FORUM ON REGIONAL PLANNING FOR LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS
June 26, 2015, 10:00-Noon
Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), 3rd Floor Meeting Room, 1299 Superior Avenue in Cleveland, OH 44114
CLICK HERE to register for the forum.
Featured Speaker:
Brian Williams, Agriculture Specialist, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
Panelists:
Bob Brown, City Planning Consultant (Former Director of City Planning for Cleveland)
Brian Gwin, Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center
Elsa Higby, Grow Youngstown
Courtney Johnson, Ashtabula Food Council
Description:
Increasingly, interest in local food systems development has stimulated new approaches to municipal and regional planning. A healthy local food system emerges at the nexus of responsible land-use planning and farmland preservation, infrastructure planning and logistics, economic development, vacant land and building re-utilization, and neighborhood food access. Local food systems are inherently regional. Supply chains, supporting infrastructure for distribution or processing, and waste re-utilization often occur across multiple counties. Is there a role for urban and regional planning in healthy food systems development? Can Metropolitan Planning Organizations play a role in supporting cross-regional connections to foster the growth of the local food economy? How do local food systems work in the fragmented municipal and county landscape of Northeast Ohio?
Featured speaker Brian Williams, Agriculture Specialist from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, will share his experiences working to facilitate regional collaboration in the greater Columbus area. Panelists working on local food efforts in Northeast Ohio will follow Brian's remarks with their thoughts on challenges and opportunities in Northeast Ohio’s emerging local food economy.