Hartwick College hosts talk on local food campaign

On Wednesday, April 23, 2008, Challey Comer, Farm to Market manager for the "Pure Catskills" buy-local program, will give a talk titled "Buy Local Efforts for Farm, Food, and Forest: The Pure Catskills Branding Campaign." The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Strawbale House at Hartwick College's Pine Lake Environmental Campus as part of the Conversations at the Lake series.

Pure Catskills is a branding and buy local campaign sponsored by the Watershed Agricultural Council in collaboration with farmers and purveyors of fresh food across Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties in New York State. Comer will cover the basics of the Pure Catskills program, discuss the argument for buying local, and talk about some possible next steps for people interested in doing more.

Comer is the Farm to Market manager at the Watershed Agricultural Council. She worked as an engineering specialist in the Agricultural Program for nearly three years before taking on her current position in the spring of 2007. During her time in the Catskills, Comer has held part-time jobs at an heirloom vegetable nursery, on a farmstead cheese operation, and as an independent producer-grower.

This talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Pine Lake Environmental Campus of Hartwick College. Conversations at the Lake, begun in 2006, is a series of informal talks on subjects relating to sustainability and the environment. For more information on upcoming events at Pine Lake, contact Program Coordinator Dan Morse at 607-431-4520 or morsed@hartwick.edu.