Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on June 29, 2011
We often talk about support infrastructure as a key component of success in a systems change approach, no matter the target, the support infrastructure is critical. Last week we had a tremendous opportunity to take a huge step in building this support infrastructure. We were visited by a large number (over 60) of program officers and representatives of foundations from across the country at our humble experimental farm in Northfield, Minnesota as part of the annual meeting of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.
We hosted two bus loads of visitors on two separate tours looking at meat production and landscape impact and management as it pertains to the deployment of scalable sustainable food and agriculture systems. This was an opportunity to do many things, but most importantly, with our limited resources, meeting all of these folks at our own place rather than trying to schedule meetings and travel to meet them one-by-one across the country I would say is worth the largest contribution we could have received this year. Not only would it take a lot of cash resources but couple of years to accomplish such goal.
Needless to say, I am thankful in an immense way to be honored with such an opportunity where our team was able to interact with all of these folks. We understand some of the visitors do not invest in work in Minnesota, but the nature of our systems development thinking and of the prototype farms we are putting together have the scalability component embedded in the design, especially in the processes so that they can be adapted to local ecologies in a variety of places. Folks from outside our region can take what we are doing to a whole new level anywhere in the country and we look forward to working with them as our systems get launched and grow, opportunities arise and the business environment opens up the larger potential for innovation in food and agriculture systems re-engineering.
When we talk about systems change, we are not thinking micro or sub-systems, but the whole food and agriculture landscape, the fact that our visitors understand the larger picture and the challenges associated with this approach allowed us to have a leveled discussion about how we move forward and align our strategic thinking so that we can generate the highest returns on investment for our communities.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on February 17, 2011
I posted Kate Taylor’s “goodbye Minnesota” note as she finished her work with the Rural Enterprise Center. The final product of her work includes three video recordings intended as complementary material for community leaders in other communities where we foresee developing new agripreneurs. I have added this material to the page with the full description of this approach, if you follow our work, this is a very important update.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on October 24, 2010
I will be speaking at the Wedge Food Cooperative’s annual meeting, with close to 15,000 members, and over $31 Million in annual sales, the Wedge is the largest cooperative grocery in the country and a leader in innovative partnerships that have significantly expanded cooperation and local food systems development in Minnesota and the Midwest. Check out their annual meeting announcement and scroll down to Gardens of Eagan and Cooperative Partners Warehouse at the bottom of their website’s front page. Both of these initiatives add valuable and needed infrastructure to the growing local and regional food systems.
My presentation at the Wedge’s annual meeting will focus on the larger opportunities for systematic changes that we can initiate through larger partnerships, the deployment of new cooperative enterprises and structured and deliberate steps that can be taken to transform the flow of healthy foods from farm to table at a larger scale. At the Rural Enterprise Center we work all of these within a larger systems development framework, as we pursue these objectives in the transformation of food and agriculture systems, we incorporate principles for social responsibility, fair trade and ecological sustainability in a way that is scalable to meet real market demands for healthy products.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on September 3, 2009
During August, Hillside Farmers Cooperative was organized to create the coordinating infrastructure for the SE MN free range poultry farming and distribution system. This is an strategic step aim at establishing a support and coordinating infrastructure to launch farming operations and distribution partnerships in the region.
As usual, we are looking for ways to engage the larger regional population in building this regional food system. If you are a farmer, write to us through our contact form and let us know if you grow grains or have land (4 acres or more) that you would like to commit to free range production in partnership with a new immigrant family.
If you live in any of the communities within the outlined region please sign up to any of the established mailing list and start purchasing poultry from the established farms or contact us if you are from a different city and would like to help us build a support network to launch a free range poultry operation in your area.
As the poultry operations grow, we will add vegetable production to fully utilize the composted manure that the poultry generates, will add grain processing and distribution to supply the feed for the poultry farms and other value added components.
Here are the cities where we are currently developing a support infrastructure, please click and sign up if you want to receive updates on the activities in your area and to purchase poultry at a local farm or through one of our local drop-sites.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 31, 2009
The easiest way to stay connected and purchase poultry from Hillside Farmers Cooperative members is to sign-up to either of the two targeted mailing lists. As a subscriber you will receive information pertaining to especial events, open hours, weekly reminders with instructions to the farms and other information.
All communications are concentrated on making sure that we bring as many families to the farm as possible not only to purchase products, but because building a local food systems requires engagement, knowing the farmers, sharing knowledge, and creating connectedness, especially for the children. A visit to one of our farms is an experience by itself for the children, so if you have children, bring them along and walk around and show them where food really comes from.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 22, 2009
I joined a group of bikers today as we toured Finca Mirasol Farm, a member of Hillside Farmers Cooperative, launched in 2009, Open Hands Farm, Faith Community Gardens, Greenvale Community Gardens, and Stogrow. Below is a slide show 30 pictures from the tour, it is amazing what a group of dedicated people can do to feed a town. At Faith Gardens over 50 families grow garden plots and two families grow extra produce for the food shelve and to sell at local stores.
The tour in numbers:
Finca Mirasol supplies 150 families with fresh free range poultry, Open Hands serves 80 members under their Community Supported Agriculture operation model (CSA), Greenvale Park Community Garden has 40 plots and Stogrow grows thousands of pounds of produce for St. Olaf cafeteria that is served fresh to students.
The Tour in Perspective:
Northfield is surrounded by great productive lands where we could easily grow most of the food for this town right here, and reduce the carbon footprint derived from transporting food across the country. What we saw today is just an example of what is going on in our area, it is clear that we have the knowledge, talent and resources right here to feed our small towns. All we need now is leadership, an increased community awareness, and transformation of corn and soybean fields into food production.
The Rural Enterprise Center is a program of Main Street Project that focuses on enterprise development. Our mission is to strengthen communities by bringing together the support infrastructure, systems, resources and programs that rural entrepreneurs need to succeed. More...
tremendous opportunity to take a huge step in building this support infrastructure. We were visited by a large number (over 60) of program officers and representatives of foundations from across the country at our humble experimental farm in Northfield, Minnesota as part of the annual meeting of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders.
agriculture systems. This was an opportunity to do many things, but most importantly, with our limited resources, meeting all of these folks at our own place rather than trying to schedule meetings and travel to meet them one-by-one across the country I would say is worth the largest contribution we could have received this year. Not only would it take a lot of cash resources but couple of years to accomplish such goal.
invest in work in Minnesota, but the nature of our systems development thinking and of the prototype farms we are putting together have the scalability component embedded in the design, especially in the processes so that they can be adapted to local ecologies in a variety of places. Folks from outside our region can take what we are doing to a whole new level anywhere in the country and we look forward to working with them as our systems get launched and grow, opportunities arise and the business environment opens up the larger potential for innovation in food and agriculture systems re-engineering.
When we talk about systems change, we are not thinking micro or sub-systems, but the whole food and agriculture landscape, the fact that our visitors understand the larger picture and the challenges associated with this approach allowed us to have a leveled discussion about how we move forward and align our strategic thinking so that we can generate the highest returns on investment for our communities.
