Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on June 26, 2009
A very positive and needed development just happened in the City of Minneapolis. This is good news for all of us working on regional food systems development, we can only hope that the many thousands of voices that made this possible would be sufficient to open up other regional institutional food centers to look into this example of leadership. Thank you IATP for putting first things first. Here is the whole release for your information.
Press Release
June 26, 2009
Contact: Ben Lilliston, 612-870-3416, ben@iatp.org
IATP Congratulates Mayor, City Council on Local Food Initiative
Action will help expand Minneapolis’ local food production
Minneapolis – The Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution today put forth by the Homegrown Minneapolis initiative to support the production, sale and consumption of local, sustainably produced foods in the city and surrounding region.
“We applaud the mayor’s leadership in launching this initiative and the council’s strong support today,” said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s JoAnne Berkenkamp, who co-chaired one of the initiative’s subcommittees. “This is a major step forward in expanding the local food system in the region. We have only scratched the surface in exploring the city’s potential to produce its own food.”
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on June 10, 2009
Pollo de Campo™ is a rural enterprise developed (hatched) at the Rural Enterprise Center. This enterprise is aimed at capitalizing on the knowledge and skills brought to our region by Hispanic/Latino immigrants with a farming background and able to engage in food production in Southern MN. The development of this enterprise involves established farmers, a large number of statewide agriculture and farming support organizations, scientists, businesses, and many other institutions and individuals that are part of the support infrastructure that has been developed to launch this farming enterprise.
Although we will be sharing much more information in the coming months as we start the formal deployment of our marketing and distribution partnership with Thousand Hills Cattle Company of Cannon Falls, we want to make it known to all of our partners and retail outlets interested in our free range grown chicken "Pollo de Campo™ " that we will be showing up at a store near you.
The production protocols for Pollo de Campo™ deliver a healthy, high quality bird with a consistent texture and taste. We accomplish this by providing our birds with a living environment that fundamentally delivers a high quality of life, we believe that as consumers get more educated about the origin of their food, they will want to eat more of the products that do not follow an unhealthy path in the cycle of production.
More importantly tough, Pollo de Campo™ has been launched to establish a regional network of small free range chicken farms (birds that are fed outside and have access to sources of greens 
in the form of grasses and other cover crops and pastures). The mission of the enterprise is to build the infrastructure, systems and programs needed to launch a whole new poultry product that can be clearly differentiated and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This product is designed to set new standards in the production and supply of healthy meat options in a scale that makes economic sense not only for launching new farmers, creating new jobs and bringing large scale economic benefits to our region, but can also transform one sector of the food system.
Pollo de Campo™ is produced as part of a symbiotic system of relationships with other farming enterprises, at least 9 other derived farming operations are being planned in conjuncture with the chicken production. These operations include everything from perennial crops, vegetable production for value added processing (utilizing the high value compost from poultry manure), medicinal herb farms to supply supplements that will be utilized to improve the natural immune system of the birds, to soil farming units for composting and soil production. Research is now being conducted in partnership with key statewide organizations and scientists to evaluate naturally beneficial chemical compounds that can be naturally incorporated into feeding systems to produce a healthier chicken naturally.
To inquire about Pollo de Campo™ and the marketing and distribution plans, visit Thousand Hills Cattle Company.
Stay tuned, there will be more coming.
