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Title:

Local Food: Creating an Online Community of Local Eaters

Your vote:
Yes No
Organizer:
Steven Mandzik, A Clean Life
Description:
Finding local food is hard. The internet presents an amazing opportunity to simplify that experience. But, we need a strong online community creating the content and keeping it fresh. This panel will explore the current online environment, how to help, and the future we hope to create for local food.
Questions
Answered:
  1. What is the local food movement?
  2. What are the benefits of local food?
  3. What is available online to help me?
  4. What mobile applications are available?
  5. What are some good tips for starting a local food blog?
  6. Where can I add my local food information?
  7. What is needed to make this sustainable?
  8. How do I get to know others in the local food community?
  9. What is wrong with the food industry we have today?
  10. Where can I find more information?
Level:
Beginner
Category:
Community / Online Community, Content, Green / Environmental, Social Networking, User Generated Content
Type:
Panel
Event:
Interactive 2010
Amy S
on 17/8/09
With the global recession and so much emphasis on health care and the environment, this is one of the hottest trends we'll see in 2010. I switched to a local-food only diet, lost 3 lbs in the first week and felt an increase in my energy, cut my grocery bill down to a 1/3 of what I used to spend and have reduced my waste to a 1/4 of what I used to produce. Everyone needs to be doing this.
Mchele Zenkowich
on 17/8/09
Great stuff Steve. Point #9 would take a whole session tho'. Agree with Amy, this is one of the hottest trends. Goal = to make it more than trend-y, but to change behavior & lives.
Daryn Nakhuda
on 18/8/09
sounds interesting, i think 10 points is too much. I'd focus on 1-6.
Chris Troutman
on 19/8/09
I love this panel idea. As a local beer blogger/advocate I think that using media and the web to promote local foods is a trend that needs to be highlighted.

Good show!
Steven Mandzik
on 19/8/09
Thanks everyone! Im very excited to get a chance to talk about local food. National farmers market week just passed and I think the local food movement is experiencing blazing growth. Last year the market grew by 15% and this year seems like it may be even better.

The new Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsak, is very supportive and the USDA is establishing a social media director position too. We are poised for some incredible change.

The best part is that this helps more than our health but also the environment since food counts for more fossil fuel use than cars!
Kelcy Allwein
on 19/8/09
I think that this is an important panel for a number of reasons including supporting local industry, reducing costs, maintaining food freshness and so on. I do think that points #3 and 10 are similar as are points #2 and #9 so that you could incorporate those points together without harming the presentation.
Steven Mandzik
on 20/8/09
@Amy - thx a bunch u r a model clean life citizen!

@Michele - seriously, whats wrong with our food industry could take forever. I think the web is the perfect alternative vehicle to solve this. And the growing social and community abilities it presents are fascinating. Our movement is definitely gaining steam.
Steven Mandzik
on 20/8/09
@Daryn- thx for feedback, i agree too. Prob only make those points as overall storyline but not drill down into details since it could get off topic (save that for q/a).

Chris - thx too. Here is a conference all about the health benefits of beer, held at UMD in 2006: cfnap.umd.edu/files/BeerExecutiveSummary.pdf - Hope u like it.
Steven Mandzik
on 20/8/09
Kelcy - thx for the feedback. Ur def right on points 3/10. If selected I'll prob just use point 10 as the close to leave up info resources for all.
Andrea Baker
on 20/8/09
Right now the only thing I really know about local food is the neighborhood produce stands that once were in abundance in MD, but have disappeared because of development. I miss the days in which I could drive home and stop to pick up something fresh for dinner. These home grown sweets and treats are going the way of the dodo. I would like to hear this talk and how we can prevent that possibly?
S Mandzik
on 21/8/09
Steve -This is a great panel .
We need everybody to do the right thing for our environment.
Switching over to eating only local fresh food is the key.
thanks Steve for getting our family and friends on board.
I also agree 10 points to much (1-5)...
Steven Mandzik
on 22/8/09
This is exactly what we need.
Shawn Mandzik
on 22/8/09
Local food has a lot of potential. I would like to see produce labeled with it's distance (i.e. 10mi, 10,000mi) so that consumers can 'vote' with their dollars and hopefully spur demand for local foods. Good luck Steve!
Amadie Hart
on 24/8/09
Would love to see this panel. I think this sort of information is sorely needed in today's world -- without easy-to-find and relevant information, increasing the prominence and support for local food is a huge uphill battle.
Matthew Nahlik
on 27/8/09
I hope you plan on providing samples at your talk.
April Davis
on 3/9/09
Great idea. I voted yes.

Please check out my presentation and the links below.

Thanks ... April

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http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3326

http://blog-aroundharlem.com/2009/09/01/help-put-harlem-on-the-world-stage-digitally-vote-for-us-to-attend-sxsw/
Roy Nicholson
on 3/9/09
Sounds like this could be an interesting talk. +1
Dennis Moore
on 4/9/09
Looking forward to getting access to the transcript, report and/or video to the COMFOOD list-serve group.

Dennis Moore in Seattle
blu ray ripper
on 13/11/09
Terrific info in support of small enterprise. Great idea!
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