Last November 3, we met at Corporate College in Cleveland to discuss a
green, sustainability agenda for inclusion in the Advance Northeast
Ohio Plan.  Brian Gwin, Steve Bosserman and I shared a vision for
building local economies in Northeast Ohio starting with local food
systems, leading to renewable energy and distributed manufacturing with
renewable raw materials from the region's agricultural lands.  We're
delighted to share with you the news that the project has been
supported by the Fund for Our Economic Future.  A summary of the

Alayne Reitman shared the following article and asked, "Can the region take
advantage of our water? Can we be a center for innovation and
manufacturing in support of what may be developed?"  I just returned from a week of work with USDA and these multiple benefits of agriculture, including carbon and water
storage, figure prominently in the direction that the USDA grant
programs are taking. The most recent one, Ecosystem Services, was a
combined program with EPA in which carbon sequestration figured