| Featured Resource: On-Farm Infrastructure Toolkit |
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Produced by NCGT and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, the
On-Farm Infrastructure Toolkit was created to address barriers, such as postharvest handling requirements, that can prevent producers from selling into larger markets; and to build produce growers' capacity to cool, wash, cure and store produce on-farm.
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| Upcoming Events |
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For more information about the Food and Farm Business Development Webinar Series, please visit the NCGT website.
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Grower-Buyer Meet-Up at CFSA's Sustainable Agriculture Conference
Join CFSA and NCGT for an opportunity to connect growers with buyers who are interested in sourcing local foods. The facilitated speed-meeting format will ensure instant connections!
November 3, 2017
Durham, NC
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Good Agricultural Practices (GAP): Navigating the USDA GAP Audit One-Day Workshops
November 7, 2017 Carteret County, NC
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| About NCGT |
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GOAL | Bring more locally-grown foods - produce, meat, dairy, and seafood - into mainstream retail and food service supply chains, thus enhancing food security by increasing access to local foods and by strengthening the economics of small to mid-sized farm and fishing operations.
STRATEGY |
Identify the most promising solutions by which local production and associated value-added activities can enter local retail and food service markets, pilot these solutions in North Carolina, and evaluate and report the results for the benefit of other states and regions.
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Greetings all,
Thanks for reading our monthly newsletter and please let us know what you think.
Sincerely,
The NCGT Management Team
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NC Growing Together Partners with Piedmont Triad Regional Council on GIS Update of NC Local Food Infrastructure Inventory
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NC Growing Together has partnered with the Piedmont Triad Regional Council (PTRC) to host a GIS update of the North Carolina Local Food Infrastructure Inventory. NC Growing Together originally established the Inventory in 2014 as a tool for food and farming businesses to understand the competitive landscape and find business partners.
The Inventory is a mapped data set of businesses that serve as intermediary steps in local food supply chains, including value-added processors, fresh produce wholesaler/distributors, multi-farm CSA's, food hubs, community kitchens, incubator farms, and cold storage locations. By hosting the map, PTRC ensures public access to the map after the NC Growing Together initiative ends. The GIS update also allows users to download map layers and add them to other GIS maps.
"Creating the infrastructure inventory was a collaborative process. We couldn't have done it without the support of Cooperative Extension agents, county and city planners, and regional council of government staff across the state," said Emily Edmonds, NCGT Extension & Outreach Program Manager.
"Showing the location of food system infrastructure gives regions a tool to demonstrate the agricultural sector's impact on local and regional economic development. The data from the infrastructure map will be useful in developing strategies to improve transportation and marketing of agricultural and food products, providing critical information for planning and development," said Matthew Dolge, Executive Director of the Piedmont Triad Regional Council.
Citizens and supply chain actors are welcome to submit updates and additions to the map, using the contact email address and forms provided on the information page.
For more information, contact NCGT Project Manager Rebecca Dunning at [email protected] or 919-389-2220.
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NCGT and CFSA Make Business Connections Happen at Grower-Buyer Meet-ups
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For the third year in a row, NC Growing Together and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) will be hosting a Grower-Buyer Meet-up at CFSA's annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference. The Meet-up provides a forum for growers and buyers to meet face-to-face in a "speed-networking" format to get to know each other and hopefully make a lasting business connection.
Two different meeting areas are designated: one for produce growers who are GAP-certified; and one for non-GAP-certified produce growers as well as producers of other raw or manufactured foods (like fresh meats, cured meats, jams, salsas, etc.).
Each year, the event has grown larger. Buyers who attended the event in 2016 include Wegmans, Lowes Foods, FreshPoint, Foster-Caviness, Deep Roots Market, Durham Food Co-op, and Wake County Schools, among others.
Tanya Rouse of Rouse Family Farms has attended every year. "
I enjoy them because it is a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with the buyers. We have made some great contacts, and have picked up New Sprout and The Produce Box as new buyers. These events give you a chance to build a relationship, and if you can establish a relationship, you really can have a breakthrough," she says.
Tenita Solanto of Green Panda Farms in Siler City, NC, attended for the first time in 2016 and made business connections that allowed her to expand production. "I had a great time at the grower buyer meeting and I made connections that put my micro-greens in new markets. The setting was casual but super effective in getting the job done," she says.
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NCGT Support is Growing NC Small Business Centers' "Agripreneurship" Programs at Community Colleges
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NC Growing Together support is increasing the capacity of North Carolina's Small Business Centers (SBCs) to advise clients on food- and farming-related businesses.
NCGT scholarships brought nine Small Business Center directors and staff from across the state to the
REAL Agriculture Entrepreneurship Training
in Blowing Rock in June. North Carolina's Small Business Center Network works through the state's community college system to
offer a wide range of programs and services for existing and prospective business owners. (Read about previous work NCGT has done with the SBC network
here
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 The REAL Agriculture Entrepreneurship curriculum is supported by the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund and the North Carolina General Assembly. The two-day trainings are designed to support agriculture-based entrepreneurship programs.
"We see Small Business Centers, especially in rural areas, as an untapped resource for farmers and those who want to start food businesses," says Laura Lauffer,
Program Coordinator, Local Farms and Food for NC Growing Together and The Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University. "The Small Business Centers are specifically skilled in entrepreneurship and business planning, and we want to connect those resources with farmers and food businesses owners," she says.
Cori Lindsay, the Director of the Small Business Center at Piedmont Community College in Caswell County, attended the training and is now planning on offering two upcoming seminars: Farm Assessment and Operations, and Marketing Options for Expanding Farm and Food Operations. "The REAL training will help me better deliver small business center services to my clients including rural farmers. Rural farmers are running a business, and I want to make sure that farmers are seeing themselves as businesses. The REAL program created that connection between business education and farming by supplying agriculture-specific cases and activities, and now I can integrate NCGT resources into that work."
For more information, please contact Laura Lauffer,
Program Coordinator, Local Farms and Food for NC Growing Together and The Cooperative Extension Program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University: 336-285-4690 or [email protected].
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Project Contact Information
Nancy Creamer,
Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University; and Project Director, NC Growing Together,
[email protected]
, 919-515-9447
Emily Edmonds, NCGT Extension and Outreach Program Manager, [email protected], 828-399-0297
Laura Lauffer
, Project Coordinator, Local Farms and Food, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Cooperative Extension Program,
[email protected]
, 336-285-4690
JJ Richardson, NCGT Website and Communications Coordinator,
[email protected], 919-889-8219
This project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2013-68004-20363 of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
© 2013-2017 NC Growing Together
www.ncgrowingtogether.org
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