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Agencies and Institutions Focus Group Notes Feb 18, 2014 6 Attendees Current activities to add to those listed on powerpoint slides: Farmers markets are getting a lot of support by various entities, Towns and Villages, and others Owasco Watershed Management Council – a lot of research and policy development Across-the –board research and policy, NRCS, SWCD, Cornell, etc are involved Discussion of possible future implementation strategies, using suggestions on the powerpoint slides as a starting point: Assistance in developing business plan and market analysis – CEDA dabbles in this but not a lot. Looking to do more. CCE used to do this but doesn’t really do it anymore since things were consolidated at CEDA. Still does some business planning assistance for very specific purposes (applying for a grant, for example) FarmNet – director is based in Tompkins but lives in Cayuga County. Uses CCE meeting space for the 15-20 transfers in the county that have been done through them. County Office of Tourism is working on a tourism business start-up kit. New York Farms – what’s happening with that now? The non-profit status (missed the terminology here) was transferred to FL Culinary Bounty. Finger Lakes Grants Information Center is run by the chamber and is a good resource for businesses to find grants. SWCD used to do an ag tour every year, had low attendance. Thinking of starting up again. Cayuga Milk Ingredients could be a good draw. County Tourism office does an annual “Familiarization Tour” for people involved in tourism Farm Bureau has field trip money but not a lot of schools are taking advantage of it. BOCES coordinates meetings with supervisors, principles, workshops major policies coming from the state, etc. Common Core is a problem-solving model, so will be GOOD for agriculture in that it can provide opportunities for applied learning. Cornell needs to focus/ rethink Ag-in-the-Classroom Creating a new ag festival would be difficult, maybe it would be better to take existing events and enhance the agricultural/local food presence at them. The county could create a single online portal, heavily marketed, that would collate all ag resources and information in the entire county. Would be a cooperative, or a joint effort. CEDA and others provide resources for farmers and ag-businesses but it does not currently target its marketing to those groups. Food-to-restaurant: find another model Launch a buy local campaign – Chamber is planning to do this beginning in Summer of 2014. Planning to be similar to the Syracuse First campaign, with an obvious ag focus. ---PAGE BREAK--- New NYSDAM commissioner is interested in pushing farm access to new markets. Work with Culinary Bounty/Pride of New York to get restaurants/schools to advertise locally- sourced foods. Idea of an agricultural economic specialist – CEDA is moving in this direction. This person could help connect up new farm businesses with similar existing ones. Small scale food production – how to facilitate this? - SUNY Morrisville: hear some good things, some not so good - There are existing commercial kitchens in the county, so that is not needed - What’s really needed is to help make connections between new enterprises and old ones that can help (an ag economic specialist could facilitate this) Slaughterhouses- Farm Bureau and NYSDAM advocacy. To finally address the shortage of processing facilities, 12 counties in the north country formed a trucking co-op that sends its meat to a facility in Lancaster, PA. Must be costly to do this. The big problem with Ag Education is that it is not mandated by the state, so it gets lost in the budget cuts. There is some space in the middle school curriculum for ag education. CCE can create an Agriculture Resource Toolkit for teachers, maybe even do two, one for general education and one for ag educators (or one for younger kids and one for high school students?). Could work with schools to adopt the toolkits. School bids – bid is for items like bread and milk, not for fresh fruits and vegetables - Need a local volume - Could there be easier economic avenues for farmers? Wouldn’t this be a lot of effort for relatively little benefit? Have to also consider the educational benefits for the children and the general public educational benefits of these types of connections, as well as possible health benefits and the overall benefits to the local economy - Will Calandro (produce wholesaler in Auburn) use local food in aggregate?