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Featured speaker Ben Hewitt focuses on local foods at “Pie and Politics” event

June 11, 2012

Fans of pie and conversation can have their fill of both at the next Pie and Politics gathering under the Big Top tent in Bayfield.

Ben Hewitt, Vermont author and farmer, will deliver the keynote address on local food systems and strengthening local economies, "The Future's in the Dirt: Digging into the Local Economy." The gathering will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 20. Hewitt's presentation is sponsored by the Alliance for Sustainability, a local nonprofit organization. The event is free and open to the public due to the generous support of more than 40 regional co-sponsors, including Northland College. A question and answer session will follow Hewitt's presentation and homemade pies will be served.

"I have helped organize this event since the mid-90's and I've never seen so much enthusiasm for a topic," said Mary Rehwald, an event organizer with the Alliance. "Schools, hospitals, local restaurants, and groceries in our region now feature locally-grown produce. Our region has so many similarities to Hewitt's rural community in Vermont, which created 100 jobs through its local food economy. We want to learn how to do the same thing here."

The importance of local food networks has taken center stage around the country as people question food safety, processing and growing operations. Hewitt will share stories from interviews with farmers, agricultural entrepreneurs and restaurant owners featured in his recent book, "The Town That Food Saved." Hewitt's writings have appeared in the New York Times and other national publications."

The sense that this community and any community's sort of capacity to prosper is much more in their own hands when they take a certain degree of responsibility for their own economic well-being," said Hewitt. "Most communities have the opportunity to do that without large-scale infrastructure investments relative to other forms of industry."

Prior to Hewitt's address, the Big Top grounds will open at 5:30 p.m. so people may peruse booths of local foods and information from co-sponsors.

In the following day, June 21, Hewitt will attend a Local Living Economy Summit held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at WITC-Ashland. The summit seeks to encourage dialogue and connections between people who want to overcome obstacles facing the creation of a local foods system. In addition, the summit will highlight alternative support systems that may strengthen a local foods economy. To find out more and to reserve a lunch, contact the Alliance for Sustainability at or call (715) 682-4662.

This year's "Pie and Politics" event is co-sponsored by Northland College, Big Top Chautauqua, the Chequamegon Food Co-op, WITC-Ashland, Washburn Family Dentistry and the Center for Land Use Education at UW-Stevens Point. "Pie and Politics" is an annual event organized by the Alliance for Sustainability that strives to unite people and prompt political discourse over the best course of the day: dessert. Since the event began 15 years ago, gatherings have been held at the Big Top Chautauqua grounds on Mt. Ashwabay three miles south of Bayfield. Pies are donated by dozens of community volunteers each year where rhubarb pie almost always reigns supreme on the south shores of Lake Superior.