George Siemon co-founded and heads Organic Valley, the Wisconsin-based producer of dairy products, meats and vegetables that is the nation’s biggest organic farmer cooperative. The work of the company to advance the Good Food movement was honored with FamilyFarmed’s Good Business Business of the Year Award.
FamilyFarmed’s annual Good Food Festival & Conference is the oldest and largest event in the Midwest focused on local and sustainable food. At its heart are the producers, buyers, sellers and others who exhibit their businesses there. Exhibitor registration is open for the 12th annual Good Food Festival & Conference, scheduled for March 24-26 in Chicago, and there is a $100 discount for participants who sign up by Dec. 9.
Chicago has been something of a laboratory for the rise of the Good Food movement. Yet there has been one element of the movement that has been largely missing in Chicago: food cooperatives. Until now.
We have been writing so much about FamilyFarmed’s 11th annual Good Food Festival & Conference March 19-21 that we want to make sure that the main events designed for the general public do not get lost in the shuffle. So here is our list of the top 10 reasons you should attend the Localicious food and drink tasting event and the Good Food Festival.
While there has long been robust interest in food co-ops in a number of communities across the United States, Chicago has lagged a bit behind. But change is under way. Over the past couple of years, there’s been an explosion of interest in retail food co-ops in the metro Chicago area, which in turn has spawned the Chicagoland Co-op Coalition.
by Grant Kessler, FamilyFarmed.org Grant Kessler is a food photographer and local food marketing consultant in Chicago who serves as marketing director for FamilyFarmed.org’s annual Good Food Festival and Conference. He also is a member of the team that is developing Chicago Market, a food co-op rooted in the principles of the Good Food movement. Read more about First Person: Building a food co-op — and positive change — in Chicago[…]
Chicago Market is a food cooperative project that just launched its first major public ownership/fundraiser campaign on Sunday. And no one can say that the co-op supermarket, proposed for the city’s North Side, is trying to elbow its way into an overcrowded commercial sector.