NW Michigan Food and Farming Network Report to the Community 2015 Report to the Community | Page 19

2015 Report to the community

ISLAND’s Small Farm Guilds
Groups provide
support for skill-building
By Jen Schaap
ISLAND and Local Food
Alliance of Northern Michigan
The Institute for Sustainable Living and Natural Design (ISLAND)
believes in building community.
Guilds provide mutual support for
skill-building. Functions of a guild
include peer-to-peer learning, mentorship, demonstrations, workshops,
and conferences. Other guild functions include swapping and bartering, sharing work and celebrating
community. Guild members share
the strength of many through advocacy, problem solving, collective
bargaining, and shared marketing.
There are many guilds across the
northwest Lower Peninsula focused
on different farming topics such as
grain, green-building, orchards, beekeeping, and mushroom growing.
One of them is the Small Farm
Guild in Little Traverse Bay. From
the winter of 2013-2014 through the
winter of 2014-2015, the advisory
group that steers that guild is made
up of Brian Bates, of Bear Creek
Organic Farm; Jonathan Scheel, of
Scheel Family Farm; Craig Rapin, of
Bliss Garden Farm and Community
Kitchen; David Coveyou, of Coveyou Scenic Farm; and Bob Strong,
of Cradle Knoll Farm. This group
meets about once a month during the winter to consider what the
region needs to support farmers.

Patrick Walsh, right, also known as the “carrot guy,” and a farmer in Boyne City
talk at a Farmer After Hours. (Photo: Jen Schaap)

Networking is a major need. We
know that farmers need other farmers for bulk ordering to lower costs;
to solve problems unique to small
farms; to share and borrow equipment; and in many other ways. This
group has supported a Farmer After
Hours where the larger group meets
at a local brewery to talk shop and
share knowledge. Relationships are

The Fiber Guild is interested in a local
full-loop textile economy in the region.
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built and partnerships form.
Another guild is the Fiber Guild.
This group is interested in a local
full-loop textile economy in northern Michigan. The latest project is
a literal mapping of the “fibershed.”
This is the fiber, the dyestuff, the
processing (washing, spinning, dyeing), the creation of cloth and the
construction of the final product
(garment or home good or other
textile product), the use of that
product and the “disposal” after the
useful life of said product would all
happen here. Local fibers, local dyes,
local labor. Many are realizing that
the lens through which we view local
foods also applies to textiles.
ISLAND plays a role in connecting all of these people across northwest Lower Michigan.
artmeetsearth.org/guild-building