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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.

On September 19th, I witnessed the State Board of Food and Agriculture deeply engage the State's need for a strategic plan for agriculture, with sustainability as the organizing principle of that plan. I heard the Secretary, A.G. Kawamura, concur with ROC's belief that now is the time for new State legislation, which he mused could be called the SANE Act (Sustainable Agriculture, Nutrition and Employment). It was, in my view, an unprecedented and pivotal meeting. Bi-partisan support for the highest standards of environmental and social stewardship was clearly evident. Speakers placed organic farming center stage. Even local food systems in the heart of the Great Central Valley were described as essential, perhaps inevitable.

It feels to me, in a wonderful way, like the inner and outer worlds are in sync. A previous resistance to fundamental change in the food system is fading with the green of the leaves. In these first days of October, as the summer of 2007 becomes memory, I am slightly sad and increasingly hopeful all at once.
 
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