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Locally Grown

Find out more about Locally Grown issues and activities.

November 6, 2007

Plan to attend the Tri State Locally Grown Conference

Producers of fresh fruits and vegetables in the Tri State area are encouraged to participate in a program designed to help you in your marketing plan. The Tri State Locally Grown Conference is a day long series of workshops to help you fine tune your marketing strategies and is designed to provide you with helpful advice, ideas and real life examples for you to capture more opportunities for the goods you produce.

Producers know that growing the crop is the easiest part. It's the marketing that takes effort. The Farmers Market is probably the most common market for many growers, but expanding beyond that scope can be an easily attainable goal for any producer. Reaching local consumers thru alternative marketing techniques, such as direct sales, restaurant and grocery store sales, email and catalogue sales, paid subscriptions, and cooperative marketing with other growers are all possibilities.

The Tri State Locally Grown Conference will be held on Thursday, Nov. 29th, at John Wood Community College, from 9am-4pm. The conference is designed for farmers, consumers, educators and others interested in building and supporting a sustainable local food system. Featured speakers include: Rich Pirog, Associate Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. And, Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon, who are the co-authors of Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally and founders of the 100 Mile Diet.

Twelve breakout sessions will be available throughout the day on a variety of topics targeted toward farmers, consumers and professionals who work in the food system. Speakers from all three States and Universities will present these informative sessions. A lunch consisting of local food will be served and displays highlighting marketing tools, food system work and other interesting topics will be available. Registration is $25 per person in advance. Click here for more information or to register online or call Carrie Edgar at 217-223-8380 or cedgar@uiuc.edu.

Posted by Mike Roegge at 3:53 PM | Permalink |