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USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative grant awarded!
We have some good news for a Monday morning. The USDA CSREES has awarded a 3-year, $1.1 million Regional Partnerships for Innovation grant to intensify and extend our network! The overall goal of the project is to support the networking needed for rapid commercialization of innovations emerging in production and marketing of specialty crops in local food systems. (Click the link below to read more)
The grant will fund enhancements and facilitation of the networking we’ve been engaged with on this site, market research, several pilot projects that focus the networking on specific markets and expanding the collaborative from Ohio into Michigan and Pennsylvania. This site was used in developing the proposal and the project summary is attached to this blog.
Our work as the Ohio Local Food Systems Collaborative took shape almost one year ago at the 1st Annual Stinner Summit. The award from the USDA really provides a boost that will ensure continued progress over the next few years. What great momentum to bring to the 2nd Annual Stinner Summit in two weeks. Registration for the Summit is proceeding and we hope you’ll be able to attend to brainstorm and launch the next project that we can work on together towards healthier agroecosystems and sustainable communities.
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USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative grant awarded!
It's great that you all jumped on this opportunity, but more than that, it seems this award represents a sea change in awareness about the connections between "unfettered globalization," climate change, and peak oil and the need for robust local/regional economies. It's about time! It's great that we can write proposals that include those connections in our rationale. Brandon and I wrote a concept paper to the Sociological Initiatives Foundation that made a very similar argument for local food security about the same time, and we wondered if our narrative would fall on deaf ears. When we ready your proposal we felt an immediate kinship with you. We are ready to participate in this work and represent the Appalachian region as part of this network. Let us know the timeline for the project and how we can work together.
Michelle