FRIDAY, in Traverse City @ at Peace Patch Community Garden 502 Seventh St., Traverse City, Michigan. 6-9 pm,

Bring a dish to share/tableware/ and a blanket or lawn chair for a Potluck @ 6,

Discussion, “Developing Regional Food Security and Food Sovereignty in Michigan with Nutrient Dense Food” 7-9 pm,

The MI BFA Collective warmly welcomes Mark Cohen, a farmer, ecologist, organic certifier and Bionutrient Food Association chapter leader from Amesville, Ohio, who will be leading discussions on food security and food sovereignty in three Michigan communities, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Traverse City, Michigan next week, August 10th through August 14th. Through a welcoming facilitated discussion, Mark will speak to the what/why/how of developing regional food security and food sovereignty—Food–Seed Saving/Medicine; and Energy–with information on forming BFA Chapters focusing on the importance of food quality and nutrient dense food. We will also announce plans for 2016 BFA soil courses in the three Michigan locations where we are hosting these talks.

Mark Cohen has been working alongside of other folks in Ohio for three years, organizing and setting up Mineral Depots, Grower Education, Consumer Education, Networking with Allied Organizations, and Food Quality Research. The Bionutrient Food Association is a national association of voting members who agree to uphold the mission of the organization and advocate for vital soils, nourishing food and healthy people. BFA partners with Grower Members to develop and implement practices that will improve food quality while making their operations more lucrative and sustainable. BFA helps consumers identify, advocate for and locate bionutrient food. BFA advocates to retailers and wholesalers for the preferential placement and promotion of bionutrient food. Finally, BFA empowers public and private policymakers and investors to support the shift from the century-long paradigm of factory farming to one in which quality food is profitable, ecologically sustainable, tastier, and equally available to all.

This series of talks is sponsored by the MI BFA Collective, with the local support of Little Artshram and O’k CSA Cooperative. Last winter our newly forming Michigan collective held a BFA High Crop Production Soils course at Bakers’ Green Acres farm in Marion, Michigan, with 25 farmers and growers in attendance, in a two-day course with BFA founder, Dan Kitteridge. We are working together as a collective for several Michigan BFA chapters to take hold in as many communities across the Great Lake State as possible!

MI BFA Collective Contact Reps:
Ann Arbor/SE MI: Clifford Scholtz, Email: michigan_citrus@yahoo.com

Grand Rapids/SW MI:
Mary Colburn, Email: slugborns@msn.com

Traverse City/NW MI:
Penny Krebiehl, Email: penny.ok.art@gmail.com
231-922-2014