Next Steps for Wildcrafting and Permaculture Breakout Group

Wildcrafting and Permaculture

Those gathered to discuss wildcrafting and permaculture opportunities focused on the low barriers to entry and the vast potential of a series of underutilized wild crops, including: a variety of fungi, watercress, ramps and wild fruits.  The abundance of these crops in the Driftless Region leads to opportunities for entrepreneurial collectors to create new markets.  While the knowledge of such crops is present in the community, little has been done to organize interested collectors to share information and resources.

Next steps:

  • Who are the sectors leaders and how do we connect interested collectors to those in possession of local knowledge?
  • Would the establishment of collectors’ co-ops have beneficial effects?
  • Can we augment the presence of and demand for ethically-harvested wild foods at farmer’s markets and other retail venues?

We would like to encourage your participation in continuing conversations. Please step forward by posting a comment below or by emailing us.  If you have suggestions on how we can proceed please don’t hesitate to share them.

Next Steps for Marketing Breakout Group – The Driftless Region Identity

Marketing and Communication

The Driftless Region Identity

To the members of the marketing and communication group, the need to capitalize on the work of the many, diverse actors in the local food system could not have been clearer.  Thankfully, despite its lack of wide name recognition, the Driftless Region possesses uniqueness and qualities that lend themselves well to a well-organized, coordinated marketing effort.

Next steps:

  • Who will lead the effort to define and communicate the meaning, strengths and shared history of the term, “Driftless Region” to consumers and potential stakeholders?  How will that effort begin?
  • Which producers, retailers and other food-related stakeholders will take the lead incorporating the Driftless name into marketing and communication efforts?

We would like to encourage your participation in continuing conversations. Please step forward by posting a comment below or by emailing us.  If you have suggestions on how we can proceed please don’t hesitate to share them.

Next Steps for Emerging Crops Breakout Group

Emerging Crops – Aronia, Hops, and other Fruits & Nuts

The feeling that materialized from the emerging crops group was that the sector is poised for noticeable growth, due to surging recognition of perennial crops’ environmental and health benefits.  While demand has yet to develop following the increase in interest in these crops, growers need simultaneously to prepare for the growth and to actively encourage it.  Product development, consumer education, and production efficiency are all areas needing attention.

Next steps:

  • How do we channel the passion and commitment of pioneering growers to work together towards a series of common crop-specific production and marketing goals?  What should those goals be?
  • How do we capitalize on growing interest to expand markets for value added products?

We would like to encourage your participation in continuing conversations. Please step forward by posting a comment below or by emailing us.  If you have suggestions on how we can proceed please don’t hesitate to share them.

Next Steps for Apple and Tree Fruit Breakout Group

At our most recent Driftless Food and Farm meeting in Prairie du Chien, break out groups analyzed opportunities for and obstacles to growth in a variety of production and food business sectors.  In the next few days we will post brief reports from each of those groups.    To start, the apple group’s insights are detailed below.

We would like to encourage your participation in continuing conversations, please step forward by posting a comment below or by emailing us.  If you have suggestions on how we can proceed please don’t hesitate to share them.

Apples and Other Fruit

The fruit break-out group began by noting that the biggest opportunities for growth result from the impressive number of knowledgeable, environmentally conscious, and well-connected apple growers in the region and the expansion of other fruit crops in recent years.  Just as important, due to the breadth of apple consumption, there potentially exists a virtually unlimited demand for local product, assuming we can organize and build a bridge to markets in the region.  Additional gains can be made through expansion of value added product lines.

Next steps:

  • How do we find ways to organize that would allow penetration into markets otherwise unavailable to individual small and medium-sized growers?
  • How doe we overcome constraints of a short harvest season?  Would adding value-added products to the equation have further benefits?
  • Which existing networks and resources can help enhance education of both growers and large consumers to stimulate growth of both supply and demand?

Save The Date – Next Meeting – July 23

Mark your calendar for the next Driftless Food and Farm Project meeting on Friday, July 23.

We have not identified the precise meeting locale yet, but we are holding it in conjunction with the Kickapoo Country Fair in Lafarge, WI.  Perhaps it needs no introduction, but the fair is hosted annually by Organic Valley and bills itself as the “Midwest’s largest organic food and sustainability festival.”   That makes it a perfect setting for our next conversation on the preceding Friday.

In the coming weeks, we hope to work with you to plan the agenda for that meeting so that we can build on our ongoing efforts.  In the meantime, here is the registration form so that  your organization can join both the Driftless Food and Farm Project and UW-Madison CIAS as exhibitors.

What You May Have Missed – March 18 Driftless Food and Farm Project Meeting #2

As we begin to build on the momentum and insights gained at our March 18 meeting, we wanted to share with you the presentations given during the morning session.  Also, below are a trio of other presentations, including the one CIAS’s Michelle Miller gave prior to our initial meeting in January at the Midwest Value Added Conference.

Presentations:

Other recent presentations of interest:

La Crosse Tribune Article

Sunday’s La Crosse Tribune featured a thoughtful article on our Thursday Driftless Convention, penned by Joseph Orso.

Joe writes:

Instead of organizing people by arbitrary state borders, or developing systems based on abstract economic values, these people are literally starting from the ground up, with the Driftless as their common identity. In so doing, they are embedding their efforts in Leopold’s “intense consciousness of land.

If you couldn’t make the trip, you missed a gathering of more than 70 committed individuals, inspiring presentations, and two hours of round table brainstorming.  Most encouraging of all, we emerged with the beginning stages of collaboration around a few important sectors of the regional food industry.

Later this week, we’ll post the presentations and other materials from the meeting.  In the meantime, please contact us at UW-Madison CIAS if we can help you build on the meeting’s outcomes and momentum.

Driftless Food and Farm Convention This Thursday

We look forward to seeing you at the second  Driftless Food and Farm Convention. Remarkably, more than 80 people have indicated they will join us! Remember, we meet this Thursday, March 18 at Huckleberry’s Restaurant, 1916 S. Marquette Rd., Prairie du Chien, WI. Please allow plenty of time for travel as we will start promptly at 10:00 am. (If you hope to carpool, please visit our blog and post your availability in the comments section.)

We’ll spend the morning learning about the uniqueness of the Driftless Region. We’ll also hear updates from our first Driftless Convention that took place last January at the Local Food Summit in Eau Claire and hear from regional groups regarding the status of their food systems projects.

After lunch small groups will strategize opportunities for various sectors in the region.  These include production sectors (i.e., wine grapes, aronia, grass-fed beef, artisanal cheese, apples, wildcrafting, etc.), processing and others initiatives as chosen by you. Our goal is to identify the best strategies for creating an economically robust, sustainable Driftless Region food system.

Before Thursday, we invite you to think about the following questions:

1. What are the top three weaknesses and threats in your area of expertise (for example, specialty fruit production or processing) that hinder your work to create a sustainable, regional food system?

2. What are your top three strengths in your area of expertise that will help in the creation of a sustainable region food system?

3.  Who is not yet involved in our work, but should be?

Your participation and feedback will help us continue to build fertile ground for sifting, planting and growing a Driftless Region food system.

For more information and background on the Driftless Region Food and Farm Project, please visit: www.driftless.wisc.edu

Safe travels, and we look forward to seeing you Thursday.

Driftless Region Food and Farm Project Team

UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

Carpool to Prairie du Chien on Thursday

We are happy to report that we’re expecting over 75 individuals at Thursday’s Driftless Region Food and Farm Project meeting in Prairie du Chien.

If you are looking for someone to share a carpool, we suggest posting your contact information and other details below.  Or, visit the Evite and see if there are familiar names from your area.

It’s not too late to RSVP either.  Please visit the Evite or email Mark Sieffert at sieffert [at] wisc.edu.

Scaling Up in the Driftless

At our upcoming Driftless Region Food and Farm Project meeting on Thursday, March 18, we hope to discuss strategies that enable food entrepreneurs to meet the growing demand in the Driftless region for locally produced food.  To guide our conversation, we plan to refer to a recent report published by UW-Madison CIAS, Scaling Up: Meeting the Demand for Local Food.  Click here to download a full copy.

In the report, the authors identify eight common challenges faced by local food entrepreneurs and suggest some innovations to meet the challenges.  They include:

  1. Controlling for product quality and consistency
  2. Seasonality
  3. Matching supply and demand
  4. Communicating food origins and product differentiation
  5. Supply chain infrastructure
  6. Securing capital
  7. Capacity development
  8. Information flow and transparency

If you are either facing these kinds of  challenges or potentially have identified innovative solutions to them, we hope you will join us on March 18 and share your experiences and insights.  We also ask you to begin the conversation by commenting below.