Common Roots Café, Minneapolis MN by Diane

Our last morning in Minneapolis we had breakfast with several Minnesota groups, including the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Land Stewardship Project, Minnesota Farmer’s Union, and The Minnesota Project. This was a relaxing event for us because we didn’t have to give a big speech or table or do anything except sit down, eat breakfast, and talk/listen to the people around us. Again, this is another example of groups coming together to network, catch up, and share a meal. (I am really going to miss this when this trip ends!)

Common Roots Café, where we met, is relatively new, only a couple months old – www.commonrootscafe.com. The café uses fair trade coffees and tries to source as locally as possible – their tables are even from recycled wood! They do all their own baking on the premises from local flour. They also have a backroom that they let nonprofits use for free (can’t beat that price!)

IATP (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy) was our host in Minneapolis – both Jim Harkness, the President, and Kate Hoff, the VP of Development, were there (and were actively involved in the farmers market event the day before – but that’s another blog post….) If you’re not familiar with IATP and all the good work they do, you should check them out at www.iatp.org. I got to know them years ago through work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and they were even the original founders of the Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org) – then known as the Eat Well Guided List of Meats Free of Antibiotics (or something like that). We partnered with them, shortened the title to Eat Well Guide, added other types of sustainable products, and launched the first online directory in November 2003 (at the same time Sustainable Table and The Meatrix launched).

If you haven’t yet heard of the Eat Well Guide, it’s our online directory of sustainable food – mainly meat, poultry, dairy and eggs, from farms, stores, restaurants and other outlets in the US and Canada. All you have to do is put in your zip code to find sustainable places near you. It’s also great when you’re traveling – you can put in the zip code of any place you’re in to find sustainable stores and restaurants, and even bed and breakfasts – in the area. We have an amazing online tool for traveling that will be launched in the fall – we’d hoped to launch it during the road trip, but the response to our travels has been so overwhelming that we decided to focus more on the road trip right now and get back to the Eat Well Guide features once we’re done this trip.

Since the Eat Well Guide released, Sustainable Table ended up bringing it back inhouse and we’ve recently taken over managing and running the whole guide (though we still work closely with IATP). That gives IATP a little more room to focus on all the great work they do in agriculture, trade and policy.

Another group that was represented was the Land Stewardship Project – if you live in the Minnesota area and haven’t heard of them, you really should check them out. They do a lot of work with agriculture and land use, and have some great programs, like working with young farmers. Since I started working in farm and food issues, I always looked to the LSP newsletter for information – I think they put out the best publication of all the groups I know.

So breakfast was a chance for all of us to get to know each other a little better. It’s funny – I know this, but sometimes forget how important it is to meet with people face to face. Once you establish that connection, it’s simply easier to work on projects together and support each other.

So, thanks IATP for arranging great food and great conversation!

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