Early Summer Update -

Including: Listening Sessions for State Board of Food and Agriculture, ROC Fellows, San Francisco’s Urban-Rural Roundtable, and 21st Century Food and Agriculture Policy
June 23, 2008
By Micheal Dimock

It is a time of transition into robust action here at ROC. First, I’ll cover the transitions, then the actions. After three years of hard work and dedication, our friend and colleague, Nicole Mason, has stepped out of her role at ROC to embrace new challenges. I speak for all of us in the ROC community in saying we wish Nicole every success and we thank her for her good service. She will be consulting with us through the fall to ensure that Changemaker’s Day at Slow Food Nation is a success. Many of you will be seeing and hearing from Nicole on ROC’s behalf through the summer. You can read more about Changemaker’s Day and Slow Food Nation in this newsletter and on line at www.slowfoodnation.org.

Four New Activities Underway

1. Listening Sessions for State Board of Food and Agriculture
As you know, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the State Board of Food and Agriculture are holding listening sessions up and down the state. They seek to identify 30 goals for food and agriculture for the year 2030. Sound familiar? It should, ROC has been instrumental in helping Secretary AG Kawamura to set a new course for the State. It is vital that members of the ROC network show up and speak out at these hearings. CDFA and the State Board will use the testimony from the sessions to develop a policy initiative to be pursued in 2009 with support from the Governor.

We are asking LN members to refer to the 36 Goals for 2030 document as they develop written or verbal testimony for the sessions. The content of this document was lifted from the goals and objectives in California’s Campaign for a New Mainstream in Food, Farming and Fisheries, developed by Planning Fellows, Stewardship Council members and ROC’s Coordinating Team in 2007-08. We encourage LN members to submit one or two of these goals within their own testimony (verbal or written) to help amplify and create the state’s consensus on these issues. ROC’s aim is to have all 36 delivered verbally by the end of the listening sessions by LN members. We have already submitted all 36 in writing and at least 6 of the goals were delivered verbally on May 29 at the Sacramento session.

As a result of suggestions offered at the May 29th listening session by Martha Guzman, CRLA and Ron Stohlic from California Institute for Rural Studies , CDFA and the State Board may add special sessions for farmworkers on July 7 in Oxnard and July 8 in Escondido. To learn more or coordinate with those organizing these farmworker sessions, please contact Cesar Hernandez - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

ROC wants to support LN members as they prepare to testify. Haney is setting up ROC-hosted conference calls to allow folks to share ideas, dovetail testimony and discuss with ROC staff which of the 36 goals might fit into your planned messages for the State Board. We encourage you to participate in these preparatory calls. Click here to see the schedule of ROC listening session calls.

A final important note: remember to RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and if possible at least three days prior to the session.

2. ROC Fellows - 2008
ROC is about to open its application process for 2008 Fellowships. ROC is evolving the program in response to feedback for the 2007 fellows. Criteria for selection will include articulation of a desire to participate in a Workgroup of Fellows that will develop collaborative projects that seek to implement specific objectives within California’s Campaign (the one mentioned above). In 2008 ROC will be selecting Action Fellows, not Planning Fellows. We will post the application on Friday, June 27th. Sorry about the delay, but the changes to the program required some time. We are focused on developing Workgroups around the following 4 areas: 1) promotion of sustainable production systems for California’s major crops; 2) workforce health and opportunities; 3) public health and food systems; 4) public engagement for good policy and purchasing. These four will be added to the three workgroups currently operational.

3. San Francisco’s Urban-Rural Roundtable
This is the newest ROC Workgroup, and is prototyping how the LN will help move leaders from California’s six largest cities into regional food system work with their rural neighbors. This Workgroup is headed by Ed Thompson from American Farmland Trust and involves six other leaders: Larry Bain a 2007 ROC Fellow and owner of Let’s Be Frank; Paula Jones from San Francisco’s Department of Public Healt; Sibella Krause from SAGE and UC Berkeley’s Ag at the Metro Edge program; Hannah Laurison a 2007 ROC Fellow and Senior policy person from Public Health Law Program; and David Pascal from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office and the City’s Department of the Environment. The workgroup will plan and host 4 roundtable meetings this fall involving 15 leaders from San Francisco and 15 rural leaders from within 200 miles of the city. These noted leaders, including Secretary Kawamura, will provide Mayor Newsom and ROC with recommendations on what the city could do in collaboration with its rural neighbors to create a vibrant food shed that will improve health, resource stewardship, economic and cultural vitality in both city and country.

4. 21st Century Food and Agriculture Policy
ROC has assembled a team of great thinkers and writers to help a small Workgroup craft a declaration and petition that will call on the nations leaders to reframe US food and agriculture policy to fit the needs of the 21st Century. Dan Imhoff is the document’s primary author with assistance from Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, Wendy Wasserman, Publisher of Edible Iowa River Valley and myself.

ROC has taken on this important project because federal policy impedes progress toward creation of a sustainable food system. The farm bill particularly provides the wrong incentives. Public dollars are creating unhealthy food, allowing damaging production practices, and benefiting too few people. Although small gains were made in the most recent bill, an entirely new policy approach is needed, aimed at goals and objectives that address our most urgent needs.

The declaration and petition must reflect the aspiration of millions of people and so we have aligned a team of thirteen framers and thirty-seven advisors representing a broad set of constituencies. The full list of framers and advisors will be made public when we reach consensus on the document. The declaration and petition will completed in time to unveil at Slow Food Nation in a petition signing ceremony on Thursday, August 28th, the evening before Changemakers Day. We hope this ceremony is but the first of hundreds that will take place across the nation in the year ahead. We will also develop a means for people to sign on via the web. If all goes well and we can achieve the backing of hundreds of thousands of Americans, we will attempt to present the petition to national leaders in Washington DC in 2009.

As you can see, the ROC team is very busy working with dozens of organizations and people to support the important changes we all seek. With these activities launched, the summer and fall are focused on raising funds to go even further in 2009.

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