First of several Utah's own summits held in box elder county.

• Author: Madison, Rachel

Brigham City - Dozens of local business owners gathered at AFTON'S FLORAL in Brigham City to attend the state's first Utah's Own Summit, an initiative started by LuAnn Adams, Utah's new commissioner of agriculture and food.

Although the Utah's Own program has been a UTAH DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD marketing program for many years, Adams hopes to increase its reach across the more rural parts of the state by holding summits.

"One thing I noticed about Utah's Own is they've done a good job of promoting Salt Lake and Utah County and some of Davis County, but they haven't made their way out to rural Utah. This is our first attempt to getting out to rural Utah. We've partnered with all the Small Business Development Centers across the state to host these summits," Adams says.

The event was held to acquaint Utah's local, food-oriented companies with the benefits of the Utah's Own program. The company owners also heard from industry experts on how to market and grow their businesses.

"Utah's Own wants to help expand your businesses," Adams says. "We can help by partnering you up with other entrepreneurs, and we can help get you into restaurants and grocery stores."

During this year's legislative session, Rep. Lee Perry, R-Perry, helped to get $85,000 appropriated for the Utah's Own summits. Perry says he's watched what Utah's Own has done with a small budget over the last four years and wanted to make sure the program got some funding this year from the Legislature. "Our economy grows through small businesses," he says. "It's not great big companies."

In 2013, 150 Utah's Own companies were surveyed. A total of 75 percent indicated Utah's Own was important to their overall success and 88 percent indicated Utah's Own was important to Utah's economic development. The same...