North Carolina’s Local Foods System:
Where are we, where can we go and how do we get there?
Dr. Nancy Creamer, Director, Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC State University, will talk about her experience in moving North Carolina’s local foods economy needle. If you’ve been thinking about getting to the farmers market more often, or joining a CSA, you’ll leave her presentation with conviction to get healthy through local.
Nancy Creamer is a Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Community Based Food Systems at NC State University, and Director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS). CEFS includes a 2,000-acre sustainable and organic agriculture research, outreach, and teaching facility, and also has programs statewide in local food systems development. In 2009 she provided leadership for a statewide North Carolina initiative engaging many diverse sectors and partners resulting in a statewide action plan: “From Farm to Fork, a Guide to Building North Carolina’s Sustainable Local Food Economy,” and has spearheaded the development of many of the strategic initiatives identified in the report. She was appointed by the North Carolina Governor to the legislated NC Sustainable Local Foods Advisory Council in 2010, and was Vice Chair of the Council through 2013. In 2012, CEFS received one of the highest awards that USDA gives: the USDA Secretary’s Honor Award for “Assisting Rural Communities in Creating Prosperity so they are Self-Sustaining, Repopulating, and Economically Thriving.” Nancy was appointed in 2014 as a founding Board member for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, which was allocated $200 million in the 2014 Farm Bill to support agricultural research. She was recently appointed as a member of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Food Security Commission.