Shenandoah Valley Local Food and Farm Working Group Meeting Dec 2nd.   The Shenandoah Valley Local Food and Farm Working Group will hold a meeting on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. at Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Northwest District Office in Harrisonburg. At this meeting, a colleague would like to possibly interview the working group about the opportunities and challenges of local food systems as part of a Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education (SARE) research study being conducted by Virginia Tech and NC State. A group of farmers and businesses in Rappahannock County are using Fresh Fork Market to further expand and develop their local food system. Fresh Fork Market is a virtual farmer's market that helps to connect local farmers to local consumers. Through an easy to use online interface, buyers and sellers of local products can connect faster and easier. The developer of Fresh Fork Market is willing to do a webinar presentation on its capabilities if there would be interest from the Working Group. Kenner Love can share more about the efforts in Rappahannock County. Fresh Fork Market website is: www.freshforkmarket.com/about. For more information on the meeting, please contact Eric S. Bendfeldt, Area Specialist, Community Viability, Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2322 Blue Stone Hills Drive, Suite 140, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801; Phone: (540) 432-6029; Cell: (540) 383-5393; Email: ebendfel@vt.edu.

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