The Rural Voice, 1999-01, Page 26LiuIeby little a new
symbol is making its way
into the landscape of
Grey and Bruce Counties as
regional food processors,
retailers and manufacturers
show their pride in local
accomplishments.
The stylized map showing
the Bruce Peninsula stretching
off into the distance on which
the words "Pride of Grey
Bruce" are boldly displayed, is
showing up in local restaurants
and farmers' markets and even
on trucks from the region that
take the message far and wide
across North America.
"We need to get the Pride of
Grey Bruce logo in the public's
eye," says Jeff Mols, logo
marketing director for Market
Grey**Bruce, the organization
behind the effort to associate
local quality with the regional
identification. "We need to
discriminate for locally
produced products."
The program is also about
partnerships, Mols says, noting
that Grey County is putting the
Pride of Grey Bruce logo on
the signs that greet visitors
entering the county and,
because it has a sign -making
shop and Bruce doesn't, it's
making signs for Bruce County
too.
Market GreywBruce began
when a group of Federation of
Agriculture members from
Grey and Bruce sat down in
1993 when the Rural
Connections II program was
winding up. Karl Braeker, the
first chair of Market
Grey**Bruce recalled five years ago
as the organization was first getting
off the ground, how a half dozen
farm leaders sat around a table and
talked about how tired they were
about picking up the pieces after
things went wrong in the community.
and how they wanted to change the
situation. As they talked, they
realized Grey and Bruce had all the
ingredients for prosperity: human and
natural resources and tourism. What
was required was a way of getting it
all working together.
The first steps to bringing all the
Marketed with Pride
Grey and Bruce want people
to associate local products
with all the good things
the counties have to offer
By Keith Roulston
PRIDE OF
GREY
BRUCE
ONTARIO, CANADA
22 THE RURAL VOICE
resources together were undertaken
in February 1994 when a conference
was held in Owen Sound to try to
stimulate the imaginations of local
farmers, manufacturers and retailers
about ways they would repackage
what was already happening in the
two counties to create new
opportunities. Speakers gave the 150
people at that initial conference
background on how local food
producers could supply local
supermarkets, how small local
manufacturers could develop niche
markets that would make them
international in scope, and how
future trends might affect the
Grey -Bruce community.
But perhaps the speaker
who had the biggest impact in a
long-term sense was Kate
Finley Woodruff, marketing
specialist with the State of
Vermont's Department of
Agriculture, Food and Markets
Division. Woodruff explained
the state's "Vermont Makes it
Special" program that ties local
food and manufacturing
businesses in with its booming
tourism industry. Products like
maple syrup can, she explained,
display a "Vermont Seal of
Quality" sticker if they meet
standards set for their industry.
That seal appears on everything
from jams and jellies to
furniture.
Like Vermont, the organ-
izers of Market GreyvBruce
see the advantages of
identifying the image of the
region as beautiful and pristine
to products made locally.
Hundreds of thousands of
people visit the two counties
every year whether for the
summer resorts that line the
coasts of Lake Huron and
Georgian Bay or the ski areas
of northern Grey in winter.
They take home good
memories of the region. If
those good feelings can be
linked with products of the
region, the thinking goes, it can
be a leg -up for local products
and can create a more dynamic
economy.
In doing so Market
Grey,*Bruce has broadened its
scope to try to attract all sectors
of the regional economy to take part,
says Wally Halliday, R.R.2,
Walkerton, chair of the organization.
He's been involved in the
organization since volunteering to
help out at the first Market
Grey',Bruce Food Fair in the spring
of 1995.
Like Vermont, the Grey -Bruce
organization has set standards for the
use of the logo. Each sector from
agriculture to education to retail
businesses has its own rules that logo
users must abide by. In the retail