We are a group of individuals, grass roots volunteers, seeking to create collaborative food system efforts on the local-regional level of our Lower Columbia Region, but also to build partnerships beyond our geo-area. We hope you will peruse the pages of this site and we would enjoy hearing from you.

Healthy Farms, Healthy Kitchens, and Healthy Communities is our focus. Please continue below to read about our vision.

IF YOU HAVE A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT EXPRESS YOU COTTAGE FOODS INTERESTS ON FACEBOOK!

http://cottagefa.org/

At the above link you can paticipate in discussions about the Cottage Food industry. Share your ideas, thoughts and aspirations for this industry with others.

Although volunteers have recently launching the web discussion platform, it is on a Ning web platform which volunteers are paying for at this time. For some reason Ning's security certificate has not attached to the domain name, but we feel it is perfectly safe (if you see a "permission request" appear) to accept the site as a trusted site and come on over and join the discourse. This "certifcate" issue has only arisen for those web-users who have set their personal computer controls on their browsers or computers to  a "HIGH" level.

More about Carolyn Goodwin's quest can be read here.

ABOUT WASHINGTON & THE COTTAGE FOOD LAW:

In mid-2012, it is anticipated that the Washington State Department of Agriculture will begin licensing private individuals in single family dwellings to make limited, retail food products; if the indivudual, residence (inhabitants, local zoning code, facility & equipment suitability, among other situs criteria), food product type, pre-approved recipes, and production methods conform to the Cottage Food legislation (2011) and Department of Agriculture Cottage Food adminsitrative codes (in the proposal-process towrds finality at this time, April 2012).

The primary impetus of the legislation was to allow for the production of low-risk foods, of limited types, in home-kitchens, although with a limitation to no more than gross sales of $15, 000 dollars in a calendar year.

This is a huge paradigm shift in food processing for Washington state. Prior to this law, an approved (commercial kitchen or commercial processing-plant) was required and regulated under Washington state law so as to produce foods retailed or wholesaled for human consumption in the state.

Food production and retail sales facilities are regulated by either county health departments (such as restaurants, retail bakeries, minit-mart delis, Farmers Markets) or the Washington State Department of Agriculture (such as meat processing, canneries/processing plants, egg producers). These prior examples are not all inclusive.

The new law is known as the

Washington State Cottage Food Act of 2011.

Please Click here to learn more about the new law.

CRFNetwork: WHERE AND WHO

Washington state is the 18th most extensive and the 13th most populous of the 50 states in the U.S. Approximately 60 percent of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area; this equates with the fact that the CRFNetwork's focus geo-region (of five SW Washington counties) encompasses a lesser populated area, more rural, and heavily forested area of the state with a number  of rather 'physically-isolated' stand-alone communities.

COLUMBIA RIVER FOOD NETWORK "main" office is currently operating from a home in the heart of SW Washington State as a grassroots effort. Ongoing activities to organize this effort involve recruiting think-tank volunteers so as to create momentum to cause ongoing dialogues with various food-system stakeholder groups.

(Please visit the Food Systems diagram further below)

CRFNetwork FOCUS:

The immediate focus in forming of the CRFNetwork is to cause public and stakeholder engagement so as to support the genesis of a new, and sustainable cottage food industry in the CRFN region. The potentials for future economic-development of local-regional food systems that can be spurred by this law should not be overlooked.

Although the new Cottage Food Law has gross sales limitations at this time, it is believed that the law can be effectively utilized to enhance the growth of local-regional food system opportunties across the state. Therefore, this new 'Washington Cottage Food Law' is worthy of assessment, although it does also hold inherent challenges.

ECONOMICS & TIMELINESS:

Timely, and early-on assessment and dialogue regarding the Cottage Food Law (at a local-regional level in SW Washington) as the Washington State Department of Agriculture plans to begin taking applications in late June 2012 (subject to the Depts. planning, of course) is important for a variety of reasons. Creating local-regional "buzz" and educational resources about the law may eventually assist in the development of ongoing collaborations and leveraging the opportunities in SW Washington, whch continues to suffer from several benchmarks of a stagnant, if not depressed economy.

STRATEGIC LOCAL-REGIONAL PARTNERING:

The CRFN strategy is based on the belief that a local-regional approach (more of a micro-level connecting-methodology), with a later inter-linked statewide association of Cottage Food licensees is a realistic economic-development approach that can best allow for the sharing of the law's challenges and potentials with the public, stakeholders, and policy makers.

The CRFNetwork hopes to engage with Clatsop and Columbia County farmers and licensed domestic-kitchens (licensed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture) based in the counties of Clatsop and Columbia.