|
|
 Food
Initiative Helps System Reach Potential
By
Carol
Spence
LEXINGTON, Ky., (Sept. 13, 2006) – In a university lab, a
government office, a corporate boardroom or on a family farm,
great ideas for producing, marketing and distributing high
quality foodstuffs abound. Too often those ideas don’t reach
their potential for the simple reasons that they don’t have a
support system or they exist in a communication void. Sometimes,
equally as important as scientific or business knowledge,
networking skills are vital to getting a good concept off the
ground. That’s the idea behind the creation of the Food Systems
Initiative in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.
The Food Systems Initiative is a one-year pilot program designed
to act as a networking hub. It will connect university expertise
with government policymakers, local entrepreneurs and
corporations.
“For quite some time the college has recognized that it has a
great potential to coordinate the efforts of many different
programs that deal with food, and that we would benefit from a
kind of multi-departmental college level coordination,” said
Nancy Cox, associate dean for research in the UK College of
Agriculture.
The College of Agriculture has a natural tie to the state’s food
system with programs in the School of Human Environmental
Sciences that deal with consumers, food management, hospitality
management and nutrition, as well as food production programs in
the departments of Animal and Food Sciences, Horticulture and
Agricultural Economics.
“We have a sector now that takes us from the producer to the
consumer within the college,” Cox said. “We’ve done a lot of
planning on how we might best capitalize on all those strengths.
And having a coordinator for the overall program is a
significant first step into our overall program planning.”
Bob Perry (pictured above right) is that new coordinator. The
former director of food service for the Kentucky Department of
Parks, Perry was responsible for getting locally grown produce
on state resort park menus. He also fostered a regulatory change
that allowed the state to purchase local farm meats and dairy
products. With more than 25 years in the hotel, restaurant and
tourism industry, Perry is perfectly positioned to be the new
network’s “hub.”
“There are all sorts of food initiatives going on, and everybody
can learn from everybody else. That’s what a food system is, and
being the hub of the network is to try to keep information
flowing,” he said. “I’m not the expert in anything agricultural
or anything (related to) food manufacturing. I’m experienced at
networking and bringing people together, and that’s what needs
to happen.”
“One of Bob’s jobs will be to help us get the most out of our
individual strengths in serving the Kentucky food industry, the
local entrepreneurs, as well as ultimately some of the really
big companies that are headquartered in Kentucky,” Cox said.
“Bob is very well-positioned to help us network with those sorts
of people.”
Perry’s new duties include promoting development of new food
enterprises in Kentucky, specifically linking to Agricultural
Development Board programs that concentrate on tobacco-dependent
counties. He is also to advise programs involving sustainable
and local food production, do occasional class lectures or
seminars and provide programs for county agents and specialists.
The new center would work in close partnership with the Kentucky
Department of Agriculture and the Governor’s Office of
Agricultural Policy. Cox says UK and the state have similar
missions to promote Kentucky-based products.
“We really have worked hand-in-glove with those two agencies on
many different programs, and Bob fits into that network very
well,” she said. “He was known to both of those groups and knew
both of those groups, so he’s the perfect liaison with them.”
The Initiative is also charged with reaching out to other areas
of the university outside the college. UK Dining Services is
currently testing the feasibility of using locally grown produce
in all 20 campus restaurants. Perry will be helping them fine
tune the new system.
“They’ve been trying to buy local and I’ve got the experience,
coming from (Kentucky Department of) Parks where I had 21
different restaurants,” he said. “We’re very similar. I
understand what they’re up against, which is huge.”
Perry envisions that other projects may require the expertise of
the wider university community. He talked about a project now in
the planning stages, where a third-party corporation could be
created to help Kentucky beef producers more effectively market
“We need legal help, so we can go to the law school. We need
business planning help, so we can go to the business school. We
definitely need production help, so we can go to Animal and Food
Sciences. We need to look at shelf life, so we can go to
microbiologists and get shelf-life testing done,” he said. “And
there’s a real opportunity for the university to do tasting
panels.”
Perry’s devotion to a locally based food system stems, in part,
from a far-flung food background that included a stint living
and cooking in Provence, France.
“It was really interesting that when I got into local purchasing
of sustainable food, all those memories started coming back from
the time I spent in France and how their food system worked over
there, which is sort of what we’re trying to get to (here),” he
said.
The French food system is based on local availability, with
menus that change with the season. Perry explained that the
American food system became centrally based to reduce cost. But
that type of system comes with its own price – a distance-driven
lack of accountability and the loss of family-owned farms. To
Perry, a locally based system has a number of advantages.
“One, we can keep the farms in family hands so they don’t have
to sell out,” he said. “And two, the food is safer. You know
where it’s from. You know how it was handled. You know how it
was raised, and how it was processed. The food is much better.
It’s much fresher and you have a huge economic impact on small
rural communities, which seems to be the missing puzzle piece.”
For the next year, Perry will be working on that puzzle, looking
down “each one of these roads” and being aware of what’s going
on in research, production, marketing and distribution. His
task, as he sees it, is “not to be an expert in it, but to be
aware of what’s going on and look for ways to link people
together.” |
Contact: Bob Perry, 859-257-8890
Nancy Cox, 859-257-3333 |
|
The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with Teaching, Research and Extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
Questions/Comments,
e-mail the
webmaster
Copyright © 2001-2006 University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture,
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service |
News Home
Other Headlines This Week
More
News
RSS Now Available
for those
using news aggregation programs
College News
|
