A brainstorming session with approximately 30 participants of the March 2009 Eat Local Celebration in Belfast, ME, was aimed at gathering information about what residents feel they need in the area to develop a secure local food system. Erica Buswell who is on the management team at the Belfast Co-op Store facilitated the session.

Belfast is the hotbed of Local Food Activity. We are doing things in isolated packets all around the State. How can we bring projects together and help to create a viable local food system. The following is a list of what we have for a local food system and what we need. It is not a complete list but is the beginning of trying to identify a just and secure local food system.

Pieces of the Food System We Have

(Participants of the session named farms and organizations that they had a connection with. Not all the pieces were named.)

Organizations

  • Belfast Co-op (specializes in local food)
  • Farmer’s Market
  • Troy Howard Middle School Garden Project
  • Crown of Maine Distributors
  • Fiddler’s Green Grain Mill
  • MOFGA
  • Maine Farmland Trust
  • Agriculture Extension Service
  • Tanglewood
  • Fedco
  • Food For Maine’s Future
  • Cooperative Maine

Grassroots Actions

  • Local Foods Momentum in this Area
  • Steady Supply of local food at times
  • Value added
  • Demand
  • Pollinators
  • Failure of a large corporate food structure (food recalls)
  • New Farmer Generation
  • Chrissy Fowler
  • Belfast Co-op
  • Support for Good Food Policy
  • Channel 2 Belfast TV
  • Belfast Free Library
  • WERU
  • Murray Carpenter (MPBN)
  • Vermont as a Model
  • Unity College

Farmers and Fisherfolk

  • Meadowsweet Farm
  • Teltane Farm
  • Peacemeal Farm
  • Chases Daily (restaurant and farm)
  • Dilly Dally Farm
  • Freedom Farm
  • Little Garlic Girl Farm
  • Village Farm
  • Jan and Dean Anderson CSA
  • Half Moon Farm
  • Fisher Farm
  • Sand Hill Farm
  • Sewalls Orchard
  • Gardiner’s Honey
  • Heiwa Tofu
  • Hope’s Edge
  • After the Fall Farm
  • Terra Optima
  • Wee Bit Meat
  • Caldwell’s meats and milk
  • Oyster Creek Mushrooms
  • Port Clyde Fisherman’s Co-operative
  • Off’s Farm
  • White’s Orchard Dairy
  • Dickson’s Butter
  • (There are many more)

Pieces of the Food System We Need and who we can look to for guidance:

Local Food School- Ag Vo Tech School

  • Massachusetts has a model
  • John Thurston at Troy Howard Middle School
  • John Piotti at Maine Farmland Trust

Maple Syrup Cooperative

  • Jennifer Hill of Cooperative Maine

Grains Year Round

  • Mark Fulford

Another Sap Pail for local food in Belfast (The Compost Pile)

Fresh Greens Year Round

  • Don White
  • Elliot Coleman
  • Half Moon Gardens
  • Andre Bella (has a green house in Belfast that isn’t being used)

Winter Farmers

Collaborative Cooking

Community Root Cellar

Community Gardens

  • Freddie La Port
  • Marshall Mittnick

Home Gardens-Victory Gardens

  • Jan and Dean Anderson

Community Canning/Processing

  • MOFGA
  • Extension Service
  • Soup Kitchen could use canning and gleaning volunteers

Federal and State Support for Small Farmers

  • MOFGA
  • Food For Maine’s Future
  • CDC

Affordable Farmland

Restaurant Support (labels for food when it is local)

  • Sam Heyward

Outreach to Youth

  • teachers
  • MEA
  • Belfast Co-op
  • Other organizations

Internships & Apprenticeships Programs about local Food (Barter work for education)

  • WOOFERS volunteer on farms around the world for room and board
  • Farm link

Awareness about responsible consumption vs over consumption.

  • Waste, climate change….the broad picture….the real cost of cheap food
  • Composting City wide, Human manure
  • Mark Dittrick (Waste Management Specialist)
  • Vermont model