On April 4, 2014, a local foodshed workshop was held by the University of Missouri Extension in Lebanon which drew over 40 participants. The workshop was entitled, “Food Entrepreneurship: A New Way of Thinking about Local Food and Jobs.”
Among the many speakers was Patty Cantrell, Regional Food Solutions, LLC. She discussed the importance of food hubs to local food production, processing, marketing and distribution. It helps to provide the necessary food system infrastructure between the farm and the plate. Some food hubs are cooperatives, but most are not.
Another speaker was Randy Crabtree, a local farmer who recently built and is operating a 30’ by 128’ hydroponic greenhouse for leafy vegetables. He is now growing lettuce ten months of the year in Montreal, MO (one hour northwest of Fort Leonard Wood). He currently has the capability of growing about 60,000 pounds of lettuce per year and plans to double that capability.
The Sustainable Ozarks Partnership (SOP) white paper on Secure Foodshed has been revised based on this workshop and several other recent Secure Foodshed meetings.