2012 Farmer-Fisher-Chef Connection Agenda

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Schedule

8:00am • Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00am • Welcoming Remarks by Zachary Lyons, President, Seattle Chefs Collaborative Keynote Address by Matthew Dillon, Cultivator for Seed Matters, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Port Townsend (Main room)

10:15am • Panel Discussion: Move It! Local Innovations in Small-Scale Food Distribution (Main room)

11:15am • Break

11:30am • Morning Breakout Sessisons:

    • Social Media - Tools You Can’t Affort Not to Use (Main room)
    • Adding Value & Extending Seasons: What Buyers Need, What Producers Have & How is it Regulated (Oasis room)

12:30am • Lunch prepared by great local chefs with ingredients contributed by local producers

1:45pm • Speed Networking

3:00pm • Break - Feel free to take a break, Networking Session will continue through the break

4:15pm • Closing Remarks by Chef Roy Breiman, Vice President, Seattle Chefs Collaborative

4:30pm – 6pm • Tasting & Social Hour - Main room & Oasis room

Keynote, Panel Notes and Speakers

Keynote Speaker: Matthew Dillon Community Seed Systems The Foundation of Healthy Regional Food Systems

Healthy regional food systems require sound and sustainable regional resource management with a focus on the common good. We may not consider it every day, but seed is a natural resource at the foundation of our food systems. Seed is a public commons for which we are responsible. In the last thirty years seed has been privatized, repackaged, branded and sold back to public at an exorbitant price – in dollars as well as the costly depletion and contamination of seed resources for future generations. The corporations that bullied and bribed the public into ceding control of our invaluable seed legacy attempts to take not only the seed, but also the stories around seed, food, and farming. Millions spent tell a false tale that food security and biological diversity depend upon patents and consolidated ownership of our natural resources, from our fisheries to our soil to our seed. There is an alternative narrative, the true story of the work we are all engaged in – one of creative resistance to an industrial food model through protecting, improving, and celebrating diverse regional food systems. Dillon will tell the story of the development of agricultural crop diversity, discuss why diversity is essential, and share ideas on how we can take part in restoring the natural resources that support our food systems.

Who is he? Matthew Dillon was raised in an agricultural family in eastern Nebraska, growing vegetables and raising cattle with his father, as well as selling animal health supplies. He was introduced to organic farming in 1982 by the monks of Mt. Michael Benedictine High School. Dillon later farmed in Philo, California before moving to Port Townsend, WA to work with Abundant Life Seed Foundation, becoming ALSF’s executive director in 2001 – stewarding a collection of over 3000 rare and endangered heirloom and native seeds. Matthew co-founded Organic Seed Alliance in 2003 to further the ethical development and stewardship of seed. In 2010 he authored the State of Organic Seed Report, a thorough assessment of challenges and opportunities in the organic seed sector. Matthew is currently an advisor to Clif Bar Family Foundation and leads the SEED MATTERS initiative, working to conserve crop diversity, promote farmers rights as seed stewards, and reinvigorate public seed research and education.

Panel Discussion: Move It! Local Innovations in Small-Scale Food Distribution (10:15AM Main Room)

As consumer demand for locally produced food continues to grow, so do the challenges (and opportunities) for creating innovative farm-to-market distribution solutions. While large scale systems become more technically sophisticated, they tend to serve large scale producers and circumvent di- rect producer/buyer relationships for the sake of efficiency and increased sales margins. Thankfully, there are local solutions being developed to solve smaller scale distribution challenges, including pooling/aggregating products, chefs’ hours at farmers markets, wholesale markets, consolidat- ed CSAs and more. Small-scale food producers and independent chefs are working together to maintain direct buyer/seller business relationships, pricing strategies and marketing for mutual benefit.

How do our panelists ‘move it?’ A brief description of their distribution techniques follows each of their names.

  • Lucy Norris, NABC/PSFN, Mt. Vernon (Moderator)
  • Joe Malley, Fishing Vessel Saint Jude, Seattle - distributes via farmers markets, website and wholesales to businesses of many sizes
  • Cheryl Thornton, Cloud Mountain Farm, Everson - representing Nooksack Valley Farmers Cooperative, an aggregate model
  • Chef Dustin Ronspies, Art of the Table, Seattle - participated as a buyer at the Wallingford Farmers Market’s 2011 pilot of Chefs Only Hour
  • Chef Jess Dowdell, Ca’buni - Café in the Woods, Langley – works with many different producers, all have different ways of delivering goods to her kitchen Breakout Session One and Speakers

Social Media - Tools You Can’t Afford Not to Use (11:30AM Main Room)

It’s not enough to know how to grow produce, prepare delicious meals night after night and present them with aplomb, or catch fish and bring them briny fresh to market. Today farmers, chefs, restaurateurs, fishers, mixologists and other food service professionals are also expected to main- tain a visible and engaging presence on the internet. Beyond a website, social media sites like Facebook and twitter can provide valuable oppor- tunities to build stronger ties with customers, sell more product and serve more dinners. In this session we will look at the tools, how to use them, hear stories of successes and failures, and come away with new ideas about how to better use these new tools.

Adding Value & Extending Seasons: What Buyers Need, What Producers Have & How is it Regulated (11:30AM Oasis room)

Join us for the round table discussion and brain storming session on Adding Value & Extending Seasons. It might be an idea that a grower had that they want to bounce off the group - “I always thought that my tomatoes could be used to ... How do I do that?” or a chef wishing for a local alternative to an imported item that they buy all the time - “has anyone ever found a local source for [insert imported item here]?” After a few stories to get the ball rolling, the audience will join our panel of artisan food producers and food safety experts in conversation to learn more about how ideas become value added items and alternative ways to extend seasons. Not so much an A to Z of processing as an idea generating, connection making group discussion about how we can create and promote local value added foods to meet the needs of chefs and buyers while keeping more money in our own communities.

  • Fred Berman, WSDA Food Safety and Consumer Services Division, Outreach & Education, Bellingham (Moderator)
  • Chef Renee Ericson, Boat Street Café,the Walrus and the Carpenter, Boat Street Pickles, Seattle
  • Pete Knutson, Loki Seafood Co., Seattle
  • Dale Nelon, Farm House Kitchens, Monroe

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