WETS Interview - ARCD - Andy Brown and Emily Bidgood - August 2025 скачать в хорошем качестве

WETS Interview - ARCD - Andy Brown and Emily Bidgood - August 2025

David Miller of WETS (89.5FM) Johnson City, interviews Appalachian RC&D Council Executive Director, Andy Brown, and Emily Bidgood, Regional Partnerships Manager. In addition to talking food security and farm and food entrepreneurship in Northeast Tennessee, the interview's particular impetus was the termination of the Regional Food Business Centers by the US Dept. of Agriculture. The USDA created the Regional Food Business Centers in 2023 as a way to augment their existing network of support to farmers. Spurned on by revelations during the COVID-19 pandemic that it is necessary to invest in building regional food security, this new innovation was designed to strengthen and support local and regional food systems. Rural Action and 16 partners in the Central Appalachian Network are proud to have been selected in a competitive application process to serve all or part of seven states (Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) with an award of $42.5 million, to operate the Appalachian RFBC for a five-year period and invest much of these funds directly to food and farm businesses and entrepreneurs. After more than a year and a half of operation, the funding was frozen on January 20, 2025. The notice of termination and a 60-day period to wind down operations occurred in early August 2025. The US Dept. of Agriculture will allow the ARFBC to administer $4 million in Business Builder Subawards to more than 50 finalist farmer and food businesses in the region. Partners are working to determine our next steps to ensure that we are able to support the farms and food businesses we have been working with to the best of our abilities.