(Click here for a PDF copy of the report.)

This Annual Report marks the 10th year since the founding of the Regional Farm & Food Project. When we began, in 1996, we had a vision for a different kind of food system. One where farming restores rather than exploits natural resources, people know where their food comes from, farms are valued food suppliers, and farmers are respected, innovative, successful entrepreneurs. Today that vision remains the mission of the Regional Farm & Food Project, however our approach to accomplishing our goals is changing as the sustainable agriculture movement matures. This report explains how the Regional Farm & Food Project is evolving to meet the needs of the farm and food community, and charts our plans for the year ahead. We hope the work we are doing inspires you to join us by making a financial contribution, and by attending our networking meetings (next one is January 17th, see back page) in the months to come. We look forward to having your support!

State of the Organization
By Jim Manning, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Billie Best, former Executive Director now on the Board of Directors
Throughout 2006 – our 10th year! – the Regional Farm & Food Project has continued to remake itself. The goal has been to have the greatest possible impact while using our resources more effectively. This year we have further streamlined the organization to minimize our costs with the intention of member donations sustaining our operations. This allows us to reduce the significant time, effort and expense of fundraising, which comprised most of the job of the Executive Director, and as an all-volunteer organization, focus on bringing together the myriad farm and food organizations within a 100-mile radius of Albany to act collectively to build supply and demand for local foods in our region.

In September, Billie Best resigned as Executive Director and resumed her former position as a member of the Board of Directors. At that time the RFFP Board made the decision to become a volunteer-driven organization. We plan to use RFFP’s infrastructure to integrate the efforts of our regional farm and food community, holding regular networking meetings to build synergy and collaboration among the farmers, entrepreneurs, educators, advocates, activists and policy makers who are all working toward a more sustainable and socially just food system. With this strategy we hope to provide a forum for people to learn from each other, and to facilitate our becoming a self-identified community with a louder, clearer collective voice.

We have opened doors and conversations with a wide range of like-minded individuals and organizations (you can see many of them listed on the home page of our website, farmandfood.org), culminating in our first ever Farm & Food Network gathering on November 2nd, graciously hosted by the Honest Weight Food Co-op, in Albany.

At that meeting, 25 farmer and local foods stakeholders arrived at consensus that we must collaborate more effectively to increase consumer demand for local foods. Jim Hayes of Sap Bush Hollow Farm in Warnerville, NY, summarized our thinking, saying “Consumers need to understand the importance of buying food locally and be willing to pay the real price to the farmer so we can afford to stay in business and produce this quality food.”

Six volunteer workgroups, which we are calling Pods, were organized at the meeting, each with their own appointed leader and self-determined agenda.

• The Peak Oil Pod (Pod Leader, Louise Johnson) will organize several showings of the Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth" accompanied by panel discussions.
• The 100-Mile Diet Pod (Pod Leader, Cheryl Nechamen) will work to increase the number of people who eat the 100-Mile Diet.
• The Public Health Pod (Pod Leader, Liz Pohlmann) will work to bring public health professionals and organizations into the local foods movement.
• The Farmer Survival Pod (Pod Leader, Sandy Gordon) will work to support farmers and the farm business infrastructure.
• The Events Pod (Pod Leader, Liz Lukowski) will produce issues education events to educate consumers and farmers.
• The Communications Pod (Pod Leader, Billie Best) will produce the monthly Farm & Food Show radio program on WRPI-Troy, the monthly e-newsletter, and the RFFP website.

Another aspect of managing our growth and the changing nature of Regional Farm & Food Project is working with the Troy Waterfront/Winter Farmers’ Market and the New York State Farmstead & Artisan Cheese Makers Guild to help them both become fully independent organizations. This process is underway and should be completed by the end of our fiscal year (March 31, 2007).

We believe all of these changes make Regional Farm & Food Project a more sustainable organization. We hope you will actively collaborate with us in the year ahead as we work to achieve our shared goals. We look forward to seeing you at our Farm & Food Network meetings and other events. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we thank you for your continued support.

Finance
By Richard Green, Treasurer, Board of Directors
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, Regional Farm & Food Project reported $164,086 in income against $185,542 in expenses. The $21,456 difference was funded from reserves. We ended the year with combined net assets of $37,396.  It is important to realize that, Regional Farm & Food Project income and expenses have historically included both the Troy Waterfront/Winter Farmers’ Market and NYS Farmstead & Artisan Cheese Makers Guild income and expenses.  As these organizations spin off and become independent, this will no longer be the case.  This fact, coupled with the decision to operate as a volunteer-driven organization that relies on member donations to sustain our operations, will see our income and expenses drop dramatically in the next fiscal year.   

For the past year we have enjoyed having our accountant, Sue Baer, handle our monthly bookkeeping activities.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sue for her efforts in this area and in the many other areas where she provides valuable assistance.

Membership & Development
By Eileen Stone, Board of Directors
Between November 2005 and November 2006, RFFP raised $28,550 from 421 individual member donations. In addition, we received a $20,000 donation from the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and a $5000 donation from The T. Backer Fund.

There is good news and bad news about RFFP membership. Although membership has declined, the average individual donation is twice the amount it has been in the past, up to $70 from $35. Growing our membership among consumers remains a vital component of our strategy for developing the organization.

In 2007, RFFP will be looking to take advantage of our regional footprint (i.e., the 100-mile radius of the Capital District) to target community and family foundations and our regional banks and ask their support in our effort to strengthen our local food economy.

Managing High Tunnels, our two-year SARE grant is reaching its conclusion. The DVD and training manual are in production, however we expect the grant to be extended to allow for a more robust user follow-up survey, feedback and data analysis.

Communications
By Billie Best, Board of Directors
In the past year the Regional Farm & Food Project has dramatically increased the reach and impact of our communications, including our website, newsletter, radio program and event presentations. Our monthly email newsletter reaches a few thousand people via our member list and regional food and ag listservs. Back issues are on our website under the News link. If you have not been receiving the newsletter, it is because we do not have a correct email address for you. Please contact us to remedy that. You are missing valuable information and alerts to state and federal policy and legislation.

If you miss having a paper newsletter mailed to you, as I know many of you do, please consider that each issue of the paper newsletter takes at least a week of one person’s time and a few thousand dollars to produce and mail. Our email newsletter is more timely and thus more relevant. It takes a day to produce it and costs zero to distribute by email. If you prefer to read from paper rather than your computer screen, please print out our monthly email news.

Our website (www.farmandfood.org) is a rich information resource. We have a free Google non-profit ad that generates thousands of visits to our site each week and hundreds of searches through our Directories. In the months ahead we hope to update and expand the Directories.

Kristen Jaudon of Jaudon Design (jaudondesign.com) has been our volunteer webmaster for the past few years and she does a great job for us keeping the website up to date and looking good. Most recently she reorganized our homepage to make room for Farm & Food Network links. We are very grateful to her for the time she donates to us.

The Farm & Food Show is broadcast on WRPI-Troy 91.5 fm from 8:00 to 9:00 am on the fourth Thursday of the month as part of Capital District Progressive Radio. If you have broadband you can also hear it at www.wrpi.org. The program emphasizes public issues education, covering topics from renewable energy to raw milk to GM foods. For the past several years the show has been co-hosted by Harald Moore of Dusty Miller Farm. We thank him for his artistic contribution and his fabulous voice. We are looking into making segments of the program available for download from our website.

November 2005 to November 2006 Activity Summary
Details for many of these activities can be found at www.farmandfood.org.

Education Programs

• “Soils & Weeds” 3-Day Farmer-to-Farmer Vegetable Growers Conference, Saratoga, NY, presented with the Sustainable Farmers Network
• “Getting Organized to Have Local Foods in Your School”, Bethlehem, NY
• “Earth Day Farm & Food Film Festival” at Honest Weight Food Co-op, Albany, NY
• “The Power of Food: the Social, Environmental and Economic Impact of What We Eat Every Day” K-12 Teacher Education Program
• “Arts & Activism” with Jason Houston at NOFA Annual Meeting, Amherst, MA

Grassroots Organizing, Meetings, Forums, Presentations & Tours

• Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace “Food Forum”
• Berkshire Co-op Market Board Meeting
• NOFA-NY Annual Conference, Syracuse, NY
• NYS Farmstead & Artisan Cheesemakers Guild Annual Meeting, Hartford, NY
• RFFP Annual Member Meeting & Potluck
• Cornell University Community Food & Agriculture Program Meeting, Ithaca, NY
• NY Farms! Annual Meeting
• Troy Waterfront/Winter Farmers’ Market Annual Meeting
• Massachusetts Poultry Producers Meeting regarding Avian Flu & National Animal ID
• “Colleges Buying Local” presented by the Office of Senator Clinton at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY
• “Return to Slavery: Will You Be Eating China’s Dust for Breakfast?” at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
• Saratoga Film Forum “The Future of Food”
• Toured Monkshood Nursery, Valatie, NY
• Berkshire Living Local Foods Forum
• Rural Health Network regional meeting, Binghamton, NY
• Community Food Security Coalition, Albany, NY
• Regional Food Bank, Albany, NY
• Hudson-Mohawk RC&D Annual Meeting, Acra, NY
• “Berkshire Grass Roots Summit” hosted by Orion Society, New Lebanon, NY
• Roots & Wisdom and Youth Organics meeting, Schenectady, NY
• Sustainable Living Group, Troy, NY
• Columbia County Fair “New Face of Farming” exhibit, Chatham, NY
• Honest Weight Food Co-op Local Foods Celebration & “Real Dirt on Farmer John” showing, Albany, NY
• Family Farm Festival, New Paltz, NY
• “Farmers for Spitzer” Policy Briefing, Albany, NY
• Hunger Action Network of NY Annual Meeting, Albany, NY
• “Growing Home Forum” Harvest Dinner, Binghamton, NY
• Farm & Food Network Meeting at Honest Weight Food Co-op, Albany, NY

Policy Advocacy

• Participated in workgroup that produced the proposed New York State Food Policy Council legislation
• “Local Food Zone” project development hosted by the Office of Senator Clinton

The Farm & Food Show

• Nov 05 “Seasonal Food for Thought”
• Dec 05 “The Gathering Crisis” with Karl North
• Jan 06 “Facing Our Cultural Hypocracy”
• Feb 06 “What is Food Security?”
• Mar 06 “Community Based Food Systems”
• Apr 06 “National Animal ID” with Mary Zanoni
• May 06 “Genetically Modified Foods”
• Jun 06 “Real Food” with Nina Planck
• Jul 06 “National Animal ID” with Judith McGeary
• Aug 06 “Local Currency”
• Sep 06 “Solar Energy” with Dr. David Borton
• Oct 06 “100 Mile Diet Challenge” with Jackie Baldwin and Cheryl Nechamen
• Nov 06 “The Future of Farming”

Regional Farm & Food Project Annual Member Meeting & Board Elections + Farm & Food Network Meeting

Please join us for thoughtful conversation, business networking and social refreshment. Farmers, food entrepreneurs, activists, advocates and policy-makers welcome!

Wednesday, January 17, 6:00-9:00 pm
Upstairs at Brown’s Brewing Company
425 River Street, Troy, NY • www.brownsbrewing.com
Next to the location of the Troy Waterfront Farmers’ Market
We will have a short business meeting, including RFFP board elections, followed by Farm & Food Network Pod updates and networking. We will have our own dining room and wait staff at Brown’s. Attendees pay for their own food and beverages.

Please RSVP by January 15. Call 518-271-0744 to confirm your attendance so we can advise Brown’s as to how many waiters our meeting requires. Thank you.