For more than 30 years, the southeast region of Appalachian Ohio has been leading the way in leveraging rural assets and enterprise to build a regional food system that is core to its stronger local economy. Facing industry and employment shifts over recent decades, regional innovators looked within and found solid ground. They have creatively networked local producers, tested a wealth of ideas, and flexed every resource to build a food hub and a bounty of locally owned and growing businesses. Mainstays of the regional food economy include farmers and crafters; the Chesterhill Produce Auction, a social enterprise where hundreds of growers sell to thousands of commercial and family customers from multiple states; a USDA-certified business incubator specifically for food product entrepreneurs – and plenty more. The region’s education institutions have joined in, offering courses on food entrepreneurship and training workers who can help build a renewable energy economy, harnessing another asset they have in abundance: the sun. Along the way, they have reinforced a strong sense of place, community — and resilience, with residents and restaurants now able to source the “30-mile meal,” besting the nation’s current 100-mile meal trend by a long shot. Join us on September 27 to learn from these stalwart rural Ohio go-getters.