Missouri Local Foods Summit

President, Errol Ahlers and your secretary Norman Kilmer attended the first Missouri Local Foods Summit held at the Carver Farm on April 6, 2009. Lane McConnell called meeting to order at 1:30 pm.

John Hagler, Missouri Director of Agricultural gave the opening speech. I think here we have the right person for the job he has to do. Some the highlights he covered were the need for more Farmers Markets in the state of Missouri. At the present time there are around 158 markets. Johns goal in the next 2 years or less is for this number ton increase to 250 plus.

Also stressed was the need for all the commodity groups to work together in promoting local foods. This would be the advantage to all groups that were present. Around 35 people were there at the meeting. Represented were groups all the way from beef to vegetables.

John also told us that the statue on top of the state capital is the Greek goddess Seryia. She is reaching for all of Missouri farmers, University of Missouri Extension personnel and Lincoln University extension employees. By all of us working together, we can make Missouri Local Foods movement the envy of the other states.

After John Hagler’s speech, group was split into 3 groups. Each group was told to identify local food needs and existing gaps.

After 8 minutes, groups were switched to the next table to add to the previous groups list. 8 minutes later we switched again. By this time the similarities of each chart put together by the different groups was amazing. Results were shared from each of the group’s table. Each person was then asked to make a list of the top 5 priorities for Missouri local foods. Next each table was to consolidate the group’s list of the persons at the table into a list of 5.

This was kept up until the whole group came up with a list of 6 items for the state agriculture department headed by John Hagler to address on at the state level.

A meeting will be held at a later this year to follow up on this one.
Norman Kilmer