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Event Fri Mar 12 2010
At the Family Farmed Expo
Am I in Camelot? Should I click my ruby slippers and chant a mantra? Today's opening panel discussions at the Family Farmed Expo at the UIC Forum make me wonder just that. Smart, innovative, inspirational, common sense, these describe my thoughts listening today. After the last decade who couldn't be accused of being a bit cynical, and it's not as if that's going away anytime soon.
Or is it?
To hear the song of solid innovative good old American know how is refreshing music to my ears. Hospitals in the Bronx that write a "prescription" to a fruit stand for an apple that you can go pick up for free. Or funding a micro loan of sorts, $10,000 paid back $1,000 a year over 10 years that allows smaller business' a chance to get off the ground without crippling debt and the lender a guaranteed stipend from the government as reward.
Searching for and finding available buildings/spaces and incorporating a community renewal model that takes into consideration the total individual. A place to buy wholesome food, work out and get screened for diabetes while your children play in playlots designed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or are minded by daycare personnel. Taking a more preventative stance as opposed to reactionary. Way cheaper too. And a source of jobs.
Building human capital. Grassroot support and investing in a maybe not quite as bleak future. If this appeals to you, I'd suggest checking out the Expo taking place through Saturday.
If that's not enough then there's the Localicious party taking place Friday night. Twenty-five of Chicago's most far-thinking food operators, be they restaurant, caterer, farm, dairy, brewer or distiller that have embraced the local sustainable movement.
Food for the mind and food for the soul.
Family Farmed Expo and "Localicious"
UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd.
March 11-13