Our Voices: Celebrating the Power of Local Food!

June 29, 2011 |

They came in gigantic pick-up trucks, tiny hybrids, and luxury cars. They sported down-home jeans, colorful summer casuals, and fancy clothes. And they braved rainy skies, damp lawns, and the occasional long lineā€”all to enjoy our third annual Summer Celebration of local food and drink, held Monday evening at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa, in Benzie County.

More than 500 people enjoyed a remarkable local food and drink buffet at MLUI’s Summer Celebration at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa.

It was a remarkable testament to the power of local food: Whatā€™s a pair of wet shoes or a droopy ā€˜do when your reward is fabulous fare from nine top area chefs, 20 specialty food producers and farmers, two breweries, four wineries, and a distillery?

Accompanied by a tireless and tuneful Celtic band, the 500-plus folks who braved the dayā€™s drizzle wore broad smiles, their conversation lively and their laughter genuine.

Those high spirits carried a message that is taking root across the state and our country. Local food isnā€™t a fad, itā€™s a new way of doing business that is actually old and much-missed: Knowing who made your food, knowing itā€™s fresh and naturally nutritious, knowing the money stays here rather than flying to some faraway place, knowing how good itā€™s going to taste.

The Michigan Land Use Institute launched its Food & Farming program (we used to call it Entrepreneurial Agriculture) a decade ago, with one purpose in mindā€”helping small- and medium-sized farms, an endangered species in agribusinessā€™s commoditized culture, to start thriving again by doing whatever it takes to rebuild local markets for local food.

So, our Summer Celebration is both a proud look back on the work we and our many partners have done, and a hopeful look forward not only to what the rest of the summer brings to our market baskets, but also to the prosperous future that building a strong local food system canā€”and will!ā€”create.

Thanks to all who made it possible. And if you havenā€™t done so already, donā€™t you think itā€™s time to take the Spend 10 pledge? Youā€™ll find yourself smiling, too; we promise!

Jim Dulzo is the Michigan Land Use Instituteā€™s managing editor. Reach him at jimdulzo@mlui.org.

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