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Economic Development Through Specialty Crops
A local man says he wasn't about to give up on a summer project of sorts, just so he could prove an important point: specialty crops may help drive the local economy.

That was the point of Gary Tomlin's talk Wednesday during a public forum hosted by the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association.

Tomlin has grown tomatoes, leasing land from GREDA. He's bought a tractor, he irrigates the lane, and does a lot of other work, including delivering his tomatoes to customers like Knox College.

Tomlin says the time is now for local produce growth.

"That initiative's market driven, demand is up here, supply is down here, it's a great time and place to have vegatables for sale there is no problem selling market value vegetables," he says. "We can develop this locally and keep a lot of our local food dollars here."

Tomlin says there's plenty of land locally that could be used for such a venture, and admits he couldn't get his mind off the greenery surrounding the WGIL transmitter site on South Farnham Street as an example.

He says it's a great market for younger people to get into in part because they're the ones that are more and more specific about what they consume and how local it is.
09 23 11 by Newsroom
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