SustainableWork

Inspiring friends. Recent presentations.

2012-02-05T18:03:00.000-06:00

I'm so very proud for the Board of Directors of the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation, where I'm honored to work. Our Iowa County EDC helps support the Hodan Center and their amazing Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. My best-ever office is at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen now. Thank you!

The work these two non-profits have accomplished together in Iowa County, WI, has been an amazing journey.

I was honored to be invited to make presentations about our work together at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen at two important gatherings in the last few days.

The Chicago Farmers annual Farmland Investment Fair was this weekend in Joliet, IL. I'm knocked out by some new ideas that emerged from this conference. I turned in my speaker badge or that one would be in the photo too. Thanks for the invitation!

The presentations at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on Friday were also inspiring.

This meeting was hosted by my friend Colleen Callahan, State Director of the Illinois USDA Rural Development team, and USDA's Food & Nutrition Service Midwest Region. Thank you Director Callahan!

Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, USDA Deputy Secretary was the keynote.

Lee Strom, CEO and Board Chair of the U.S. Farm Credit Administration made a great presentation.

Also got to catch up with Illinois Director of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCOE) Warren Ribley.

The Illinois teams seamed to very supportive of our efforts to grow jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for veterans in our shared region. I look forward to working on this.

For my presentation, I was with an amazing panel of innovators moderated by my pal Karen Lehman of Fresh Taste, in Chicago.

Many congratulations to the Boards of the Iowa County EDC and the Hodan Center for this recognition!

Our work together at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen was well received by many new and old friends at these two great conferences. Forward!

Iowa County Area Economic Development

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

The Hodan Center

Learn more about Alice's Garden in Milwaukee!

2012-02-01T17:51:00.000-06:00

Wisconsin has so many wonderful food related initiatives underway it could not be more inspiring.

We had a great meeting this morning at the Center For Resilient Cities and I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Venice Williams, the Program Manager for Alice's Garden in Milwaukee.

I learned that I want to learn more! There are many great programs arising from Alice's Garden that go way beyond food. Here is a short introduction from their site:

"This year, over 90 families of African American, Hmong, Burmese, Puerto Rican and Caucasian origins and a dozen community organizations cultivated organic produce at Alice’s Garden. Resting on a two- acre site within Milwaukee’s central city, Alice’s Garden is an example of a robust urban resilience program that continues to create opportunity, build social networks, and promote healthy lifestyles within the context of urban gardening."

From the History of Alice's Garden:

"Alice’s Garden, an urban agricultural project located in Johnsons Park, is a two-acre community garden located on a parcel of land that was once part of abolitionist Samuel Brown’s farm, the first farmer to provide safe passage to Caroline Quarlls, an escaped slave from St. Louis. The events at Brown’s farm led historically to the birth of the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin, establishing Johnsons Park an area of great significance in Milwaukee."

Thanks to the Center for Resilient Cities, and to Ms. Venice Williams for all your hard work on behalf of Alice's Garden in Milwaukee! And thanks to the many supporters of this great program. Forward!

Learn more about Alice's Garden in Milwaukee

Center For Resilient Cities

A great new direction. University of Wisconsin Chancellor Ward's Educational Innovation (EI) venture.

2012-01-29T11:01:00.000-06:00

This is very cool. University of Wisconsin Chancellor David Ward just released a comprehensive plan for better integrating the UW's rich knowledge base into economic development opportunities among other worthy goals.

It is a campus wide initiative that is intended to last for years. It's an approach for dealing with budgets, funding, and creating new opportunities on a sustainable basis.

"EI is intended to be campuswide -- within and across programs, departments, colleges and centers -- and will be supported by new and streamlined policies and practices. EI cannot, and should not, be an initiative primarily funded centrally, as new funding must be derived from reallocations or new program revenues. New revenues and savings derived from innovations will flow back to the units creating them. Overall, these changes may encourage and leverage significant external support, and changes of this kind may be the only strategy to argue for future increments in state support and more flexible need-based tuition policies."

The photo above has deep UW Madison innovation cred. This industrial fluid recycling system derived from several of our patents. I was able to test our system in the University of Wisconsin's chemical engineering lab. Thanks to valuable, informal help from the UW ChemE engineering faculty (thank you, Juan!) and information their students provided through tests that I could never have run myself - this innovation received the Wisconsin Governor's New Product of the Year award in 2004 (Best of State), and the United States Small Business New Product of the Year Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers in 2005.

We not only built our business around this kind of support, we manufactured much of what we did right in Dane County, home of the UW Madison. We exported these systems across the United States and to great customers on 5 continents.

Not every UW initiative will flourish, but the process of engaging the business and entrepreneurship community will create the kind of partnerships that will generate jobs, growth, and revenue for the community and for the UW System.

Our University of Wisconsin rocks. Chancellor Ward is steering our wonderful, globally relevant, vibrant community institution into turbulent tides. Great ideas and directions. Thank you!

Educational Innovation: An invitation to participate. UW Chancellor Ward's call to action. Jan. 27, 2012.

Good recent article about Chancellor Ward's call for the University of Wisconsin to become more entrepreneurial

UW research budget via Wikipedia: In 2010, the University of Wisconsin had research expenditures of more than 1 billion dollars.

"What's an Entrepreneur?"

2012-01-27T19:37:00.000-06:00

"Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled."

Eric Schurenberg, the Editor at Inc. has a great piece this month titled "What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever."

This quote above was originally written by Harvard Business School Professor Howard Stevenson almost 40 years ago.

From this article (linked below/emphasis added):

"Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option and try to make it fit. Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available."

This is the renaissance age of entrepreneurship.

While bringing this great quote back to life, Eric Schurenberg tossed in a great one of his own. Maybe even better than the one he cites.

"Opportunity is the only real resource you have."

Inc. - What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever by Eric Schurenberg, Jan. 9, 2012

I got this story via the fearless leadership team at Vernon County, Wisconsin Economic Development

Photo is from the amazing plant kaleidoscope at our Olbrich Gardens in Madison.

The Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair - Feb. 4th

2012-01-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

I'm looking forward to making an Innovation Kitchen presentation at this year's Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair, Saturday Feb. 4 in the Joliet, IL area.

From The Chicago Farmers web site: "The purpose of The Chicago Farmers is to provide a forum for education and the exchange of information between its members and others allied to agribusiness. This is carried out with a number of member directed activities scheduled throughout the year which provide members a means to enhance knowledge, profitability, stewardship, consumer awareness, and fellowship."

The Innovation Kitchen model for value added food processing presents many opportunities for increasing the productivity and value of farm land. I'm looking forward to sharing this story with new friends at The Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair. Join us!

Registration for The Chicago Farmers Farmland Fair, Feb. 4. Links to conference agenda.

The Chicago Farmers home page.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Food is more than what we eat

2012-01-19T18:33:00.000-06:00

You're not supposed to play favorites with co-workers.

I get to work with many, many wonderful friends at the Hodan Center's Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen in Iowa County, WI. This is pals-for-life stuff. What a great blessing.

Yet among all these great friends, it's likely all of us would put Norma in the front of the photo.

Our dear friend Norma has been employed and supported by the Hodan Center since its opening in 1972.

Norma is pictured here cutting the ribbon at the Grand Opening of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen in 2010.

The other image of Norma in her pearls is from the Innovation Kitchen's employee appreciation party this week.

The customers and partners of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen made this possible. They helped make great jobs for Norma, Adam, Margaret, Mitch, Julie and all of the team. This facility is beginning to flourish thanks to you.

What a success story for local foods and economic development. Good foods can be created and produced safely, for commercial scale by a certified, professional food processing staff in a state licensed facility. Our team is led by the Hodan Center's Food Service Director and Mistress of the Universe Annette Pierce. Under her guidance, Norma and all our friends can play valuable roles in the food chain.

There are so many great opportunities available in this model. We're working to replicate it.

The job creating stories Norma and friends can share with exciting new urban partners like the Milwaukee veterans organizations (and vice versa) seem limitless.

This is a great story about a wonderful new experiment in community based local food processing.

Food is more than what we eat.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Hodan Center

Iowa County Area Economic Development

Thank you Center for Veterans Issues in Milwaukee!

2012-01-15T12:18:00.000-06:00

A group of us working on food collaborations met at the Center for Veterans Issues a couple days before Christmas to look for ways to work together.

We met again Friday and started taking some action steps. Nothing definitive. The idea is to launch a few experiments and learn together. This is a really good idea that deserves to move forward.

Here is how my pal Godsil wrote it up on his Facebook page: "Looking to connect with veterans who either "own recipes" or can partner with chefs to create new food lines for local and regional markets, e.g. Madison Milwaukee Chicago, "from the ground up businesses," with Innovation Kitchens and the Center for Veterans Issues poised to provide kitchen and business support resources."

One of the veterans at our meeting has a great recipe from the Harambee neighborhood in Milwaukee that I want to do. We'll just have a few spots to experiment with initially but we'll start a process to expand the system and bring in more veteran partners through the year.

Here is a good overview of the work of the Center for Veterans Issues from their new CVI Facebook page:

"Center for Veterans Issues is recognized nationally for innovative housing solutions coupled with supportive services as well as for its economic development and job training programs. On any given night, CVI feeds, houses and provide reintegration services (including vocational training and employment placement) to almost 300 homeless veterans. In the past 20 years, Center for Veterans Issues has been contacted more than 140,000 times. Of these contacts, 46,959 service connections with homeless and low-income veterans have been made. Center for Veterans Issues has had some measure of success with almost 85% of these veterans. Success is achieved when a veteran has a source of income, physical, mental and spiritual health and a place of their own to live."

I am very excited to be starting a collaboration with all my new friends in Milwaukee but especially those good folks serving our veterans in need. The photo above is of the beautiful community room at CVI's Veterans Manor at 35th and Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. Their Troop Cafe will be open to the public this coming April. What a great place for a partnership with the Innovation Kitchen model to flourish.

I look forward to sharing these new experiments in food and economic development. Congratulations Center for Veterans Issues for all your great work!

Center for Veterans Issues

New Veterans Complex Also Features Kitchen To Serve Community. Story at Milwaukee's WISN.com

CVI Executive Vice President Dawn Nuoffer recognized as one of Milwaukee area's 'Forty under 40' by the Business Journal. Congratulations Dawn!

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development Corp. Leading new rural / urban partnerships in Wisconsin.

Photo credit of CVI's community room (above) to WISN.com - -Thank you

Next Innovation Kitchen presentation Feb. 3. USDA / Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

2012-01-13T19:42:00.000-06:00

My next Innovation Kitchen presentation is February 3 in Chicago.

This is from the conference information sheet:

The Many Faces of Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, hosted by USDA’s Illinois Rural Development & Food & Nutrition Service Midwest Region, offers organizations, state and federal agencies, institutions and others involved with agriculture an opportunity to learn about successful models, resources, strategies and opportunities for supporting, cultivating and growing local/regional food systems in the Midwest, including learning about available support from USDA agencies.

Please join USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and local, state and federal government, business, and not for profit organizations from 12 states in America’s heartland to learn about successful models and opportunities in the local food system arena.

+++

This looks like a great conference. I'm looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones!

Registration page for event at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Registration is required. This link also connects to conference agenda.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Harvard Business Review - 97% of marketing executives believe corporate social responsibility programs (CSRs) to be a valid business strategy.

2012-01-11T22:35:00.000-06:00

"Cause-marketing programs will multiply. These programs are created when a for-profit and nonprofit partner to drive revenues, exposure, and fundraising dollars to the non-profit's cause.

Why will these programs continue to appeal to corporations this year? Cause-marketing provides businesses with legitimacy, along with a partner that has issue expertise. If done authentically, such programs can enhance a firm's reputation in the eyes of stakeholders, leading to public good, the viral sharing of information and potentially increased revenues. Marketing experts agree. According to a PRWeek/Barkely PR Cause Survey in 2010, two-thirds of brands now engage in cause marketing, up from 58% in 2009. The same survey found that 97% of marketing executives believe this to be a valid business strategy."

The Innovation Kitchen model is forming strategic partnerships that can create jobs for people that need help from all of us, including support from CSRs. Welcome!

Harvard Business Review blog 'Why CSR's Future Matters to Your Company', by Susan McPherson

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

"Visions of post-industrial Milwaukee" - Salon.com featuring Sweet Water Organics.

2012-01-10T22:37:00.000-06:00

Salon.com just posted: "Visions of post-industrial Milwaukee. Goodbye, 'abandonment porn.' A Milwaukee exhibition celebrates efforts to renovate and revitalize industrial space."

I have been working with a great new friend in Milwaukee, where his pals all know him as Godsil.

Godsil's work, especially at Sweet Water Organics, is integral to Milwaukee's renaissance as this new piece in Salon.com (linked below) documents nicely.

Salon shines a well deserved spotlight on the Milwaukee's leadership in utilizing food enterprises for job creation in post industrial cities.

Salon: "Michael told me in an email that he thinks Milwaukee is at the “cutting edge of a potential redefinition of [work and labor] in the 21st century.” Why do you think that is? Other cities — like Detroit — tend to get a lot of media play; is Milwaukee under-recognized in this sense, do you think?

"MC: I think it is. That’s not to say that what’s happening in Detroit isn’t exciting, or shouldn’t be covered. But I think Milwaukee is particularly interesting when it comes to one of the topics often addressed in stories about Detroit and other cities: urban agriculture. Here in Milwaukee, we’ve had Growing Power since 1993; on the heels of the recession of the early ’90s, you have a man called Will Allen taking over a derelict property, and turning it into a viable urban farm that’s now been in existence for close to 20 years. You also have people like James Godsil at Sweet Water Organics, who have brought what Will Allen was doing to the next level in terms of technology (Sweet Water uses “aquaponics,” a system wherein plants and fish are raised symbiotically)."

"I think Sweet Water’s example is particularly useful for two reasons. It represents not only the reclamation of a building itself — they’re in an old Harneschfeger factory building on the south side of the city, and they definitely see the [cultural] value of keeping the building around — but also the idea of bringing productive work back to that building."

"...bringing productive work back"... Thank you Milwaukee. Thank you for your leadership in urban agriculture and new designs for working in liveable cities!

Full article at Salon.com Photo credit: David Schalliol, from this linked article.

Thank you VETransfer!

2012-01-08T19:00:00.000-06:00

There is a really great veterans entrepreneurship organization in Wisconsin called VETransfer.

They've created an 'innovation accelerator' to help train and launch veterans into new careers as entrepreneurs. I'm convinced their work has significant national implications. They are developing great models to support our current and returning veterans who want to start their own businesses.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured VETransfer in an article titled Military Veterans Prepare for a New Role

VETransfer Executive Director Ted Lasser was with us at the first meeting of our veterans initiative, a couple weeks ago in Milwaukee.

I got a chance to visit the VETransfer offices in Downtown Milwaukee last week to meet with Ted and Director Greg Meier.

What a great operation. Any Wisconsin area veteran interested in exploring entrepreneurship or growing their business, should know all about VETransfer.

Entrepreneurship is emerging as a vital option for many people as their circumstances change. This is especially true for our veterans who face changes and challenges most of us can't imagine.

Time magazine just posted an article titled, 2012. The Year of the Entrepreneur? It starts out saying "2012 looks to be the year of the entrepreneur."

And closes with, "That is why, even though the new year has just begun, the “Entrepreneur” gets my vote for TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year. I can only hope that you will be featured on the magazine’s cover before the year ends."

I believe the Innovation Kitchen model could be a great at creating many new entrepreneurship opportunities for veterans in 2012 and beyond.

VETransfer is an amazing place. I'm inspired by all the entrepreneurship opportunities this model represents nationwide. Keep up the great work!

VETransfer. Accelerating Veteran Owned Innovations.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

TIME: Why 2012 will be the Year of the Entrepreneur

2012-01-07T20:21:00.000-06:00

Time Magazine/Moneyland posted this piece to start off 2012.

I especially like the phrase 'collective entrepreneurial activity'. This is the strategy we're developing for the Innovation Kitchen right now.

"Much like the protesters of 2011, collective entrepreneurial action in 2012 has the real power to change the world. While individual success is certainly not easy to obtain or guaranteed by any means, educating the global population about entrepreneurship’s benefits, affordability and accessibility must remain a top priority. Encouraging more entrepreneurs to take action will not only revitalize the global economy, it will also fundamentally change the value proposition for starting a business, and the foundation on which the economy as a whole functions."

"That is why, even though the new year has just begun, the “Entrepreneur” gets my vote for TIME’s 2012 Person of the Year. I can only hope that you will be featured on the magazine’s cover before the year ends."

I've been saying this for a long while as a mantra for this blog: This is the renaissance age of entrepreneurship and it's just beginning. You can do it. Welcome.

2012: The Year of the Entrepreneur? Time/Moneyland

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

A holiday treat with showcase ingredients from the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

2012-01-03T18:03:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite stories to come out of this past year's holiday season was the great cookie (rugelach-pinwheels) that our daughter Anne made (among much else!).

She used the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen's Cherry Twist Jam as her showcase ingredient, along with walnuts and spices in a baked dough. (Recipe linked below)

When you serve good wholesome foods using the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen's products you not only eat well but you are supporting some great stories.

At the 2011 Madison Food and Wine Show we sampled the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen's Raspberry Jalapeno Jam spread over Wisconsin cream cheese on crackers. It was fantastic. People mobbed the booth. Then we got to tell the stories about all my friends with disabilities that work at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

If you would like to learn more about buying or selling foods from the Innovation Kitchen or about having your recipe prepared in a commercial kitchen by licensed food processing professionals, get in touch.

Congratulations Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. It was my great honor to celebrate the holidays with you and your wonderful stories!

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Hodan Center

Iowa County (WI) Economic Development

Original rugelach-pinwheels recipe from the great blog site, Smitten Kitchen

Wisconsin grows its ties with China. Our family is tied to our wonderful little Duanduan!

2011-12-31T08:01:00.000-06:00

It seems to me that ties between Wisconsin and China are growing stronger and more valuable all the time.

All of the big global discussions of politics and trade will ebb and flow, but it is my great hope that all the small steps taken by families, businesses, non-profits and universities will strengthen ties between the U.S. and China that will grow increasingly stronger and endure for generations.

As I look to the new year, I look to new possibilities and new hope. New generations of families and friends that will make this dream happen in ways our passing generations could never have dreamed.

I am one of the lucky ones to be able to participate in this great shift. I am honored by a great friendship between my family and a wonderful family in China. We met our friends Yongchao and Xiaoling, while Yongchao was completing his MBA at Edgewood College in Madison.

Yongchao also works in economic development so we had much to share, but it was not work that brought us together. It was the great hope for strong and prosperous futures for our two countries and for our families that animated our long talks.

And now their family and the world's future is blessed by a new generation emerging. The photo for this post is of Yongchao and their beautiful little Duanduan, who celebrated her first birthday this past summer. Mary and I are honorary grandparents. Our daughters are doting aunts. When I look at my good friend Yongchao in this photo I know Duanduan's future could not be in better hands.

The University of Wisconsin is actively working on opening an office in China. If things go well it might happen as early as this summer. According to our newspaper it's something "everyone (the UW and their partners in China) wants to happen." The University of Wisconsin is also working to welcome hundreds of new students from China to the UW Milwaukee. A great new agreement was just signed this month to help this. According to a news report, "It could be the latest page in a long history of Chinese students coming to the Badger state."

Our family in Madison is blessed by our friendship with a family I greatly honor and admire in China.

Happy First Birthday Duanduan! Your family in the U.S. welcomes you - and all the possibilities our family friendship represents!

2008 photo Xiaoling took of Yongchao and me while the three of us were touring southern Wisconsin for fun. This picture was taken at Devil's Lake State Park in the Baraboo Range, just north of Madison.

UW-Milwaukee hopes to attract more Chinese students. Wisconsin Public Radio.

My year end Kiva micro loan update

2011-12-29T19:02:00.000-06:00

I love doing my own micro loans through KIVA.

These are 'crowd sourced' loans. I get to use my own funds and make my own decisions based on my own criteria about who I lend to. I make small loans that are aggregated by Kiva into larger loans that can make a real difference in the lives of the entrepreneurs who need this support.

It's my firm belief we will soon be able to crowd source small investments into startup companies across the U.S.

Kiva makes this effort easy, internationally. Their reporting is not only transparent but inspiring.

I am not loaning out our family food money. I am loaning small bits of discretionary funds I can sock away between paychecks or as gift contributions from friends. My loans through Kiva are typically just $25 or $50 each. However, in concert with others, these small loans are aggregated into full loans that can make a difference.

At the end of 2011 here is the list of entrepreneurs worldwide my small contributions have helped fund. Kiva has just opened up funds for lending to folks in the United States through this model, focusing first on Detroit and New Orleans. Can't wait to start working in these great cities as well.

My year-end 2011 Kiva portfolio:

Mr. Allahverdy Kuliyev. Azerbaijan. 100% repaid.

Ms. Chantal Dolou. Togo. 100% repaid.

(group) Srey Touch Nuon Group. Cambodia. 100% repaid.

Ms. Josefina Aurora Castro Barrenechea. Bolivia. 100% repaid

(group) Canal De Bendicion 6 Group. Dominican Republic. 100% repaid.

(group) Karukara Women's B, Kihihi. Uganda. 100% repaid.

(group) Estrellas De Belen. Mexico. 100% repaid.

Ms. Mariam Ndagire . Uganda. 100% repaid.

(group) Saima Amir Masih's. Pakistan. Paying back.

Mr. Philip Gitundu Karanja. Kenya. Paying back.

Ms. Nancy. Peru. Paying back.

Ms. Bah Oumou Sangaré. Mali. Paying back.

Mr. Amador. Peru. Paying back.

Bushra's Group. Pakistan. Paying back.

Mr. Baktiyar. Kyrgyzstan. Paying back.

Ms. Irene Segunda Josefa Barrantes Novoa. Costa Rica. Paying back.

Ms. Battsetseg Dorjsuren. Mongolia. Paying back.

Mr. Timothy Koileken. Kenya. Paying back.

(group) Confianza Group. Bolivia. Paying back.

(group) Ayidote Group. Benin. Newly funded, December 2011. Congratulations!

This is the best way I know to support global entrepreneurship through micro loans we can do on our own. Thank you Kiva!

Please visit and support Kiva's great work

Photo is a compilation of entrepreneurs my small contributions have helped through Kiva

Innovation Kitchen model working to support food entrepreneurship and business opportunities for veterans

2011-12-25T09:05:00.000-06:00

A really great new conversation about food entrepreneurship opportunities for veterans is emerging in Milwaukee .

A group of new friends met Friday to discuss the economic development opportunities a platform like the Innovation Kitchen model offers veterans nationwide. We met at the Center for Veterans Issues (also home to the National Association of Black Veterans) in Milwaukee.

We also toured the Veterans Manor facility in Milwaukee (35th and Wells). I am very excited about the possibilities for launching food entrepreneurship programs like the Innovation Kitchen within this emerging new partnership to help support their great work.

What a positive, hopeful way to welcome the Christmas holiday.

More to follow about this and other wonderful opportunities springing up in Milwaukee and across our region.

Just wanted to say thanks friends for a great gathering. Your work is inspiring!

Center For Veterans Issues

National Association of Black Veterans, Inc.

VETransfer

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

USDA - Marketing local foods through value-adding channels gets largest market share

2011-12-21T21:30:00.000-06:00

The information quoted below comes from a recently released U.S. Department of Agriculture report analyzing sales channels for local foods (links below). I posted about it earlier.

Here is a market for local food measured at $4.8 billion per year (several years ago) and is continuing to advance rapidly. Demand significantly exceeds supply.

Right now, we need more local foods infrastructure and fewer conferences about what to do about local food.

This is a big opportunity to create jobs and economic development. Experiments like the ones we're running at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen can be used to build sustainable business models for local foods across urban and rural areas.

In the report below, the Innovation Kitchen would be considered an 'intermediated channel' - that is, (my non-academic definition) steps between the grower and the consumer that add value.

From the report summary:

"What Did the Study Find?

• Marketing of local foods, via both direct-to-consumer and intermediated channels, grossed $4.8 billion in 2008—about four times higher than estimates based solely on direct-to-consumer sales.

• Farms marketing food commodities exclusively through intermediated channels reported $2.7 billion in local food sales in 2008—over three times higher than the value of local foods marketed exclusively through direct-to-consumer channels, and two times higher than the value of local foods marketed by farms using a combination of direct-to-consumer and intermediated channels."

"Most local food sales by large farms were marketed by those exclusively using intermediated channels."

In doing so, these farms were able to reduce labor expenses per dollar of sales by leaving the labor-intensive distribution of local foods up to intermediaries." (Medium farm and large farms were measured as $50,000 in gross sales per year or above)

###

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is an 'intermediary channel' for our local growers. I like the term 'value-adding channel' better.

What the report doesn't say, is that these value-adding channels can not only supply labor-intensive distribution services, but they can contribute to the even more fundamental, and critical role of marketing and sales.

I love farmers markets and direct-to-consumer outlets for local foods. But I also see a lot of great new opportunities for farms, food entrepreneurs, and consumers to work through value-adding facilities, like the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

In this report from 2008, a small percent of farms captured more than half the total sales of local foods according to this study. They did it by marketing through more profitable value-adding channels. We watched this happen all year long at the Innovation Kitchen.

Value-adding facilities make local foods increasingly available to ever larger numbers of people at increasingly valuable price points for all involved.

When you can build local food value-adding facilities around business models that include support for community-based goals, like the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, you can move forward in many directions at the same time.

USDA original Document. Direct and Intermediated Marketing of Local Foods in the United States. 3.7 MB in PDF format.

USDA Report summary. PDF format. 2 pages.

Original post about this USDA doc.

Photo is from the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, our value-adding food processing facility, owned by the Hodan Center, supporting people with disabilities.

Iowa County Area Economic Development. Come Grow With Us,

Great quote - and great ideas - from the new Innovation Kitchen video

2011-12-14T22:01:00.000-06:00

One of the new videos produced by Prevention Speaks focuses on Kevin Lucey of Happy Valley Farm near Black Earth, WI.

The Innovation Kitchen has processed Kevin and Kate's farm products for both of the two harvests we have been open. Last year Annette and her team made Dilly Beans from their farm. This year we processed about 4,000 pounds of delicious Happy Valley Farm heirloom organic tomatoes into a wonderful juice.

This short video focuses on how family farms can utilize an Innovation Kitchen to their benefit.

Kevin (from the video): "So this gives an outlet - the Mineral Point kitchen does - for farmers to send them off to another place. Put a little investment in - they have to worry 'Am I going to get my money' - but the way that the banks are paying interest right now, you might as well put it into a jar, rather than into a bank.

So, we're banking our money"

Our Innovation Kitchen model can play an important (and delicious) role in helping family farms and appreciative customers find one another year round.

In these difficult economic times, farms and food entrepreneurs can invest in themselves rather than just waiting for something to happen. Happy Valley Farm is one of our great new Innovation Kitchen partners leading the way.

Thanks Kevin and Kate of Happy Family Farm for your patronage and your good words!

Direct link to this Prevention Speaks video, via Vimeo.

Prevention Speaks site. Innovation Kitchen story. Check out all three great videos.

Great new Innovation Kitchen videos from Prevention Speaks

2011-12-11T19:04:00.001-06:00

A great new set of videos about the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen was just released by Prevention Speaks, a project of the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resources, housed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Here are descriptions of these three great Innovation Kitchen videos:

(1) "Innovation Kitchen:

A network of partners can benefit local farmers and schools with a facility focused on carefully controlling distribution , processing and packaging costs. Best of all, everyone gets a chance to regularly eat fresh, healthy food."

(2) "Farmers Expanding Markets

"We grow enough quantity all the time that we have more than we can sell at the stores," says Kevin Lucey, farmer. And that's where Innovation Kitchen comes in.

(3) "The Missing Link for Farm to School

"The challenges have been almost all logistics. How do you aggregate produce?"

Many thanks to Prevention Speaks for the great recognition and light you've brought to our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen story!

Here is the link: Prevention Speaks videos about the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, through the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

Hodan Center, in Mineral Point, WI.

Conrad Eldred Terrien. Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey. Dec.14, 1920 - Oct 14, 2011

2011-12-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

Gonna take a Sentimental Journey,

Gonna set my heart at ease.

Gonna make a Sentimental Journey,

To renew old memories.

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My Dad was a brilliant inventor, prolific entrepreneur, and one of the kindest, most optimistic, and most creative people I will ever know.

Dad followed Mom's passing by exactly 100 days.

Their spirit will live on in all of us who knew and loved them.

Thanks so much for everything Dad.

We love you and miss you with all our hearts.

Memorial to Mom, Katleen Fitzgerald Terrien. Dec. 1, 1924 - July 6, 2011.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen. Recognized for urban and rural economic development work - in the same week.

2011-12-08T07:02:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note to give thanks for the amazing recognition given the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen last week.

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is owned and operated by the Hodan Center, a community rehabilitation program for adults with disabilities.

Last week, the work of the Innovation Kitchen was recognized twice, regionally and statewide:

- Once for their contribution to urban economic development.

- Once for their contribution to rural economic development.

- In the same week.

Our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen's Director, and Mistress of the Universe, Annette Pierce, leads an amazing team of food professionals that richly deserve this recognition.

Chief among those accomplishments: This year, their work helped create great jobs for 35 people with disabilities. Businesses were born locally, across the region and even nationally. Existing local enterprises grew. Jobs were created throughout the region. Urban and rural. Amazing. What Annette and her team have accomplished in their first real year of operations is astounding.

Congratulations Annette, and to everyone at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen! Thank you Tom Schraeder and your entire Hodan Center team for making this great experiment happen. You all deserve this amazing urban and rural economic development recognition!

Last week's Rural Development award

Last week's Urban Development Summit

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Hodan Center

Iowa County Area Economic Development. Come Grow With Us!

Innovation Kitchen wins 2011 Top Rural Development Award

2011-12-05T21:02:00.000-06:00

Wisconsin Rural Partners awarded the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen one of their Top Rural Development Initiatives for 2011 at a ceremony last Friday, at the 2011 Wisconsin Rural Summit.

Thank you Wisconsin Rural Partners, and thanks to all the many wonderful enterprises that are patrons of the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen.

From the application:

"The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen has been recognized by federal, state, regional and local governments, non-profits, businesses, development organizations and the media for its unique and valuable contributions to economic and community development in rural America."

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen and Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation thank Wisconsin Rural Partners for this honor!

Download full press release, from Wisconsin Rural Partners. Opens in PDF format.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen, owned and operated by the Hodan Center

Iowa County (WI) Area Economic Development Corp. Come Grow With Us!

Photo: Ricky Rolfsmeyer, Wisconsin Rural Partners, and National Chairperson of Partners for Rural America, presenting the 2011 Top Rural Development Initiative Award in Wausau, WI, Dec. 2, 2011.

A wonderful Urban Economic Development summit!

2011-12-02T21:09:00.000-06:00

I had the privilege of making a presentation this week at the Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin Summit in Milwaukee.

I got to catch up with old friends and meet many wonderful new friends. I love the Milwaukee area. Among many other virtues, this amazing region is globally vibrant in the world of food.

From the UEDA web site:

"10th Annual UEDA Community Development Summit:

This years topic is: "Food for Thought: New Recipes for Job Growth" Participants from throughout Southeast Wisconsin will gather to discuss how the regional food economy can become a driver for job creation."

My proposition was that the experiments we are running at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen should be replicated in the Milwaukee area.

In fact, a great group of new friends I met at the UEDA summit are already taking action steps in that direction. Action steps, for me, are the definition of a great conference.

Thank you for the invitation UEDA! Thanks to Executive Director Bill Johnson and Kristi Luzar who made all the conference magic happen!.

Radio Interview at the Summit. Rick and Shelly Jurewicz from M7. Wisconsin Public Radio.

Previous post about the 2011 UEDA Summit with full list of speakers. Also, my first post about the UEDA Summit.

Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen owned and operated by the Hodan Center

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen is supported by the organization I work for, the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation

Thanks to all involved!

Joining Southwest (WI) Tech Entrepreneurship Advisory group

2011-11-29T20:01:00.000-06:00

Thanks Dr. Duane Ford, new President at Southwest Tech in Fennimore Wisconsin for the invitation to join their newly established Entrepreneurship Advisory group.

Their goal is simple, direct and powerful:

"....identify, nurture and support entrepreneurs."

I'm grateful and enthusiastic about this invitation. Southwest Wisconsin is a wonderful place full of promise and opportunity. The new efforts Dr. Ford is setting up at SW Tech should help develop these opportunities across the region and beyond.

I'm now honored to be on Advisory Committees for both Southwest Tech in Southwest Wisconsin and Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) in Southeast Wisconsin.

Our Wisconsin technical college System is making great strides toward job creation, business startups and entrepreneurship goals for the wider community.

I thoroughly enjoyed my presentation in Milwaukee this week as one of the keynotes for the Urban Economic Development Association. More on this later.

What seemed clear to me is that our Wisconsin technical school system has a strategic role to play in food-based economic development. I am watching them step up to meet this challenge. Milwaukee Area Technical College is launching several new degree programs in food processing management. Forward!

It's a great honor and privilege to work in such amazing areas across all of Southern Wisconsin.

Thank you for the invitation to join the SW Tech Entrepreneurship Advisory Board Dr. Ford.

It's the Renaissance age of entrepreneurship and it's just beginning. Check out programs from these two great schools!

Southwest Tech in Fennimore, WI.

WCTC's great Small Business Center in Waukesha County, WI

Link to previous Dr. Duane Ford post

Hypercard. Data mastery is very personal.

2011-11-27T10:09:00.000-06:00

One more Hypercard post...

When we started our first business in the 70s we were very excited to get a few orders per day. When orders started coming in faster and faster we knew we had to control our data or forget about surviving, let alone growing.

We built our first digital business management tools on a second-hand Kaypro computer. I still have the 5 1/4" floppy disk we used to run our accounting on that system.

When our kids were born, they automatically joined our family business enterprise.

Anne was five years old in 1987 when we got our first Macintosh and our first database program, Hypercard. She had watched her Mom, (my wife and business partner Mary) organize all the information it required to manage our small business. Anne also understood very early that helping control that data made Mom happier. At the time most of the Macintosh programs started with 'Mac', as in MacPaint, and MacWrite. When we wrote our own database for our business (in Hypercard), Anne named it MacMom.

The idea of being able to control your own computer interface so that you could manage what specific information and outcomes you wanted out of your computer was a powerful new capability that seemed immeasurably valuable at the time. And it was easy, thanks to Bill Atkinson who created Hypercard, and the good folks at Apple.

Anne wrote a program in Hypercard when she was only six years old to teach her two year old sister Eileen how to use a mouse - and it worked perfectly.

Bill Atkinson gave a presentation at the 2011 MacWorld convention about the future of computing and he circled right back to this idea of controlling data in the most meaningful, most personal ways. This was from that talk:

"Atkinson believes that the killer app of mobile telephony will not be augmented reality or gestural interfaces or anything like that. Rather it will be earpiece that connects users to a virtual digital assistant who lives in the cloud and will remember the name of the restaurant where you had dinner last time you were in the city or the name of a vaguely familiar looking acquaintance approaching with his hand extended."

"I'm about to turn 60," Atkinson says, "and most of my memories reside in the brain of my wife."

When I repeat this quote, my family nods and agrees.

Once upon a time, MacMom, Hypercard, and Bill Atkinson made data control happen for our family and our small business. We could do it in real time. Not yet in the cloud, but in our family business. Amazing stuff then. Amazing possibilities for the future.

Hypercard lesson #2:

You do data control for yourself. It's not part of a business plan. It's the core of a sustainable business life.

Sustainable = repeatable. Repeatable = data control.

Bill Atkinson was an important figure in the early days of Apple, and the designer of the world's first popular hypermedia program, Hypercard. He currently operates a wonderful photography enterprise. My friend Larry met him at a recent computing conference and scored the autograph pictured above after sharing our MacMom story with Bill. Thanks Larry!

Fortune Magazine blog - Apple 2.0 Covering the business that Steve Jobs built, quoting Bill Atkinson on the future of computing.

Bill Atkinson nature photography.

Kaypro information at Wikipedia