Those of you who attended last week’s UVM Food Systems Summit already know it was a wild success, with stimulating talks, insightful questions, and delicious food. Today’s post is a photo journal of the event. All photos courtesy of Stephen Mease, except where otherwise noted.
We’ll be posting videos of the talks on the UVM Food Systems YouTube channel in the coming weeks. For more coverage of the event, check out the story by Vermont Public Radio and UVM’s summary of the Summit.
I recently had a chance to chat with Rosamond Naylor, a keynote speaker at this week’s UVM Food Systems Summit. Rosamond is the Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. Her upcoming book, The Evolving Sphere of Food Security, will be published in August.
Food Feed: How did you first get interested in food systems issues?
Rosamond Naylor: I became involved in food systems issues in a somewhat indirect way. As a graduate student in economics, I was interested in development economics and poverty around the world. Most of the poor people and communities around the world work and live in rural agricultural areas and depend on agriculture for a major source of their livelihoods, as well as their food. In the early ‘80s I began to feel that I needed to know something about agriculture if I was going to know anything about reducing global poverty. It really came through the lens worrying about inequality and poverty around the world. Continue reading
By Jonathan Connor
With the invisible hand of the food system market encouraging buyers to find the cheapest food no matter how far away the food is sourced from, it can be difficult to find restaurants committed to serving local foods. In Vermont, the Vermont Fresh Network serves to ease this burden.
The primary goal of Vermont Fresh Network is to connect local farmers with local chefs. Farmers and chefs who are members of the Vermont Fresh Network meet at many networking events hosted by the Vermont Fresh Network throughout the year. Continue reading
By Alyson Barrie and Jonathan Connor
The Big Cheese
In 2007, while attending UVM, Kate Turcotte began working as a milk hauler at Shelburne Farms, a nonprofit educational farm located near the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne, VT. She continued on with an internship during which she learned the cheese making process. After a year at Consider Bardwell farm in West Pawlet, VT, she returned to Shelburne Farms as head cheesemaker. In a state with more cheesemakers per capita than any other, Shelburne Farms stands out as a leader because they are an educational facility. Every day people visit from all over the world to watch them make cheese and to learn about farming and food production. Continue reading
By Jonathan Connor
Have you met the Green Jam Man? Young and passionate about local food, Michael Fraley runs his Fairfax, VT, jam business with quality and innovation at the forefront.
After a quest for black currant jam turned up dry, Fraley learned how to make his own jam with black currants from a nearby farm. Fraley liked his black currant jam even better than the jam he found in stores. With encouragement from his friends, he began to sell jam at local farmers’ markets as the Green Jam Man, and customers loved it.As the business grew, his products began selling at stores around the area in addition to the local farmers’ markets. Continue reading
