|
Curt's email to the group with these resources:
Hi Austin Food Systems Leaders! Hope your July is going well. Here are five resources relevant to our work that I couldn't wait until our next meeting to share: 1. Michigan State University's Center for Regional Food Systems is hosting a three part series featuring speakers with experience crafting and delivering visionary plans that guide their local food systems. While held in Michigan, lucky for us they're also streaming the series on Zoom so we can tune in remotely. The first session is Tuesday July 31 at 9:30am and features Ellen Kahler, the Executive Director of The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, which serves as the administrator and backbone organization to the Vermont Farm to Plate Network. ** "Achieving Food Systems Visions - Past, Present, Future": http://www.canr.msu.edu/events/achieving-food-systems-visions ** Vermont Farm to Plate Network: http://www.vtfarmtoplate.com Unfortunately I can't participate, as I'll be traveling that day. But I hope some of you can. ----- 2. Speaking of Vermont, the Newsletter is pretty cool. It includes feature stories about their food system, a news feed, a calendar, and food system job listings. ** Here's the July edition: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1100573190364&ca=40914ae4-26a6-4d46-92d3-43f80bc061b1 ** Here's how to get on the newsletter distribution list: http://www.vtfarmtoplate.com/get-connected ----- 3. Over in New York, the Local and Regional Food Systems at Cornell has a cool website that highlights people, projects, and resources, much as we're trying to do. You can see how they're doing it at: http://localfood.cornell.edu ----- 4. At our first meeting, we discussed the importance of gaining consensus on a number of "Outcomes" for our work. US News recently published an analysis of Healthiest Counties in the US based on 80 metrics summarized into 10 broader groupings, one of which is Food & Nutrition, but many of which touch on food systems issues. We might consider leveraging such work, or at least being cognizant of how others measure outcomes. Spoiler alert: of 3,000 counties ranked, Travis comes in at #311 overall, but doesn't crack the Top 100 of our relevant peer group. High on Economy, low on Equity, 73 of 100 on Food and Nutrition. ** Overall study: https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities ** Travis County: https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/texas/travis-county Very interesting to click into the details of what they're tracking in Food & Nutrition. ----- 5. Speaking of Outcomes, sometimes it is useful to look a little outside a specific domain for inspiration for innovation. Robyn Metcalfe of Food + City sent me this link, "VC Ecosystems - Analysis of key indicators of US VC ecosystem development". I think it interesting because while the Vermont and US News work looks at end-state results specific to food and health, this study looks at indicators of development of the ecosystem along the way. Their three roll-up categories are Density, Resources, and Talent, with very specific sub-algorithms to calculate each one. ** See: https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_2Q_2018_Analyst_Note_VC_Ecosystems.pdf ----- Reminder: Submit your food related "Initiatives" at https://austin.foodecosystem.org/initiatives (password "1111", use the "New Initiative" button at top right) or email them to evan@austinfoodhsedinvestors.com ----- Lastly, I'm so proud of the article Edible Austin did on our organization, Austin Foodshed Investors, I wanted to share it with you. Attached. ----- Flying to Portugal with the family for the rest of July tomorrow, back in early August. Can't wait to a) check out the local food scene in Lisbon, and b) see you all again and get this thing rolling! Cheers, Curt 
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|||
RSS Feed