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A Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture |
April 2, 2008
California is blessed these days with a Secretary of Agriculture who is hip to the many profound realities that affect farmers and ranchers who seek to keep their operations viable in perpetuity. AG Kawamura – UC Berkeley graduate in Comparative Literature, specialty crop farmer from Orange County, tireless advocate for eradicating hunger, and promoter of sustainable farming systems – is a wonderful example of a person who represents the diverse interests needed to rally the State’s many stakeholders who seek a sustainable food system. You will find AG’s eloquent request that the State Board of Food and Agriculture to undertake a strategic visioning process that will prepare California for what he calls the “unpredictable future,” attached below.
AG Kawamura Letter
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March 19, 2008
The weekend before last, March 15th in fact, spring sprung in my garden in Santa Rosa. It was near 70 degrees and the sun was bright. The volunteer grasses were out of control and I was harvesting them, roots intact, for my compost pile, which at last look was up to 120 degrees. The daffodils were about finished, the peach tree was about to pop, and the first iris blooms were 2 weeks away. I knew spring had begun because, front and back, my yard was full of tiny white, fragrant and spade shaped blooms that had me sniffing around on my knees. They are the violets, viola odorata, that mark the start of spring for me. Despite the fact that humans have cultivated them for over 2 thousand years, my annual bloom lasts maybe ten days; so I must savor their existence. And what an existence it is.
Roots of Change, like the garden, is beginning to see a beautiful bloom. Holly King, Charlene Orszag, Anya Fernald (all 2007 ROC Planning Fellows) and Joseph McIntyre from ROC’s Coordinating Team will share some exciting work underway within the ROC Network. Here is my brief rundown on other developments since mid-February when the Stewardship Council met to review ROC’s 2008 plans and budget. The Coordinating Team’s proposals, with Council refinements, were adopted and we are off and running to towards important milestones.
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Michael's Thanksgiving Day Blog |
November 23, 2007
Today is Thanksgiving Day. It is a very important day in our culture. It emerges from fact and has become mythologized and sanctified by time and official acts. My favorite President, Abraham Lincoln, made this day a national holiday during the Civil War, the nation’s greatest internal test of unity. One reality remains at the core of this holiday; it is the focus on food.
Food is life. If we are to give thanks we of course cannot forget food and its many sources. It begins with nature and the energetic, elemental, and biological cycles that underpin plant and animal bounty. It continues with people and the processes they manage to transform nature’s raw bounty into ingredients and meals. The diversity of these people and processes correlate to the diversity of ecosystems and species. The health of the elemental cycles and ecosystems directly affects the health and quality of the foods that arrive on our Thanksgiving table. Food of high quality leads to a high quality of life.
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Winds of Change & The State Board of Food & Ag |
By Michael Dimock
October 1, 2007
I love the fall in a funny way. Crisp and cool mornings, warm and still afternoons, darkness coming ever earlier. The sun is lower, its light more filtered and diffused. A slight sadness, soulfulness, permeates my psyche and the social gatherings of the season. I am surrounded by the end of harvest, death of plants, and of my own emotional attachments, large and small. All seems slower in my inner world.
At the same time, in this year at least (as I have forgotten the details of last year's fall season), the work world moves fast. Opportunity abounds. We are clear about what to do, where to go. More powerful allies are present. It feels like, it appears, that history is now on our side. Change is in the air.
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Opening Remarks of Michael Dimock, Session 1 Planning Fellows Retreat |
Opening Remarks of Michael Dimock
Session 1, Planning Fellows Retreat
May 15, 2007
It has been a long journey, four years actually since Roots of Change
was born, and this day marks the beginning of a new phase. We all know
the hardest challenges, the highest most rewarding climbs, take a long
time. I want to share my own and ROC's perspectives on this effort,
this experiment really, to actually knit a network of diverse leaders
with a network of diverse funders who share a passion and vision for
reforming a food system that has run its course based on principles and
practices framed and formed in an earlier era.
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