First, I need to thank everyone who attended and registered for the first Local Food Forum’s “Better” Dialogues, held on Monday (April 15) and titled The Pros of Regenerative Agriculture. We had a great turnout, there were lots of audience questions, and we’re grateful for the positive feedback we have received. The recording is being processed and we will share with all registrants as soon as possible.
Thanks also to co-host Chef Sarah Stegner and our amazing guest panelists, Paul Lightfoot of Patagonia Provisions and Regenerative Organic Alliance; Marty Travis of Spence Farm and Down at the Farms; Greg Wade of Publican Quality Bread; and Tim Brown of Broadview Farm & Gardens. What an engaging and informative conversation! That hour flew by.
And thanks to our supporters at Mariano’s, Chicago Chefs Cook, Landmark Pest Management, and Prairie Grass Cafe, and to webinar team members Amanda Puck, Rebecca Fyffe, Eda Davidman, Darren Gest and David Hernandez for helping get the webinar series off to such a rocking start.
Now… on to the next one!
Local Food Forum’s “Better” Dialogues presents a webinar on Monday, April 29 on a subject that almost everyone in the food community loves. Outdoor Farmers Market Season Kickoff: Why You Should Go will be on Zoom at 7 p.m. central time on the 29th (we will email registrants the Zoom link before the webinar), and it is free to attend.
Registration is open and it’s free. Please sign up now.
If you are a farmers market fan, then you should not miss the one-on-one conversation at the beginning of the webinar. “Better” Dialogues Co-host Chef Sarah Stegner, a founder of Chicago’s Green City Market in 1999, will interview Laura Avery, who managed the legendary Santa Monica Farmers Market in California for 36 years.
Both Laura and Sarah became involved in farmers markets when there weren’t many across the country and played major roles in helping stimulate the growth of our local food culture. This will surely be a memorable conversation.
Sarah and co-host Bob Benenson of Local Food Forum will of course discuss all the delicious, nutritious, sustainably and humanely produced food that millions of people across the U.S. buy at farmers markets, with tips about shopping with seasonality in mind.
But there is much more to farmers markets than that.
Today, most farmers markets address the need for greater food access by accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and many participate or have started programs that double or even triple the value of those benefits. Joining us to discuss is Matthew Ruffi, who organizes Chicago’s Uptown Farmers Market (in his role as president of the Chicago Market co-op grocery project) and heads up the Link Up Illinois program that provides financial support for markets’ “Link Match” programs.
The Farmers Market webinar is Episode 2 of “Better” Dialogues, and we will expand on the theme of regenerative agriculture than was the topic of Episode 1. Kyle Jacobson of Illinois’ Jacobson Family Farms is innovating in raising produce and livestock while restoring pastureland to native vegetation.
Farmers markets are all about building community, and local food communities often rush to the aid of farmer vendors who face extraordinary challenges. Alex Finn of Michigan’s Finn’s Ranch will discuss not only her delicious products, but how Chicago’s local food community came to her aid after a devastating fire on her family’s farm.
Join us for the conversation and feel free to participate in the Q&A with our co-hosts and panelists. It’s going to be informative… and fun!
Reminder: Factory Farming Doc Saturday
You still have time to purchase tickets for the screening of The Smell of Money, an important documentary about the far-reaching negative consequences of factory farms.
Now the organizations are joining forces for t
The showing will take place on Saturday, April 20, from 4:30-6:30 p.m., at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. The movie screening will be followed by a panel discussion. The event is presented by Crate Free USA and Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), two leading animal welfare non-profit based in the Chicago area.
The film’s title refers to the nauseating smell of animal waste that emanates from CAFOs and degrades the quality of life in the rural communities where they are located — just one of the critical problems involved with factory farming — and how local residents in rural areas have fought back.
Click the button below to visit the event page on Facebook and then click tickets to buy yours to attend the showing.
FACT’s Annual Farm Grants Announced
And now for some great news: Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) has announced the recipients of its 2024 Fund-a-Farmer grants. The organization reports that it is making 87 grants for a combined amount of more than $251,000, adding:
Our 2024 grants to farmers seeking or holding animal welfare certification were generously underwritten by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) with grants to farmers within a 200-mile radius of Chicago graciously funded by Food:Land:Opportunity. The rest of 2024’s funded projects were made possible by the generous support of organizations like ButcherBox and donations from our fantastic FACT community.
FACT has now made a total of 695 Fund-a-Farmer grants, with a collective total of nearly $1.4 million, since 2012.
A special shoutout to one of the grantees — Ed Dubrick of DuChick Ranch in Cissna Park, Illinois — who is a friend of Local Food Forum. DuChick Ranch was awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase portable fencing supplies and build mobile poultry shelters that will provide a more humane and sanitary environment for their broiler chickens and turkeys and enrich the quality of their lives.
Ed co-owns the farm with wife Lindsey, and also works off-farm as policy organizer for the non-profit Illinois Stewardship Alliance.
Twenty-one other awardees are also from the four-state Lake Michigan region. They are:
Atlas Farms in Braidwood, Illinois, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase materials to install fencing for 10 acres of land, to establish rotational grazing, give animals access to land and a better quality of life.
Detroit Flight Path Farms in Romulus, Michigan, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to implement a hub-and-spoke-style rotational grazing system with a sand-point well, solar pump, and auto-filling waterers for pasture-raised pigs, sheep, and chickens.
Drift's Edge Livestock in Mauston, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to construct a low-stress cattle handling facility utilizing a Bud Box design in rotationally grazed pasture.
Ducks in a Row Family Farm in Arena, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to supply water to all their livestock on newly created pasture.
Full Circle Community Farm in Seymour, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase woven wire and high-tensile electric fencing for hogs to better manage rotational grazing pastures.
Glacier's Edge Farm in Bloomer, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to build a mobile chicken coop to follow beef cattle in a rotational grazing system.
Glorious Goat Ranch, LLC in Greenleaf, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase a portable water system for multi-species grazing.
Grass Fed Beef Farm, LLC in Bruce, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase and inter-seed selected grasses, legumes, and forbs to improve the forage's quantity and quality as well as improve the drought resistance of their recently transitioned conventional row crop land into rotationally grazed pastures.
Heron Hill Farm and Fiber in West Lafayette, Indiana, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to transition their sheep and goats to pasture by purchasing portable electric net fencing to improve animal welfare, rotationally graze and manage pasture, and provide regenerative and sustainable quality forage for increased livestock welfare and soil health.
Holly Hill Ranch in Almond, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to expand pasture access and ranging space for geese, ducks, and turkeys by purchasing more poultry nets and electric chargers.
Howe Farms in Crown Point, Indiana, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to install piping to supply water to pigs and cows on rotational pasture.
Lee Family Farms in New Glarus, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to create a self-sustaining pasture-based system, expand their animals' access to well-managed pasture, and improve the quality of pasture for their sheep.
Pigeon River Farm in Clintonville, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to upgrade 15 acres of fencing on their rotational grazing farm to create a robust predator-resistant barrier, primarily protecting layer hens and goat kids from escalating fox and raccoon predation, thereby enhancing animal welfare and securing the productivity of their operation.
Songbird Hill Farm, LLC in Bourbonnais, Illinois, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to construct two new mobile shelters, while simultaneously initiating the establishment of trees for a perennial silvopasture system, paving the way for future farm enterprises on high-quality pasture.
The Moonlight Hollow, LLC in Evansville, Indiana, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase electric netting and fence paneling for expansion to partition the pasture and woods for rotational grazing for goats, pigs, layers, and broilers.
The Pasturage, LLC in Montague, Michigan, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase lowland hay pasture seed mix and hire custom labor to rejuvenate pasture for turkeys, broiler chickens, laying hens, and AWA & Certified grassfed sheep.
The Woven Trifecta in Whitehall, Michigan, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase additional portable fencing to expand pasture for rotational grazing; installing additional irrigation to irrigate pasture as needed and keep livestock watered without hauling water.
Track Farms, LLC in Frankfort, Illinois, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to construct 10 chicken tractors to raise pasture broilers, run a water line to the pasture, and purchase feeders and waterers for each chicken tractor.
Vine and Virtue Farm in Seymour, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to improve the welfare of their broiler and layer chickens, and future pastured animals, by installing infrastructure to supply water to the animals on pasture.
Will O’ the Winds Farm in Washburn, Wisconsin, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase portable fencing and shelters to increase our rotation of hogs on pasture from monthly to weekly.
Willowbrook Farms, LLC in Cassopolis, Michigan, awarded a Fund-a-Farmer grant to purchase fence posts to create a larger area on their acreage to rotationally graze animals in addition to digging water lines to get water access to a wooded area for our pastured livestock.
Click the button below to learn about all grantees across the United States. Congratulations to all.