed to post this summary and ask for comments and suggestions from the food community, which in our mind means producers, distributors, journalists, bloggers, restauranteurs, cafeteria managers – and of course, eaters! So, if you’re in any of these categories, feel free to leave a comment!
Meeting summary – Feb 1., 2010
Despite the weather we had a good turn-out for the first Alt.Food Unconference planning meeting! Following is a recap of our conversation for all. We want your feedback whether you were able to join us or not.
What are we trying to accomplish? Following the format of the tech + biz + community UnSummit held last October we want to bring together Producers/Distributors/Retailers/Restaurants/Non-profits/Journalists in a fresh environment. The format will be different than the traditional conference model – less formal presentation and more peer to peer discussion in style. The ultimate goal is to get people from each of these segments of the food industry sharing stories of success and discussing solutions to untamed challenges.
Event date
Saturday March 13, 2010 was temporarily identified. Needs to be before end of March to get farmers/producers there and all felt Saturday was better than a week day for attendance.
Location
Don Ball has offered CoCoMSP located in lowertown St. Paul as the meeting site at no charge.
Conference name
“Real Food MN” was discussed. Some concern was expressed that this could alienate some people. Also, it might require an arrangement with the owner of the Realfood.MN domain. We want your thoughts on this name or share other ideas.
How do we promote it?
We would each promote to our individual contacts via Twitter, Facebook Blogs, etc. With our varied group we have contacts in each of our target attendee groups Producers/Distributors/Retailers/Restaurants/Non-profits/Journalists.
Marketing
Don Ball offered resources to create a WordPress Site. We have several people that can create content for the site and any other needed materials. The idea of using the Rutabaga Rhubarb as the event “mascot” was discussed.
Content/Sessions
We will curate a few up front to get the process started and crowd source the remainder. Session hosts will be encouraged to kick-off their sessions with a few provocative comments/slides and move quickly to a peer-to-peer conversation format.
Ideas for topics/success story examples we would like to showcase:
- Success stories of institutions (schools, hospitals, nursing homes) finding ways to incorporate local and/or organic food into their menus despite challenges with distribution, insurance, contracts, etc.
- Urban Farming/Rooftop farming projects
- Shepherd’s Way Farms/Birchwood Restaurant partnership CSA cheese program – example of producer applying a model used primarily with produce to other products.
- Success stories of producers working directly with restaurants/retailers – Thousand Hills Cattle Company, Kadejan chicken, Riverbend Farms, etc.
- Common Roots Café – developed community garden program providing a portion of their produce.
- Traceability trend – Ames Farm Beeyard Database, Peace Coffee’s Map Your Beans, Just Bare Family Farm Stories
- Know of success stories in the above categories? Have other ideas? Be sure to post your comments.
Sorry I couldn’t get to the meeting.
I’d like to see a session on getting growers to use social media. Blue Gentian Farm could be a case study.
When is the next planning meeting?
Thanks very much for doing this summary! I was sorry to miss the meeting.
Sorry to miss Monday’s meeting, but glad to hear the conversation was fruitful.
Another potential topic might be food and public health – given the rise in studies and media interest (Katie Couric’s 2-3 part series this week) about antibiotic resistance as a result of industrial animal farming practices.
Looking forward to the next planning meeting or hopefully seeing folks for some part of “Real Food MN.”
March 13 -> CMVGA (Central Minnesota Vegetable Growers Association) Spring Meeting. So I can’t be there. More importantly, none of the 175 local grower-members can be there. And farmers *should* be part of the conversation.
Susan, thanks for the heads up on the CMVGA. I’d like to ask everyone: is that a deal breaker? Should we look to the 20th then?
Mar 13th seems to be a popular day for “real food” discussions, here is an event that I just received from IATP on the topic.
March 12–14 Midwest Real Food Summit Students and allies from across the Midwest will gather at Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minn., to discuss, share and analyze how and where student movements fit in the larger context of social change and the regional food movement. IATP’s Marie Kulick will be keynote speaking about the power of purchasing. Register here.
Wow, you are right Don Ball, looks like the 13th will not work. Think we will have to aim for the 20th instead because we want/need producers for sure. Sadly I won’t be able to attend that day, but will do all I can to make the event happen!
Just checked simplegoodandtasty calendar and nothing listed there for March 20. So far, so good.
This is a great idea, and I’d love to help. Any idea when/where the next meeting will be?
Hey everyone, I think we’re ready to move to the next step. We’re looking at Sat., March 20 as our date. I’m going to try and set up a (WordPress) site tonight, where we can post event information and solicit ideas for proposed discussions. If you want to see an example of how this might work, check out http://unsummit.org, which is an event also done in the “unconference” format.
I don’t know that we need another planning meeting right away. Perhaps we could meet a couple weeks before the event in order to curate all the suggestions and organize the topics somewhat.
Thanks all. I will let you know when the site/blog is up (hopefully tonight) and will be happy to provide any and all with the ability to post to the site.
d.