Fwd: Champaign County Local Food Policy Council resolution-final vote 22 March

[michelle wander]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pattsi Petrie <pat...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Subject: Champaign County Local Food Policy Council resolution-final vote 22 March
To: Pattsi Petrie <pat...@gmail.com>


Good morning, the following is an update as to the status of this resolution and another request for demonstrated support for passage during public participation.

The resolution moved from the committee of the whole on 6 March to the county board agenda for 22 March. Again you can find the resolution and all supporting materials  here  http://sites.google.com/site/p2district6/news/champaigncountylocalfoodpolicycouncil--draftproposal    There is a lot of information on this page.

Why is there need for more support for passage. A large number of the Republicans are not supporting the resolution. This means that passage is not guaranteed without more support from the community, especially those who are working so hard on the issue of local foods for many reasons including economic development.

The county board meeting begins at 7 P in the Shields Room at Brookens. Citizen participation is basically at the top of the agenda. Chair Weibel has been holding individuals to the 5 minute time and a total of 60 minutes for all citizen comments. Translated this means come early to turn in your signed slip to speak, time your comments, and have them in written format. The importance of the latter is so you hand them in. The county practice is to make such as part of the meeting materials. This also is put up on the county web site with the other meeting documents

If for some reason, you can not attend please send me the comments and I will enter them into the record.

If you have any questions, just ask me.

Thanks for your past support for this resolution and that in the future, P2

P. S. Feel free to share this information with others.

--
Pattsi Petrie, PhD, AICP
P2 Consulting
Champaign County Board member, district 6
Retired, Department of Urban and Regional Planning/DURP
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/UIUC
<mailto:pat...@uiuc.edu>
Professional Education and Outreach Programs http://www.urban.uiuc.edu/ce
http://www.urban.uiuc.edu/ce/cm
Past Chair APA Planning Women Division  http://www.urban.uiuc.edu/apa-pw

[Leslie Cooperband]

Hi Michelle:
Are you planning to speak at this meeting?  I can probably attend and speak, but Wes has another meeting that afternoon in Decatur so he won't be back by 6PM.  As Pattsi says, it's important to get there right at 6 or a little early and hand in a sheet that you want to speak.  Do you know of others who might be willing to speak? I am pretty sure Lisa Bralts is on vacation next week, so she won't be here. 
leslie

--
Leslie Cooperband & Wes Jarrell
Co-owners
Prairie Fruits Farm, LLC
4410 N. Lincoln Ave.
Champaign, IL 61822
Tel & Fax No: 217-643-2314
website: www.prairiefruits.com

[Jacqueline Hannah]

Leslie, 

I will be attending and speaking that Thursday, who else will be joining me? I think it would be great for those of us who are working in local foods who are going to speak to know who else will be talking and perhaps strategize a bit through e-mail.

- Jacqueline

--
Jacqueline Hannah
General Manager
Common Ground Food Co-op
(217) 352-3347
www.commonground.coop

[Leslie Cooperband]

Hi Jacqueline, Michelle and others:
Yes, I was planning to attend the County Board meeting and to speak. I agree it would be good to strategize abit before hand. Pattsi is concerned that this will go down because of issues related to the Land Evaluation and Site Assessment plan that is now under consideration.  She also says that the Republicans think this council will tell farmers what to do.  We need to address these concerns. 
leslie

[michelle wander]

Am surprised folks don't see it for the opportunity it is.  I can come.  Be good to share what ISA is up to on the state level.  Lindsay?  Maybe you can share some of your verbiage?  We could develop talking points here.. bring in some input from Edible Economy,    Not sure if it makes sense to  cite the study the business school did for the Edible Economy..   that wasn't so CU centric..  definitely shows how local food economy is pro-farm economy.  M

[Leslie Cooperband]

Hi all,

THis council has very little power; of course it could make recommendations, how could it "tell farmers what to do"?  How could they get that idea?  Aren't we all too smart to try to tell any farmers what to do?  Just show viable alternatives.

We

[Jacqueline Hannah]

Leslie,

I hear you on, there is little to fear from this council idea, but human fears are rarely logical and I think it will get us farther if we hear what Pattsi says are the stumbling blocks for those fearing this idea and address those in a reasonable way as well as speaking to how this can be a win for all parties. That's how I'd like to plan what I am going to say, as I really believe that we can create this council and have it benefit all parties. It won't have a lot of power at first, but simply having the county approve the existence of such a council can be used to point out this is a county-backed priority and that could be very useful as we work to forward our local food shed work. 

It may not look like much now, but I think this council can be a key puzzle piece in making food a real priority at city and county levels. 

- Jacqueline