My head is still ringing from last night’s panel discussion, “Investing in a Local Food Economy & Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide.” Maybe it’s a side effect of getting out of the office and being around smart and passionate people talking about important ideas …

Ariel Lauren Wilson, editor of Edible Brooklyn, seamlessly filled in for Meg Savage and moderated a fascinating dialogue that focused on how resources (i.e., money, land, people and their products) are valued and distributed throughout the various levels of the food system - and how those allocations should be changed. The panelists — Ethan Roland Soloviev from HowGood; Meg Christman from Greene Grape Provisions; Lee Davies from FoodFutureCo.; Jeremy Kaufman from Propagate Ventures; and Jesse Voremberg from Local Farms Fund — touched on many areas like land access, transparency in the food chain, and the role of farms throughout the foodshed.

It was generally a lively and engaging discussion, but at times it was straight-up intoxicating: I started to feel lightheaded when talk turned to land trusts and cooperatives and got goosebumps from the words “food hub.” You might say, “Dawg, I think something’s very, very wrong with you,” and honestly, you’d be right.

Among many other things, what’s wrong with me is that I don’t do nearly enough of this — I don’t write nearly enough about my ideas and experiences in food and policy, don’t talk nearly enough to the people who are already doing the dirty work of making our food system make sense.

So, that’s it — I’m just going to keep doing this stuff. I hope you’ll join me.