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Message From Michael Dimock – President of Roots of Change
Welcome to the ROC Leadership Network!

We are incredibly pleased that you are in the flow of information and opportunity that Roots of Change will provide to all Californians committed to creating a sustainable food system by 2030. It has taken a bit of time to get to the point of launching this on-line newsletter that will be delivered on a regular basis, but we have arrived, and we are glad you are there to receive the good news.

ROC has a huge task, one that we are prepared to undertake and honored to engage. We are knitting a network of change agents committed to collaborating around the common goal of creating  a sustainable food system for California by 2030. The network, composed of creative, intelligent and energetic people like you, is what will make this change happen. ROC and its public and private sector allies are working to link you all to tools and funds that will empower this important work.

Such a complex endeavor takes time to conceptualize, organize and implement. The ROC Community has worked hard in the last year to develop a 5-year (2007-2011) strategy for implementing the work proposed in the Vivid Picture Project ’s New Mainstream Report.  We call this 5-year plan The New Mainstream Campaign Strategy. The development of this document has been a collaborative effort by ROC’s 2007 Planning Fellows, Stewardship Council members, Business Workgroup, Workforce Workgroup , and the ROC Coordinating Team, with special attention from Nicole Mason and Ali Edwards. We are one year into our first five-year strategy. In the next four years we will develop systems, infrastructure and funding to ensure that you all can run the Campaign until 2030. A pattern of change in policy, production and consumption will begin to emerge if we are successful.   Read more about the Campaign Strategy below.  It will be made public, and posted on the ROC website by mid-February.

ROC did make progress in 2007.  We:
1)    Expanded our Stewardship Council to seventeen powerful leaders who vet our plans, approve investments, and oversee operations to ensure that ROC’s purpose and principles are in fact at the center of activity; and we set a goal to seat 21 members by 2009.
2)    Mapped and launched the ROC Leadership Network composed of grass root and grass top leaders. We did this by reaching out to eight California communities to invite their members to join us. Over seven hundred new leaders have so far accepted the invitation!
3)    Launched the Planning Fellows Program and provided 27 fellowships that supported deep participation of food system leaders in development of a shared strategy.
4)    Continued to fund the policy work and expand the California Roundtable on Ag and the Environment that meets regularly in Sacramento and the county-based sustainable food system roundtables. These county groups are part of an alliance managed by Ag Innovations Network that now includes Ventura, San Benito, Yolo, Santa Barbara and San Mateo Counties.
5)    Developed meaningful working relationships with important State institutions: California Department of Food and Agriculture and the State Board of Food and Agriculture; the UC Davis Ag Sustainability Institute; members of the California Legislature; and the Department of Pesticide Regulation.
6)    Began to engage large producer associations that are open to the idea of establishing sustainable production protocols modeled on the one developed by California’s wine industry.
7)    Set the stage for collaborations with elements of the food security community in San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, and San Diego.
8)    Identified at least two federal agencies (USDA’s Risk Management and Health and Human Services) that would like to help ROC succeed.
9)    Helped incubate Investors Circle’s “Slow Money” project with “patient” capitalists from Investors Circle, Blue Moon Foundation, and RSF Social Finance who share your desire for food companies that are truly sustainable. Slow Money now seeks to develop a fund that would include up to $20 million dollars for California companies seeking investment.
10)    Linked with two additional foundations that are interested in funding elements of the Campaign.
11)    Raised our first $20,000 in December for policy work from individual Californians who share the vision of a sustainable food system and were willing to write checks.
12)    Launched a workgroup that developed its first model policy for review and consideration by members of the legislature.
13)    Began to link the ROC and Slow Food networks so that we may combine Slow Food’s consumer and producer base - with its focus on food quality, biodiversity, and market development work - with ROC’s broad coalition focused on farming systems, social justice, food access, market development, policy and community consensus building. Dovetailing ROC’s actions with Slow Food’s action will serve to empower both networks. ROC hopes this is only the first of many network couplings over the coming years, and we invite you to initiate just such a link up between your network and ROC’s.

Thus, the stage is set for more progress in 2008.  In this and coming newsletters, we will alert you all to ROC convenings, fellowships, and grant making planned for the year. We hope this will move you to collaborate with others in the network and with ROC.

We are just beginning a new phase in a long journey to fulfill our common vision. It will be a tough slog, with peaks and valleys, progress and setbacks. Yet, I have full faith and confidence that together we will make the changes required. The deepest trends, grounded in biological reality, favor us; momentum is building.  We are grateful you are a part of the ROC Community.
 
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