Tomorrow, Traverse City will still be next door to Leelanau

Traverse City Tomorrow, a community forum on Traverse City’s future will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the City Opera House with Q&A and a reception afterwards. While this isn’t a specifically Leelanau event, you can see by the panelists that the issues and businesses are going to affect Leelanau. They are Derek Bailey, tribal chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians; Don Coe, managing partner of Black Star Farms winery in Suttons Bay; filmmaker and Traverse City Film Festival founder Michael Moore; Ed Ness, president and chief executive officer of Munson Medical Center; Tim Nelson, president of Northwestern Michigan College; and Marsha Smith, executive director of Rotary Charities of Traverse City. (It will be streamed live on Up North Media as well)

The Traverse City Record-Eagle article begins:

Don Coe believes modern agriculture is changing, with more consumers wanting to buy local products directly from farmers.

It gives the latter an opportunity to expand their industry, said Coe, managing partner of Black Star Farms winery in Suttons Bay. But that can only happen if necessary infrastructure is in place.

That could mean more booth space at a downtown farmers market, making zoning laws more flexible or supporting the use of local products at events in city parks.

Growth is possible by “literally going back to a form of agriculture that existed 100 years ago when farms fed their neighbors first,” Coe said. “We could continue to have agriculture be one of the prime industries in our area if we’re aware of them.”

Photo: [75:365] Cherry Capitol of the World by OMG its Shortiie (be sure to check it out bigger too!)