Good Food Festival & Conference, March 13-15, 2014

The Good Food Festival & Conference, which ten years ago was the first and only local sustainable food and farm trade show in the U.S., is happening this year at UIC Forum March 13-15.



The GFF&C provides a platform for educating, connecting and continuing support for those who produce local foods and those who bring them to market. The upcoming festival/conference includes demos by chefs like Paul Virant, Rick Bayless, and Jason Vincent, as well as a number of workshops related to such topics as cooking with “ancient grains” and butchering/curing meat. One workshop features Oak Parker Cheryl Muñoz of the Sugar Beet Co-op on a panel discussion of food co-operatives, as well as the Chicago Reader’s Mike Sula talking charcuterie with Michael Ruhlman, and Paul Fehribach of Big Jones explaining how he makes condiments.

My friend and fellow Oak Parker Jim Slama is the founder of both GFF& and Family Farmed, which hosts GFF&C and works to build and sustain the supply chain of local food by helping locate financial, technical and economic assistance for family farmers and artisan food producers. Family Farmed connects producers with buyers – all in an effort to develop an enduring, sustainable infrastructure for bringing good food to all of us who like to eat. Over the past decade, these organizations have also worked to:

• Help Chicago Public Schools source local food for their students – thanks to such efforts, CPS students now find Amish chicken on their lunch lines, which is kind of amazing.
• Establish a “network of funders” to invest in good food production and delivery, because without the greenbacks it’s sometimes challenging to bring leafy organic greens to your table.
• Make it possible for Whole Foods Market, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Lettuce Entertain You, Mariano’s and others to connect with smaller farms and artisan food producers who may lack the expertise and resources to work with such industry giants.
• Develop “food hubs” that serve a couple hundred farmers who distribute their products to markets, restaurants, schools and big distributors like US Foods and SYSCO.

Slama and his organizations have made a huge impact on what we eat in the Midwest and throughout the United States.

Find out more about Family Farmed and the Good Food Festival & Conference here: http://goodfoodfestivals.com/

I'm looking forward to attending tomorrow! This has been on my "to-do" list for several years, but it will be our first time there.

Suzy

I'll be at the Peterson Garden Project Seed Swap booth most of the day tomorrow--sdritz (and anyone else who'll be there)--please stop by!!

I'll bump here even though this is for the 2015 Festival as Hammond's words above are still very apt.



As in past years, the Good Food Festival consists of four distict events. Thursday is all about growing and investing in food enterprises. The program is geared both at people looking to attract money to their enterprises--shark tank for farmers? and people looking to put money into food businesses. This is the money day. Friday has a three-fold focus, on the good food trade, on food policy, and on better food in schools. This day is your chance to schmooze with all the players in the good food movement. Friday night is Localicious, where the best case for good food is made by serving good food (and good local booze). This event also serves as a fundraiser for all the good workds done by FamilyFarmed. Finally, Saturday, the focus is on you, with tons of hands-on activities for you to be a better foodie. If you go to the web site, you can find much details on these events.

A couple of specific things I want to point out. If you're interested in a CSA, you can get a printed version of the CSA list. You can also meet many area farmers who will talk-up their offerings. Another thing, in reaction to a lot of talking and not enough doing, the Festival added the Good Food Commons. This is a series of small workshops that occur all day teaching everything from home-made ramen noodles to making your own bitters. Of course, there's a huge exhibition hall where you can taste and sample and meet and greet.

For additional background, FamilyFarmed President Jim Slama gave an interview to the Local Beet. The Local Beet will have a table on Saturday. Please come say hi.