Corporate Report Wisconsin: "Kitchen Serves Up Jobs and Supports Farmers"

Thanks to Corporate Report Wisconsin for a new article highlighting the valuable jobs and economic potential our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen represents.

I'm encouraged by the amount and the quality of coverage the business and economic development media have brought to our story of the Innovation Kitchen.

Corporate Report Wisconsin's April 2011 issue featured Southwest Wisconsin. This includes Iowa County, Madison and Dane County, as well as the counties south and west out to our neighbor state borders.

Quoting pieces from the main article (emphasis added):

"That's where Rick Terrien enters the picture. As founding executive director of the Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation, his passion and excitement for local agricultural initiatives is boundless."

"He quoted the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture in a recent post on his blog Sustainable Work. 'On average locally produced products return 70 cents of every dollar to the local economy. Non-local products return only 40 cents'"

"To Karen Lehman, from Fresh Taste in Chicago, local is 250 miles from the Downtown Loop. Fresh Taste is an organization advancing local and healthy eating in the greater Chicago area, encompassing approximately 8 million people. The produce being grown in Wisconsin is what will give those millions of people local food."

"'We're in a position to make a significant impact on the food lives of a lot of people that live around us', says Terrien. 'And, lift up the cover on the book, and it's an economic strategy'"

I especially appreciated the way that the writer of this article, Jen Bradley honored the Hodan Center's leadership for creating the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen and leading the experiments in this emerging field. What a great example Tom and the entire Hodan Center team have set for the rest of us.

Ms. Bradley closed out the piece (linked below) with a quote friends will know I am passionate about.

"'I've had some really great business opportunities in my life but this is the one where I feel I can make the biggest impact' says Terrien",

This is a great opportunity to support entrepreneurs, farms, food, and innovation. We can use this experiment to create good new local jobs for people who really need support - especially in rural communities - while helping turn movements into functioning organizations.

And I get to eat the food experiments.

My kind of economic development!



Download story: "Kitchen Serves Up Jobs and Supports Farmers" (PDF format) Corporate Report Wisconsin. Copyright April 2011.

Link to main article at Corporate Report Wisconsin. Teaming to Win. April 2011.

Hodan Center

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen

Iowa County Area Economic Development. Come Grow With Us!

Images and text copyright Corporate Report Wisconsin Thank You CRW!