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LEVER 2: PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Inject new values, incentives, and business models that will shift the food system to triple bottom line accounting in order to insure food production in perpetuity and to increase the supply of sustainable food available to all income levels.


Objective 2.A: Provide CA producers a way to differentiate products in the market based on sustainability values & practices.
Context:
Since the early- to mid-twentieth century there has been an emphasis on farmers to grow large quantities of only one to a handful of crops (typically commodity crops). The current system rewards “bigger is better” and “economies of scale.”  Today, California cannot compete in many commodities as the low-cost producer. Value to consumers must be derived from other product attributes such as ecological and social values. California’s producers need tools that allow them to add value to their crops by demonstrating those inherent in their production practices.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.A for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.B: Enhance (and develop new) partnerships and programs to protect strategic parcels of farmland, rangeland and associated conservation lands.
Context:
The state is facing a loss of more than one million acres of farmland over the next 25 years primarily due to population growth. While some acres may be urbanized for the sake of inevitable urban expansions and farmland owner profitability, a smart growth strategy that aligns urban and rural interests can preserve the state’s farmland and enhance food security.  The next five years are essential in creating the collaborations, awareness, and momentum necessary to plan for the preservation of CA’s farmland.

Click here to read about proposed places to starton 2.B  for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.C: Develop regional supply, purchasing and distribution infrastructure to build local/regional food systems.
Context:
Small- and mid-sized CA farms need to create direct market access to survive. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), private organizations, and non-profits across the state can help strengthen direct market opportunities for farmers, fishers and ranchers as well as direct sourcing opportunities for buyers choosing a regional purchasing strategy. Efficient infrastructure and local labor to support small-scale producers and buyers of all sizes is required to bring sustainable products to regional markets; this will strengthen community-based food systems.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.C for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.D: Build more support for sustainable food business and accelerate innovation of new business models.
Context:
Many examples of successful sustainable food business models exist within the current CA system.  These businesses can be used as examples for others to emulate.  Existing businesses can look to these businesses to improve their practices.  

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.D for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.E: Synchronize and coordinate a landscape-scale stewardship incentive program.
Context:
A landscape-scale stewardship incentive program will encourage growers and ranchers to adopt habitat conservation, and to improve production practices that impact water and air quality. This program will support California’s producers in implementing on-farm conservation efforts through creative and practical strategies that:
•    Enhance the viability and sustainability of California agriculture while simultaneously demonstrating compatibility with wildlife habitat, ecosystem services and natural resources/biodiversity conservation;
•    Contribute to the overall ecological health of California’s environment, including air quality, water quality, flood control, and/or biodiversity;
•    Rely on locally based collaborations that aim to integrate goals with agricultural practices and economic sustainability;
•    Address producers’ need for financial and technical assistance;
•    Include, where necessary and appropriate, administrative streamlining processes, such as Safe Harbor agreements that assure producers will not be penalized for conservation work, and permit streamlining processes that ensure funds will be implemented in a timely fashion;
•    Enhance local economies;
•    Reduce perverse incentives that decrease conservation value.
•    Leverage federal state and other conservation funds, such as USDA Farm Bill conservation program funds; and
•    Use science-supported monitoring capable of measuring synchronized state and regional impacts of landscape scale incentives programs.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.E for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.H: Accelerate conservation and enhancement of on-farm riparian, wetlands and wildlife habitat.
Context:
Permanently protecting a critical amount of agricultural lands will provide multiple benefits to CA water quality, wildlife habitats, and the viability of agriculture in general.  Growers should be offered multiple means to protect and restore farmland ecosystems including financial and other types of incentives for on-farm habitat management.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.H for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012 .

Objective 2.I:  Increase total number of regional food outlets that feature sustainable food products.
Context:
Retail food markets are consolidating at an unprecedented pace — the top three supermarket chains control 47 percent of the market in Northern California and 63 percent in Southern California.  Harnessing the opportunity inherent in the population growth trends, it will be possible in the next 10 years to aggressively launch new locally controlled retail and food service outlets, adding more locally owned and operated businesses to the mix. Retailers that purchase locally will be rewarded for growing a local economy of processors, manufacturers and producers. The same opportunities exist in food service — both private and government-managed institutions.

Click here to read about proposed places to starton 2.I for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.J: Adopt a sustainability certification system tied to market opportunities that entices purchasers and quells regulators.
Context:
New strategies are needed to reward producers who provide important environmental and social benefits. The swiftest way to make large-scale environmental and social change, and enhance the stability of agriculture in California, may be to introduce a premier certification system that creates market opportunities, sets a new standard for agriculture and relieves regulatory pressure.  A certification program of this kind creates a premium baseline standard.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.J for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.K: Support new and existing farm-to-school programs that increase the health, nutrition, and food system awareness of students in all of California's educational institutions.
Context:
Schools and Universities represent a purchasing power to shift markets toward sustainability while simultaneously educating students and consumers about the CA food system. A holistic, experiential, and participatory educational approach is needed in both K through 12 and Higher Education systems in California on the subject of the food system.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.K  for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.L:  Promote farming practices that increase the fertility of soil, improve water quality and support wildlife habitat.
Context:
California’s food systems will be sustained by the use of agricultural practices that support wildlife habitat, increase the fertility of the soil, and keep water clean. 

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.L  for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.

Objective 2.M. Develop and enhance on-farm practices that will remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Context:
The organic matter level in our soils have been in decline for over 200 years, the most rapid changes occurring in the last 75 years.  The carbon dioxide released by the breakdown of this soil organic matter became atmospheric carbon dioxide.  The volume of CO2 that has entered the atmosphere in this way is approximately equal to the CO2 from the exhaust of every car since the advent of the model T in 1908 to the present.  This carbon trend can shift with sustainable agricultural practices that greatly increase soil fertility levels at the same time.

Click here to read about proposed places to start on 2.M for 2008, and potential future actions for 2009-2012.
 
Placeholders – Production and Distribution
•    Stimulate market driven programs to promote biologically integrated farming systems.
•    Identify and protect all of CA's strategic fisheries.  Legally define sustainable yield fishing practices in state.
•    Increase adoption rate of existing farm & food production labor policies, and worker safety.  
•    Retain and/or develop supply, purchasing & distribution infrastructure to rebuild local/regional food systems.
•    State government agencies support new business models.
•    Develop best practices for reducing CO2 emissions for all parts of the food system.  
 
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