Techonomy Detroit
Food, farming and technology organizations are gathering at a number of events this fall to discuss the future of the way we eat. CEO Erika Block is participating in several of these conversations around the country, sharing Local Orbit’s perspective on building the New Food Economy.
On November 6, Erika will be at the Local Food Association’s Local Food Buyers Exchange Midwest in Chicago, where she will moderate a conversation on Catalyzing Growth Through Supply Chain Managementl, with Dave Rand, head of Sales and Operations at Local Foods Grocer, and Rick Terrien, founder of Innovation Kitchens.
They’ll discuss how traditional mainline distributors, regional distributors, food hubs and other types of processing, aggregation and distribution businesses are creating new possibilities for commercial-scale market penetration of local and regional foods.
On November 12, Erika will travel to Los Angeles to participate in The Role of Grower and Food Maker as Entrepreneur and Change Maker in Strengthening the Local/Regional Food System at Seedstock’s Reintegrating Agriculture: Local Food Systems and the Future of Cities conference. She will appear alongside a distinguished set of panelists including Dwight Detter of Whole Foods Market, John Mesko of the Sustainable Farming Institute of Minnesota, Michel Algazi of Food Centricity, Freshology and L.A. Prep, and former Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture A.G. Kawamura, of Orange County Produce.
Erika also participated in Techonomy Detroit’s What is Farming? panel discussion in September. Moderated by Justin Fox of the Harvard Business Review, Erika joined Marilyn Davis of K2S Advisors LLC, Dickson Despommier of Vertical Farm Project and Columbia University, and Jordan Motzkin of Big Box Farms in a frank conversation about the economic viability of vertical agriculture and urban farming, as well as the role of technology in addressing the challenges of local food distribution.