Southeast Iowa Food Hub

10/16/2024

Join us for Traction Thursdays, live or on Zoom, Thursday, Oct 17, at noon, at the Fairfield CoLab 101 N Court. https://zoom.us/my/bobferguson

This week's guest will be Carla Heiser, Research Director at Triada Group. One of the co-founders of Triada is Dr. Michael McNeil, who consults on soil health for farmers with 160,000 acres under cultivation.
https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/episodes/disease-resistance-and-regenerating-soil-with-michael-mcneill-2/

More on https://triadaworld.org/ Group:
Triada is a carefully designed group of healthcare professionals offering services that draw upon allopathic, natural and nutritional medicine strengths. We are coordinating services across many different states.
Our teams deliver Lifestyle Medicine, and wellness campaigns in cooperation with agronomists (crop scientists who study plants and how they can be grown, modified, and used to benefit society). This will also be paired with chemical-free farming and animal husbandry (the care, cultivation, and breeding of crops and animals) expertise and experience.
We believe that comprehensive health care begins with food. New Ag starts with soil regeneration, state-of-the-art planting, and animal husbandry, The results are enhanced yield and nutrient composition of plants and animals.
Our wellness initiatives start with improving mother and child health and extend into adult chronic disease detection, management, and improvement.

More on Carla:
Carla Heiser, MS LDN FAAMFM ABAAHP, an Advanced Practice Nutritionist, is board-certified in Nutrition & Metabolic Medicine & co-owns a precision medical nutrition practice. Ms. Heiser has strong academic and research training. Incorporating science-driven approaches into practical strategies to optimize health is the hallmark of her expertise. She has over 25 years of experience as a volunteer managing director in the 501(c)3 arena, serving children and families in developing countries.
The PEARL Study at Purdue University
https://triadaworld.org/the-pearl-study

10/07/2024

A dear friend and colleague of many years lives in Ashville North Carolina, an area devastated by Hurrican Helene. Here are her suggestions where donations can make a big difference.

For all my friends far and wide who want to help, please make a donation of whatever you can to these local organizations.
We personally don't need anything and it is our heartfelt wish you give to us by giving to them. Thank you so much.

MANNA Food Bank their facilities got destroyed in the Swannanoa River flood but they are out there helping others
Https://www.mannafoodbank.org

Habitat for humanity Asheville. Their building got flooded and they are out there helping others
Www.ashevillehabitat.org

Brother wolf animal rescue. They got all the animals fostered in a few hours before storm. Their facilities suffered damage I believe
Www.bwar.org

WNC Nature Center. Their wild animals all made it through but Swannanoa river took out the bridge.
Www.wildwnc.org

There is also Bounty and Soul whose mission is taking care of less fortunate with food and they continue do so right now.
Www.bountyandsoul.org

Bounty & Soul is a nonprofit providing free produce markets and wellness education in Black Mountain. Connecting people to food, education and each other.

10/02/2024

Traction Thursdays this week.

Join us live or on Zoom, Thursday, Oct 3, at noon, at the Fairfield CoLab 101 N Court.
https://zoom.us/my/bobferguson

Ken Roseboro, editor of The Organic & Non-GMO report https://non-gmoreport.com/ will be our guest entrepreneur tomorrow.

Ken Roseboro has been called “the nation’s reporter on all issues surrounding genetically modified foods” by Acres USA magazine. He has written extensively about GM foods and the non-GMO trend since 1999. Ken’s articles have appeared in leading food and agriculture publications and websites such as Civil Eats, Sustainable Food News, Prepared Foods, Natural Foods Merchandiser, Food Processing, and World Grain as well as Harvest Public Media, The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Mother Earth News, and others. He is a contributing editor to EcoWatch and New Hope 360. Ken is author of Genetically Altered Foods and Your Health and The Organic Food Handbook both published by Basic Health Publications. He has spoken at many conferences including Natural Products Expo West, All Things Organic, Acres USA Conference, The Organic Farming Conference, National Heirloom Seed Expo, and others. Ken is a member of the design team of the Soil Climate Alliance and a founding member of the board of directors of the Iowa Organic Association. Ken also serves on the board of directors of Soil Technologies Corporation. He appears in the award-winning documentary film, GMO OMG. In 2006, Ken received an Award of Merit from Seed Savers Exchange for his efforts to preserve genetic diversity through his publications.

08/20/2024

All my Facebook friends are welcome to join us live or on Zoom Thursday, August 22, noon, at the Fairfield CoLab 101 N Court.
https://zoom.us/my/bobferguson

This week we are honored to welcome Jeff Geerts, Special Projects Manager for Iowa Economic Development as our guest speaker.

Jeff is a long-time friend of Fairfield. He is also one of the most creative and effective economic developers I know. He brings tremendous collaboration and visioning skills to the projects he helps initiate or participates in.

Jeff will give an overview of some of the most successful projects he has been involved in, and do a deep dive into how Fairfield entrepreneurs can tap the resources and expertise of Iowa Economic Development.

08/08/2024

Join us live or on Zoom tomorrow, Thursday, August 8, noon, at the Fairfield CoLab 101 N Court.
https://zoom.us/my/bobferguson
Our Traction Thursdays guest entrepreneur this week is Kim Strubell, founder of Charity Seeds.
Kim is a consummate social entrepreneur, innovating a simple and effective way to help schools, orphanages, and communities achieve food security.
https://charityseeds.org/
"We found a practical way of bringing food security to everyone. It is through sustainable small-scale organic farming based on biointensive farming methods. Charity is achievable. Food security is necessary."
"The word charity comes from the Latin caritas, which means love. For us, charity is love in motion. It’s sometimes easy, more often inconvenient, but always necessary. It’s the ability to use one’s territory of influence, relative resources and power to affect lives for the better."
There are many lessons from Kim's work around the world that we can apply in our community, including the nutritional and social benefits of growing far more of our own food on home and community gardens.

08/05/2024

07/31/2024

Join us live or on Zoom tomorrow, Thursday, August 1, noon, at the Fairfield CoLab 101 N Court, for Traction Thursdays.
https://zoom.us/my/bobferguson

Our guest this week was referred to us by Alex Taylor. Corey is a Fairfield entrepreneur who owned the Earth and Water Tea House. Since leaving Fairfield he has been on an epic entrepreneurial and educational journey. He'll be joining us on Zoom from his home in Mexico City. Corey has created two companies, one of which, Farsight Codex, he will speak about tomorrow and solicit feedback from the Traction Thursdays Big Brain.

More about Corey.
Co-founder of Farsight Codex and Farsight Society

Offering tools and systems to help startups in fund, scale, and run more effectively

In particular, two tools to help startups attract capital partners

Also offering regular workshops and leadership coaching for startup founders and their teams

Corey gave me an overview of the Farsight Codex tool. I found it very impressive.

07/19/2024

This is exciting! Picture from last year's Ignite event for the SE Iowa Food Web. Yours truly smiling and waving in the middle.

07/10/2024

Looking for a volunteer opportunity to get you closer to nature, teach you a bit about fruit trees, and earn you some good community cred. Here's one🌳