King County Ag Commission Future of Agriculture Hearings

The King County Agriculture Commission invites your ideas about the future of agriculture.

The King County Agriculture Commission is sponsoring a series of 5 public meetings in early 2009 to gather information that will help shape the future of agriculture in King County.

Findings from these meetings and other research will be used in a report to the King County Council relating to the future of agriculture within the county’s agricultural production districts, plus recommendations for legislation regarding the allowed size of agricultural accessory buildings.

Meeting dates & times:

Woodinville - Thursday, January 8 - 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.,

Carnation - Thursday, January 22 – 7-9pm

Auburn - Thursday, February 12 - 7–9pm

Enumclaw - Thursday March 12 - 7 – 9pm

Vashon – date to be determined

For details, go to: www.kingcounty.gov/wlr.

Meeting participants will be asked to share their opinions on several important questions, including:

* What are you growing or raising and how is it changing?
* What kinds of resources or services do you need to be a successful farmer in the future?
* What are the trends you think are important to the future of farming in this region?
* How can King County nurture and promote the business of farming for the future?

Your ideas on the future of farming can also be shared with King County through a short online questionnaire, at http://www.kingcounty.gov/wlr.

For more information, contact Nancy Hutto, chair of the King County Agriculture Commission at 206-949-4550 or Steve Evans at steve.evans@kingcounty.gov .

Winter Wonderland

-There are a bunch of farmers markets still open. Check out Puget Sound Fresh for listings. Go get your local on.

-With the New Year comes a bunch of new events to attend! I know that I'm looking forward to the Chefs Collaborative Farmer-Chef Connection, which is always a fun networking event.

-We have the results from the Eat Local for Thanksgiving campaign survey. Some really interesting responses. Next year, we definitely need to connect with more local beverage makers (e.g. beer and wine). Lots of people included Washington wine.

-Snow makes people in Seattle crazy.

-Lotsa people will make food-related New Year's resolutions...usually around dieting. Anyone making a farming-related resolution? Or a "buy local" resolution? Drop a note in the comment section!

Links:

New President, new food policy?

Advocates of Change in Food Policy Look to Obama With Hope

A Food Agenda for Obama

On a lighter note...

Bio-Tech Companies Roll Out New Products for 2009

Foodista.com Launched

Foodista.com, a foodie wikipedia, recently launched. Their slogan: The Online Cooking Encyclopedia Everyone Can Edit. Sounds great! The website was created by a handful of Amazon.com alums. I think they should add a section about local food...or maybe link back to Puget Sound Fresh. Since I just signed up, maybe I'll pop over there and add it as a category. Gotta love open source content creation.

Mark

Jolly Green Business Park

Looks like Dayton, WA is working to build an "eco-business park" to attract small-scale food processors to their neck of the woods. Great! Ever since the Jolly Green Giant jobs left for..you guessed it! Peru!, they have been searching for new industry to take up the employment/growth/revenue slack. How interesting that they picked small-scale food processing! Someone over there must be watching the trends closely (see post below). Also, with the booming Walla Walla wine industry nearby, it's conceivable that this new eco-park would be able to attract artisinal processors to their sleepy burg. This South East WA project dovetails nicely with our Puget Sound Food Project. Like the town of Dayton, we are trying to revive the food processing industry here in our region. It will be interesting to watch these two efforts develop.

Mark

Second PCC/CHC Podcast: David Montgomery

Happy Monday! The combination of snow on the ground and the holiday spirit in the air seems to have slowed everything down just a touch, which is nice. We're wrapping up some of our 2008 projects and eagerly planning for 2009. Stay tuned for some fun and important announcements!

Our friends over at PCC Natural Markets recently posted the second part in the Cascade Harvest Coalition 2008 Podcast Series featuring renowned UW professor David Montgomery speaking at the Snohomish County Focus on Farming Conference. Professor Montgomery was recently chosen as a MacArthur Fellow (aka the "Genius Grant") for his work as a geomorphologist.

Mark