The Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative
94 Columbus Road, Athens, Ohio 45701
goodfooddirect@gmail.com
Building healthy food & farm economies with field-to-table bean, grain, nuts & oil seed food systems across Appalachia
Look for updates on Facebook about our progress
goodfooddirect@gmail.com
Building healthy food & farm economies with field-to-table bean, grain, nuts & oil seed food systems across Appalachia
Look for updates on Facebook about our progress
Our Vision
To create a model staple food system that gives farmers a market for growing healthy, high nutrition beans, grain, and oil seed at regional and local scales. Staple crops account for 70% of a healthy diet, and represent over $80 billion in farm revenue in the US, more than double the next sector, fruits and nuts.Yet, the crops are far from what our ancestors put in their bread before the green revolution. And modern growing methods are chemical dependent. Indeed the US corn, wheat, and soybean crop is responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Let's return to crops and growing methods that help us feed each other while caring for the soil, the very foundation of good, healthy food.
In 2010, Shagbark Seed & Mill the prototype we are developing for a regional processing facility, started a Wallace Foundation Healthy Food Enterprise grant to develop a strategy for market based solutions for healthy food access in the rural food deserts in our region. A few short months into that work, Michelle Ajamian & Brandon Jaeger were named among 25 Visonaries who are Changing the World, by Utne Reader.
About Us
We launched The Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative (ASFC) in 2008 after the incredible response we received to publicity about the small farmer rancher grant from NCR-SARE Brandon Jaeger received to run trials of amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, black turtle beans, & heirloom corn on four farms in Appalachian Ohio. Jaeger chose these crops because of their nutrition profile, their positive effect on soil health, their place in many cultures, and the fact that these crops are threatened by soy, wheat, and corn GMOs and the global food system. (To learn more about the big picture that looms over us, read about the connection to World Food Issues.)
In July, 2008, thanks to good friends and good press, word spread and we enlarged our work to include food security, farm preservation, and food system development under ASFC. Well before our plots were mature, we were fielding calls from local restaurants, bakeries, and even far-away buying clubs asking to pre-order the harvest. Ohio University and Hocking College faculty brought their eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture students to our plots. Community organizations like Rural Action, ACEnet, and Community Food Initiatives were eager to partner with us because our project offered alternative crops for struggling farmers and better nutrition in a region with a high incidence of childhood obesity and diabetes.
Since then, the collaborative has received funding to do larger market plots, and network with farmers and other stakeholders around a regional staple foods system. In 2010, we launched Shagbark Seed & Mill, a prototype facility from which we can assess the appropriate structure and scale for regional staple foods, and continue to build a network of small farmers, businesses, local governments, county extension, and nonprofits working in the farming and food sectors. Key to our work with Shagbark is our goal to create a toolbox we can share with other regions that want to start their own facility. To that end, Brandon Jaeger started a USDA funded year long planning process in early December 2010 that is looking building a business model for spelt and amaranth. We have contracted with chefs and bakers to develop recipes, are working with business and marketing experts to develop plans that include information from equipment engineers to help determine our scale.
ASFC also coordinated a 2010-2011 USDA grant from the Wallace Center to help Shagbark Seed & Mill remove bottlenecks from staple food access among low income consumers.
Look us up via Google for up-to-date news on our work.
photos this page Sarah Warda and Michelle Ajamian
To create a model staple food system that gives farmers a market for growing healthy, high nutrition beans, grain, and oil seed at regional and local scales. Staple crops account for 70% of a healthy diet, and represent over $80 billion in farm revenue in the US, more than double the next sector, fruits and nuts.Yet, the crops are far from what our ancestors put in their bread before the green revolution. And modern growing methods are chemical dependent. Indeed the US corn, wheat, and soybean crop is responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Let's return to crops and growing methods that help us feed each other while caring for the soil, the very foundation of good, healthy food.
In 2010, Shagbark Seed & Mill the prototype we are developing for a regional processing facility, started a Wallace Foundation Healthy Food Enterprise grant to develop a strategy for market based solutions for healthy food access in the rural food deserts in our region. A few short months into that work, Michelle Ajamian & Brandon Jaeger were named among 25 Visonaries who are Changing the World, by Utne Reader.
About Us
We launched The Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative (ASFC) in 2008 after the incredible response we received to publicity about the small farmer rancher grant from NCR-SARE Brandon Jaeger received to run trials of amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, black turtle beans, & heirloom corn on four farms in Appalachian Ohio. Jaeger chose these crops because of their nutrition profile, their positive effect on soil health, their place in many cultures, and the fact that these crops are threatened by soy, wheat, and corn GMOs and the global food system. (To learn more about the big picture that looms over us, read about the connection to World Food Issues.)
In July, 2008, thanks to good friends and good press, word spread and we enlarged our work to include food security, farm preservation, and food system development under ASFC. Well before our plots were mature, we were fielding calls from local restaurants, bakeries, and even far-away buying clubs asking to pre-order the harvest. Ohio University and Hocking College faculty brought their eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture students to our plots. Community organizations like Rural Action, ACEnet, and Community Food Initiatives were eager to partner with us because our project offered alternative crops for struggling farmers and better nutrition in a region with a high incidence of childhood obesity and diabetes.
Since then, the collaborative has received funding to do larger market plots, and network with farmers and other stakeholders around a regional staple foods system. In 2010, we launched Shagbark Seed & Mill, a prototype facility from which we can assess the appropriate structure and scale for regional staple foods, and continue to build a network of small farmers, businesses, local governments, county extension, and nonprofits working in the farming and food sectors. Key to our work with Shagbark is our goal to create a toolbox we can share with other regions that want to start their own facility. To that end, Brandon Jaeger started a USDA funded year long planning process in early December 2010 that is looking building a business model for spelt and amaranth. We have contracted with chefs and bakers to develop recipes, are working with business and marketing experts to develop plans that include information from equipment engineers to help determine our scale.
ASFC also coordinated a 2010-2011 USDA grant from the Wallace Center to help Shagbark Seed & Mill remove bottlenecks from staple food access among low income consumers.
Look us up via Google for up-to-date news on our work.
photos this page Sarah Warda and Michelle Ajamian
