foodperson.com

Did you see the local-food item in the Journal-World yesterday? The story buried the news peg (as we who used to be in the news biz would call it), which is that county Commissioner Nancy Thellman (at right) is planning to seek establishment of a food commission or advisory board to promote the local food economy. That, to my mind, is big news: An elected official not only recognizes but hopes to promote the local food economy not just for the sake of better food (though heaven knows we’d get it), but because it’s good business!

I’d heard through the grapevine that such a thing was in the offing, and now that it’s sort of semi-official, I wanted to call it to your attention. If you’d seen any of Ken Meter’s presentations here, which local reporters have not, you’d know the potential is huge.

So here’s what I hope a few of you will do: Contact the county commissioners (they’re the three at the top of the page) and let them know you think it’s a great idea. And if you’re really motivated, educate yourself a bit more:

• Read a little on Foodperson.
• And on Ethicurean.
• Or check out the K-State presentation on historical fruit and vegetable production in the Kansas River Valley (PDF). I believe that was put together by Pete Garfinkel.
• Or view Meter’s outline (PDF, from Kansas Rural Center) from his May 2008 presentation, which probably gives more information that you want, let alone his whole presentation last year (also from Kansas Rural Center, 17.4 MB PDF).
• This KRC page also has links to PDFs of Ronda Janke’s and Scott Allegrucci’s presentations the same day.

Lots of facts. Lots of good info if you have time to wade through it all.