Mountain BizWorks Ag-Biz Program is sponsoring an information session presented by Judi Jetson of Hand Made in America. The event will be held Friday, June 17 at the Agriculture Economic Development Center, located at 156 School Road in Mill Spring, from 10 a.m. – noon.

Judi Jetson, HandMade’s director of creative economies, will present the subject, “Growing the Fiber Economy in Western North Carolina.” Jetson is currently seeking input and involvment from fiber artists, retailers of craft and fiber, producers and processors, supply makers, machinery and tool makers, waste managers, small and custom mills and manufacturers, cut and sew coops, galleries and schools.

Mountain Bizworks’ objective is to help connect the fiber commuinty in Polk County to the resources that HandMade in America offers.

“As part of the Ag-Biz Program,” says Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell, Ag-Biz program manager, “We support the mission of HandMade in America and the connection fiber has to agriculture.”

HandMade in America, a non-profit economic development group based in Asheville, N.C., has started an initiative to grow the regional fiber economy by focusing on craft artists and small businesses. Based on two basic regional development strategies – adding value to locally harvested materials and substituting local products for imports – they have identified eight areas for attention:

• Develop an on-line directory of sources, makers and users of fiber, including

o Fiber artists

o Guilds and asssociations

o Research and trade organizations

o Schools and colleges with fiber programs

o Retail stores and boutiques carrying local fiber and locally crafted garments

o Fashion and home furnishing designers

o Local manufacturers and custom mills

• Develop an on-line calendar for events and classes

• Estimate and track the size of the fiber economy

• Organize more textile shows

• Start a textile study group

• Study feasibility for a community dye studio and textile center

• Fiber entrepreneurship – identify money for new fiber-related ventures

• Advocate for wearing & making garments from the local Fibershed (150 mile radius)

If you are interested in becoming part of the fiber community in WNC, organizers invite you to mark your calendar and plan to attend the information meeting on Friday, June 17 at the Agriculture Economic Development Center from 10 a.m. – noon to tour the facility and talk fiber.

For more information, contact Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell, Ag-Biz program manager, at 828-919-1000.

This Ag-Biz project is supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21817.

– article submitted by Jo Ann Miksa-Blackwell