Building the Future of Local Food – Lessons in Launching a Local Food Enterprise

June 1, 2015 | Robert Puro

Starting up and funding a local food-focused small business – from launching a new farm to creating a value-added product (jam for example) using local products – is both exciting and challenging. To offer guidance, support and information on the steps that entrepreneurs can take to give their fledgling business endeavors the greatest chance to succeed and thrive, Paul Smith, Business Development Specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration, along with a team of start up business experts will lead a breakout session at the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE Conference entitled, “Launching and funding a local food enterprise.”

This session will provide prospective and existing entrepreneurs with insight into how to get their businesses off the ground via an explanation of core business creation steps – from business planning, accessing capital, marketing, sales, and more.

Paul Smith is an accomplished professional with twenty-five years experience in business development. His career encompasses both the private and public sectors. His experience includes sales management, direct marketing, export promotion, and matchmaking, for markets worldwide. As Business Development Specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration Mr. Smith is responsible for outreach to the business community for the Santa Ana District office.

Paul’s session will be comprised of a group of accomplished entrepreneurs and business development specialists including:

Nicole Kinney, Director of the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center (IEWBC)

Vincent McCoy Director of the Inland Empire Small Business Development Center

Diana Cescolini Professor of Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Business, & Management and Chapter Chair for SCORE Inland Empire

Anthony Lattner Chief Instructor for Cal Poly Pomona’s Sustainable Agriculture Training (SAT) program at Archi’s Acres

There are only 10 days left until the conference and tickets are going fast, so register now to attend this session and learn how to give your local food-focused business the best chance for success!

Register Here: http://growriverside.eventbrite.com

If you’re looking for more information on the 2016 3rd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: Cultivating the Future, you can find out more about the program here and register here!

From Food Access to Entrepreneurship, Keys to Building a Strong Local Food System

May 30, 2015 | Robert Puro

To build a strong local food system cities must examine how to increase food access to citizens living in food deserts in need of fresh and healthy food. The development of effective food policy that advances agricultural economic development and infrastructure and fosters education about food and urban farming is also essential. So too is support for the development and start-up of new local food-focused business ventures.

Expert speakers set to participate in the 2nd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: The Future of Local Food will dive deeply into all of the above mentioned areas, and more, to come up with solutions designed to guide Riverside and cities across the country in the development of vibrant and sustainable local food systems. The conference begins in only 12 days on June 11, 2015 at The Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, California.

Select GrowRIVERSIDE Conference breakout session topics include:

 

Market Development for New Farmers – featuring:

Ramiro Lobo has been the Small Farm and Agricultural Economics Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County since 1997. Ramiro is one of several Farm Advisors affiliated with the University of California Small Farm Program and his primary responsibility is to conduct research and educational activities to support small-scale agricultural producers in San Diego County. Ramiro’s work focuses primarily on educating small scale producers on topics related to agricultural business and risk management, new crop development and evaluation, new entry grower education, market development through agricultural tourism and direct marketing, and Food and pesticide safety education. Read More

GrowRIVERSIDE Keynote A.G. Kawamura Featured in Fortune Article on Urban Agriculture

May 28, 2015 | Robert Puro

A.G. Kawamura, a 3rd generation farmer and former Secretary of the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture (2003 – 2010) was recently featured in a Fortune Magazine article entitled, ‘Commercial farming in your subdivision’, which discusses the challenges and opportunities of urban farming within the confines of a city that has very little traditional farmland. Kawamura and his family have created a thriving commercial urban farming business that could provide a model for the City of Riverside and others to follow.

Kawamura will be delivering a keynote and participating in a breakout session at the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE Conference on June 11 at The Riverside Conference. You won’t want to miss it! Read the Fortune article and If you’re looking for more information on the 2016 3rd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: Cultivating the Future, you can find out more about the program here and register here!

Water Usage, Policy and Technology and the Impact on Agriculture in Riverside and Beyond

May 27, 2015 | Robert Puro

California is in a drought crisis and urban water providers have been ordered to reduce demands by as much as 36%. Statewide, farmers are facing curtailments to their surface water rights and are rapidly depleting their local groundwater basins. Riverside, fortunately, is blessed with a secure, local, and sustainable groundwater supply, in no small part due to its agricultural heritage.

To explore the latest water challenges and opportunities for local agriculture in Riverside and beyond, please join us at the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: The Future of Local Food where a panel of water experts will come together to discuss current water policy, the impact of the drought on growers in the city, region and state, and how growers can use water efficiently and economically.

Kevin S. Milligan was named the Deputy General Manager for Riverside Public Utilities in December 2014. He also serves as the Assistant General Manager in charge of Water Delivery. He started his career with RPU in 1984 as an entry level engineering aide, advancing steadily to principal water engineer before joining the executive management staff in 2005.

Craig Miller, a veteran engineering professional with more than 25 years of experience, serves as Western’s deputy general manager. He’s responsible for assisting with managing the day-to-day activities of the District, including oversight of Operations, Engineering, Community Affairs and Water Resources.

Justin Scott-Coe, Public Affairs Director for the Monte Vista Water District, has over 11 years of experience in water resource management and public affairs program development. During his eight years at the District, Mr. Scott-Coe has served in and now manages the Public Affairs Department, providing public information, water resource planning, and demand management services.

Celeste Cantu is the General Manager, for the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority and the Integrated Regional Watershed Management Plan called One Water One Watershed (OWOW) that addresses multiple issues and achieve sustainability in the Santa Ana River Watershed. Ms. Cantu has served as the Executive Director for the California State Water Resources Control Board and served as the USDA Rural Development State Director for California during the Clinton Administration.

The conference begins in 15 days. Register now to attend this session and many others to learn how to build and strengthen the local food and agriculture in the City of Riverside and beyond.

If you’re looking for more information on the 2016 3rd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: Cultivating the Future, you can find out more about the program here and register here!

Disruptive Events and Their Impact on the Emergence of Technology in Agriculture

May 25, 2015 | Robert Puro

From droughts and global food price shocks to climate change and resource constraints, disruptive events continue to rattle an ever shifting agricultural landscape that must increase worldwide food production by 70% in the next 35 years to feed an estimated 10 billion by 2050. While many paint these disruptive events as cataclysmic, others rise to meet them with technological solutions – form high tech irrigation systems and innovative soil monitoring tools to hydroponics and aquaponics and novel GIS mapping tools – that seek to fill gaps, or else make growing even more efficient and sustainable.

To discuss how growers and entrepreneurs are using technology to combat the challenges posed by disruptive events while simultaneously bolstering a growing local food marketplace, the 2nd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: The Future of Local Food will feature a breakout session entitled “Disruption and Technology in Agriculture”. The session will be run by the following noteworthy growers and technologists:

Robert Tse creates and implements innovative strategies to benefit California’s regional and rural economies. He integrates policies, resources and initiatives through federal, state, local government and public-private partnerships. He is the USDA lead for the Strong Cities – Strong Communities, (SC2) White House pilot initiative in Fresno. He is driving strategies for urban-rural broadband infrastructure and development of regional agriculture technology economic clusters in areas such as Fresno and Sacramento. His broad strategic reach also includes goods movement, international trade, health-food-agriculture systems, veterans and farming, water, and energy.

A.G. Kawamura is a third generation fruit and vegetable grower and shipper from Orange County. He is co-chair of Solutions From the Land, a non-profit organization that collaborates with farmers, ranchers, foresters and stakeholders to implement climate smart land management practices and strategies.

Bob Knight is a fourth generation farmer in the Inland Empire, Bob Knight grows oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, kiwifruit, vegetables, two kids, and two dogs on his 67-acre farm in Redlands. His mission is to make SoCal small farms sustainable by connecting local growers to family, school, and college eaters through CSAs and Farm2School.

The conference is less than three weeks away and limited tickets remain.

If you’re looking for more information on the 2016 3rd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: Cultivating the Future, you can find out more about the program here and register here!

 

SCORE Mentors to Provide Free One-on-One Business Guidance at GrowRIVERSIDE Conference

May 23, 2015 | AJ Hughes

While the demand for entrepreneurs in the realm of sustainable and innovative food and agriculture is strong, often, new entrepreneurs need guidance. The SCORE Inland Empire chapter is looking to fill this need with free face-to-face business counseling services at the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE conference, scheduled June 11-13, 2015 in downtown Riverside, California.

SCORE, which has chapters all across the United States, uses mentors to guide and coach new and budding entrepreneurs. SCORE mentors draw from a wealth of business experience to guide and advise new businesspeople.

SCORE will engage with GrowRIVERSIDE for the first time this year. Thomas Evans, an Inland Empire SCORE mentor from Riverside, serves on the board of directors of a local water agency. It was through his connections there that he learned of GrowRIVERSIDE, and later he was able to connect SCORE to GrowRIVERSIDE. Read More

Limited Tix Remain for June 11 Citrus Circle Farm-to-Table Dinner; Reserve your spot now!

May 21, 2015 | Robert Puro

If you missed the first two “Dinners in the Grove”, don’t fret. The Citrus Circle Dinner on Thursday, June 11 in association with the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE Conference promises a divine local farm-to-table dining experience. There are still a few tickets left, so grab yours now!

The dinner will take place in the Sunkist Center at California Citrus State Historic Park and feature a farm-to-table dining experience from sponsor The Salted Pig featuring food and drinks concocted and cooked up using local Riverside ingredients, including citrus from nearby groves. The dinner will also feature beer from sponsor Wicks Brewing Company and wine from Galleano Winery. There will also be a live band.

The dinner will also feature a keynote address from Robert Egger, the Founder and President of L.A. Kitchen, which recovers fresh fruits and vegetables to fuel a culinary arts job training program for men and women coming out of foster care and older men and women returning from incarceration. L.A. Kitchen is currently holding a pilot program at St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, and will move into its own kitchen facility in 2015.

Robert pioneered this model during his 24 year tenure as the President of the DC Central Kitchen, the country’s first “community kitchen”, where food donated by hospitality businesses and farms is used to fuel a nationally recognized culinary arts job training program. Since opening in 1989, the Kitchen (which is a $10 million a year, self-sustaining, social enterprise) has produced over 26 million meals and helped 1,000 men and women gain full time employment.

Seats are limited for the dinner, so register now to reserve your spot for a special night to support GrowRIVERSIDE and celebrate local food and citrus in Riverside.

If you’re looking for more information on the 2016 3rd Annual GrowRIVERSIDE Conference: Cultivating the Future on March 21 – 22, you can find out more about the program here and register here!

The Local Food Potential of Indoor Hydroponic Farming in Cities

May 20, 2015 | Robert Puro

The future of local food will not be restricted to produce grown in fields. Arable land grows scarcer and consequently more expensive by the year. Thus, many new farmers and entrepreneurs are opting to explore and pursue growing produce in controlled environments. Utilizing hydroponic technologies that typically require only 10% of the water necessary to grow similar crops outdoors, these indoor farmers can often produce more than 20 times the traditional field-crop yield in the same amount of space.

Indoor farms can also be placed anywhere – including in the middle of a city, in vacant warehouses and on land that is often much cheaper than arable land. That indoor farms can be placed in cities also enables them to provide more local food access to buyers – from restaurants and institutions to wholesalers and supermarkets.

To discuss the potential of indoor farming in cities Pierre Sleiman, founder and CEO of Go Green Agriculture, an innovative company that grows local, premium quality leafy greens inside high-tech greenhouses using hydroponics, will participate in a session at the upcoming GrowRIVERSIDE: Future of Local Food Conference entitled “The Local Food Potential of Indoor Farming in Cities.”

Pierre has become involved in the mission of accelerating the movement towards local and sustainable farming and fostering interest in youth to choose agriculture as an exciting career. Pierre was recently named a “Champion of Change” in the “Future of Agriculture” by President Obama. He was named as one of the “50 People to Watch in 2013″ by San Diego Magazine and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the San Diego Farm Bureau.

GrowRIVERSIDE is only 23 days away, so click on the image below to reserve your spot to hear Pierre discuss how he developed a successful hydroponic growing operation in the Southern California and the potential for indoor agriculture in cities:

Additional Confirmed GrowRIVERSIDE Speakers:

Edward Avalos – Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at USDA
Craig Miller – Deputy General Manager at Western Municipal Water District (WMWD)
Kevin Milligan – Deputy General Manager at Riverside Public Utilities (RPU)
Fortino Morales III – UC Riverside Community Garden Coordinator
Bob Knight – Founder of Inland Orange Conservancy and Old Grove Orange, Inc.
Cheryl Garner – Executive Director of Dining, Conference and Catering Services at University of California, Riverside
Gene Giacomelli – Director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) at University of Arizona
Justin Scott-Coe – Public Affairs Director for Monte Vista Water District
Kathleen Reed – Sustainable Food Program Manager for Kaiser Permanente
Tracy Kahn – Curator of the UCR Citrus Variety Collection
Daniel Francis – Owner of Daniel Francis Design and Consulting
Mark Winne – Co-founder of the Connecticut Food Policy Council
Robert Egger – Founder and President of L.A. Kitchen
Dwight Detter – Local Forager for Whole Foods Market
Viviana Franco – Executive Director of From Lot To Spot
Robert Tse – State Broadband Coordinator for USDA CA Rural Development
… And more!

Register here: http://growriverside.eventbrite.com