Michigan Ag Connection - Good Food Summit Highlights 5 Work Areas for Michigan

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Good Food Summit Highlights 5 Work Areas for Michigan
Michigan Ag Connection - 03/08/2010

We make it the center of our gatherings. We take time in preparing it. And we love to eat it. Food: There's no living without it.

That's why the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University (MSU), the Food Bank Council of Michigan and the Michigan Food Policy Council have initiated a process of developing a policy platform to advance equity, sustainability and a thriving economy through the food system in Michigan.

This project is funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich..

"Most of us are truly fortunate to be surrounded by plenty, but Michigan State University has never taken food for granted," said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. "We've been discovering its secrets and passing them on to society for 155 years. In the meantime we've developed a fuller appreciation for the environmental, economic and cultural dimensions of this vital topic."

One of the main focuses of the project is a statewide event in which five work groups presented draft agenda priorities and asked for feedback and input from attendees. The Michigan Good Food Summit took place at the Lansing Center in Lansing.

The feedback and input gathered at the summit will help shape the Michigan Good Food Charter to be released in May 2010, which will lay out policy priorities for a system of food and agriculture that fosters the health and wealth of Michigan's people, businesses and communities.

One of the five work groups has been looking at ways to increase the accessibility and affordability of healthy food in both urban and rural areas of our state.

"I represent an urban community where healthy, fresh food can be hard to come by, and where low-income populations struggle to feed their families," said State Sen. Martha G. Scott, D-Highland Park. "Urban blight has also left large parts of the city vacant. This presents a unique opportunity to address a number of problems: urban farming of vacant city land can produce fresh foods and a reasonable price to a population that currently struggles to attain affordable, healthy food. The Michigan Good Food Summit will be addressing these very issues and how we can turn these opportunities into reality."

Another work group has been considering how the institutions in Michigan, including K--12 schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and correctional facilities, can better serve healthy food and support producers in their region.

"The Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) recognizes the connection between the well-being of Michigan citizens and the health of the environment," said Brian Peters, executive vice president of association strategy and membership for MHA. "That is why the MHA and its member hospitals are working towards reducing Michigan's ecological footprint and promoting healthier communities through local food purchasing initiatives."

The third work group has been looking at the infrastructure underlying the different components of the food system and how we can better support farmers and supply chains operating locally alongside those operating nationally or globally.

"The Michigan Grocers Association supports the mission of the Good Food Summit," said Linda Gobler, president and CEO. "We enjoy being partners with all those who are part of farm-to-fork agriculture programs in Michigan."

Two more groups have been exploring how to strengthen small- and medium-scale farm viability and ways to support emerging young farmers, improve child health and nutrition and expand learning opportunities related to food, health, nutrition and agroecology.

"Our school district has wanted to start a farm-to-school program for several years," said Paul Yettaw, food service director for Lakeview School District in Battle Creek. "After hearing about the benefits and rewards, I realized that Lakeview School District needed to join the many other schools in the state who have adopted this program."

"Food as nutrition, as an economic asset and as a source of energy interact with this ever-flatter world in ever more complex ways, and we look forward to engaging with others to more fully develop a vision for Michigan's 'place at the table' in the 21st century," Simon said.

Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin American and the Caribbean and southern Africa.