|
The Future of the California Department of Food and Agriculture |
Written Testimony for the California Senate,
Food and Agriculture Committee, Regarding the Budget and Future of the California Department of Food and Agriculture
Presented by Michael R. Dimock, President,
Roots of Change
June 16, 2009
Sacramento, CA
Thank you Mr. Chairman and distinguished Committee Members.
I am Michael Dimock, President of the Roots of Change Fund (ROC). In the last 9 months, nearly 7,000 Californians have committed to work with ROC to create a sustainable food system in California by the year 2030. ROC engages the grass roots and grass tops, including the secretaries of USDA and CDFA, media, farmers and ranchers, food business and environmental leaders, farm labor organizers and urban agriculture advocates. We engage the full spectrum of people who know we can create a better food and farming system if we work together.
|
|
|
San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable March 31 meeting |
These are Michael's opening remarks to the San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable , a collaboration of urban and rural leaders charged with forming a market development and food access plan for the
city and its rural neighbors and to further develop the concept of
regional foodsheds. We plan to publish the final recommendation document in the coming weeks.
Good morning Mayor Newsom, Secretary Kawamura, distinguished participants of the San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable, and our welcome guests.
This Roundtable's work is groundbreaking. Other big cities have been focused on developing better food policy for several years now. But none of them have chosen, like San Francisco, to improve food system policy through dialog with those at the root of the solution: the rural people who produce the food and the organizations that support them. Urban and rural must be partners to resolve the food system dilemmas that we currently face.
|
|
|
Kathleen Merrigan: Member of the Sustainable Dozen Chosen for #2 Spot at USDA |
 Feb. 26, 2009
If
you, like ROC, are committed to creating a sustainable food system, the
Obama administration is shaping up nicely. The nomination of Kathleen
Merrigan to be the USDA Deputy Secretary is the latest evidence.
Although, not a Californian like our hometown favorite Karen Ross
(another of the "Sustainable Dozen" endorsed by ROC), Dr. Merrigan is
the only alternative to Karen that could have made us this happy. She
is a truly terrific choice!
A seasoned champion of organics,
she is also clearly committed to social justice and economic viability.
Dr. Merrigan embodies sustainability principles and has a track record
of embedding these principals into government policy. During her
previous tenure at USDA, she worked very closely with ROC's man in
Washington DC, Gus Schumacher, and former Under Secretary and ROC
Stewardship Council member, Richard Rominger.
We applaud the
President, Secretary Vilsack, and all those across this state and the
nation who worked with Food Democracy Now, and others to promote Dr.
Merrigan.
Link here to see other reactions from the good food community.
Please, take a moment to add your thoughts about what this could mean for the good food movement
|
|
|
PlacerGROWN Food and Farm Conference |
Feb. 14, 2009
On Feb. 7, I had the opportunity to give the keynote address at the PlacerGROWN Food and Farm Conference. My thanks to Rich Peterson, Roger Ingram
and the Board of Placer Grown for inviting me to share with the PlacerGrown community. I also want to thank Janet Moranda for putting me up at her
lovely BandB near Lincoln Oaks. You can find the full text of my remarks below.
What is to be done?
It is always stimulating and instructive for me to dialog with those,
whom I believe, are engaged in the most important task on the planet.
Working with nature to produce food is the basis of life and doing this
well is art, science and sacred. It is also very hard work, as I know
from my brief time farming vegetables and flowers in Sonoma County in
the mid 1990s.
We live in momentous times, when uncertainty and fear for the future
predominate. Fear is a rational response when economic collapse is made
further complex by two wars, gridlock in Sacramento and Washington DC,
drought in California, a national health care crisis, and a diabetes
epidemic that will render life spans of the next generation shorter
than our own. It is perhaps sad, or maybe advantageous that those working in small scale
farming and ranching have been long living under difficult conditions.
|
|
|
California and the Future of Food, Wine and Community |
Nov. 17, 2008
I recently had the opportunity to give the keynote presentation to the 4th Annual Sustainable Ag Expo in Monterey California, November 12, 2008, entitled "California and the Future of Food, Wine and Community." The Expo is produced by the Central Coast Vineyard Technical Team. 2500 growers of wine grapes and other crops mainly from the central coast gather to study sustainable farming practices and related issues.
Please continue reading for the full text of the remarks.
|
|
|
