Lawrence.com

So, recently there was a trip to Japan.

It was made by a consortium of people from our local food production community through the Global Partners for Local Organic Foods and the Kansas Rural Center.

Predictably, the focus of the trip was to compare notes with a team of Japanese growers and professionals about local food production systems in Japan (more specifically, Saitama) and the Lawrence/K.C. area. The trip spanned roughly ten days and as I understand, it was very productive in terms of sharing knowledge, methods, and perhaps most importantly, creating friendship and dialogue between all involved.

What’s exciting for the rest of us is that the Japanese team will be arriving in Kansas on the 23rd of this month, and will be in attendance at the Recognition Ceremony for Kansas’ Pioneers of Local and Organic Foods, which will be held at Liberty Hall on Wednesday, June 24th.

You don’t have to be particularly interested in Japanese methods of food production to come; this will be a public event and a great opportunity to meet, or at least put names with faces (or faces with names, if need be) within our local production community. As you might assume, there will be music and lots of awesome, awesome food from The Merc and Local Burger too.

Tickets cost $5 and are available at Local Burger, The Merc, and, obviously, Liberty Hall.