4th Annual Local Food Connection

Now in its fourth year, the Local Food Connection brings together local food producers and buyers to make business connections and share information about building and maintaining strong sustainable food networks.

The annual Local Food Connection – Linking Farmers, Fishers and Food Buyers will be held on Monday, February 1, 2010, 7:30 am – 3:30 pm at the Lane Community College (LCC) in Eugene, Oregon.

The event is presented by Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation & Development, and sponsored by EWEB, Oregon Tilth and LCC. There are three reasons not to miss this year’s conference. First, you can learn to use Food Hub (food-hub.org), a new on-line tool to connect food producers with buyers year-round. Second, Ann Wright, USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs will attend from Washington DC as the keynote speaker. Finally, a wide array of educational workshops and networking opportunities is planned. After the 2009 conference, attendees estimated that the new business relationships they made resulted in increased revenues of more than $385,000.

The $20 fee includes lunch featuring locally grown products provided by local farmers and fishers and prepared by local chefs. Space is limited, so register early.

Sign up now by using our secure site. Please contact Kelly Hoell at 541-341-4663 x217 or kelly.hoell@goodcompany.com if you have questions about this event.

Scholarships may be available to cover the registration fee. Please contact Kelly Hoell to inquire.

2010 Program

7:30	Registration
8:30	Welcoming Remarks
8:40	Keynote Address: Deborah Kane, Vice President Food and Farms Program at Ecotrust will introduce Ann Wright, USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, who will discuss USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" campaign
9:30	BINGO: Structured networking activity to connect food producers, food buyers and support organizations
10:15	Networking Break
10:45	Workshops (6 workshops running simultaneously for attendees to choose from)
	An introduction to Food Hub (the new online tool being developed by Ecotrust) Understanding food certifications (Oregon Tilth, Salmon Safe, Food Alliance, Humane Certified, etc.) Energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities for farms and rural businesses Energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities for urban businesses Local Food Connection 101 (understand how successful buyers / sellers relationships have formed with a restaurant, a k-12 school district, and a distributor) How to get your product on a grocery store shelf (learn from successful grocery store / producer pairs that have formed a relationship)
12:00	Lunch / networking / trade show
1:30	Workshops (a new set of 6 workshops running simultaneously for attendees to choose from)
	An introduction to Food Hub (a repeat of the morning workshop) A hands-on demonstration of butchering an animal to use all cuts of meat Social Media Bootcamp Basics of Lean Enterprise and Food Safety for the Food Industry Growing Local Markets for Beans and Grains The latest news about GMOs: why you should be concerned and what you can do about it!
2:45	Closing Comments

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4th Annual Local Food Connection

2010 Program

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