ROC Convenes State's Second Urban-Rural Roundtable for Los Angeles Foodshed

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On January 27, 2010 Roots Of Change convened the first of three meetings of the Los Angeles Urban-Rural Roundtable. Similar to ROC's 2009 work in San Francisco, the LA roundtable will deliver policy and program recommendations to Los Angeles.

The recommendations will support development of a "foodshed" concept for LA. During the Roundtable process regional leaders from diverse sectors will combine their expertise to forge actionable suggestions on how to 1) provide healthier food to those who need it most, 2) establish more local and reliable markets to the region's farmers, ranchers, packers and processors, and 3) forge a framework for new economic development.

LA URRT

Attendees Gregg Kettles of the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Robert Tse, California Deputy Secretary of Agriculture (see more photos below)

Nearly 50 people attended the first meeting. They came from as far south as San Diego and as far north as Monterey County; and represented farms, distribution, culinary and retail businesses, school districts, and social justice, health and environmental NGOs, and government. Robust, thoughtful dialog began to frame the ideas that will be honed for submission in April to the Los Angeles Food Policy Task Force, appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa.

The meeting opened with framing comments from ROC President Michael Dimock, Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner, Paula Daniels, CDFA Deputy Secretary Robert Tse, and with a letter from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa . Roundtable Coordinator and 2008 ROC Fellow, Karen Schmidt, provided a Powerpoint briefing on food production, demand, challenges and opportunities within the region.

Attendee's are broken out into four workgroups:

We invite anyone to add their voice to these work group sessions by commenting on the specific group page. Your comments will be brought to the participants for review during the next meeting on February 25-26th. If you are located within the LA foodshed and are interested in joining the effort, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To learn more about Urban-Rural roundtable process, check out the results and recommendations given to Mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco in the Spring of 2009.

More photos from the event:
LA URRT

(L to R) Renee Guilbault of West Central Produce, Jan Berk of San Miguel Produce, Craig Underwood of Underwood Family Farms, George Work of Work Ranch, and Chris Sayer of Sayer Ranch

LA URRT

(L to R) Paula Daniels of the City of Los Angeles and Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly

LA URRT

(L to R) Don Nishiguchi of Whole Foods and Phil McGrath of McGrath Family Farms

LA URRT

(L to R) Heather Finney of Community Services Unlimited, Frieda Caplan of Frieda's Finest, Maricela Morales of CAUSE, Larry Yee of UC Cooperative Extension, and Jan Berk of San Miguel Produce

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Attendees Gregg Kettles of the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Robert Tse, California Deputy Secretary of Agriculture (see more photos below)

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