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Current Projects

ROC currently supports the following projects. In 2007, new campaign initiatives and strategies will be developed by the ROC Community, including the Leadership Network and the Planning Fellows, which will shape future funding priorities and guidelines. These will lead to the support of several new projects anticipated to be launched in 2007-08.

Current projects include:

 The New Mainstream Food and Farming System: A Vivid Picture of California's Food System in 2030
www.vividpicture.net
This research project, completed in November 2005, posits a picture of the sustainable food and farming system in the year 2030. Project components include:
1. The New Mainstream Food and Farming System in California: A comprehensive narrative vision for a sustainable food system for California that addresses multiple aspects of the system including:
  • Access to quality food for all people in California;
  • Economic vitality for regional producers, manufacturers, distributors and purveyors;
  • Personal health, well-being and community-building through food and nutrition;
  • Natural resources used well and fairly so that their usefulness can be maintained in perpetuity; and
  • Enhancement of regional and cultural identities throughout California.
2. A Change Agenda: A proposed change agenda that identifies policies, economic plans, and/or communications that could shift the entire system.
3. Seventy-six (76) Sustainability Indicators: A proposed and evolving set of indicators by which we can measure progress towards a sustainable food and farming system. The indicators are based on existing, credible data sets.


Building Momentum for Change: Cultivating County Ag Futures Alliances (AFA)
Project leader: Joseph McIntyre, Ag Innovations Network
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www.agfuturesalliance.net , www.aginnovations.net

This program is creating county leadership networks that connect and strengthen California-based organizations and individuals that have an interest in developing sustainable food systems. The networks have three primary goals:
  1. To enhance the capability of leaders and organizations;
  2. To increase the visibility and credibility of these leaders and organizations; and
  3. To strengthen the influence of these leaders and organizations through collaborative work to achieve policies that will support sustainable food systems.
Five counties have launched consensus-building roundtables focused on resource stewardship, land use policy, sustainable economic development, and farm workers' housing and health insurance. Additional county-level roundtables are planned.


California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment
Project leader: Jonathan Kaplan, Natural Resources Defense Council
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http://agfuturesalliance.net/CA-Roundtable

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has formed an unprecedented collaborative involving leading environmental, agricultural, labor and government organizations in California. The goal of the Roundtable is to promote agriculture that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible. Roundtable participants strive to learn from each other about agricultural, environmental, and regulatory issues, identify common interests, and advocate in support of the group's common goals and principles. Presently, the Roundtable is exploring the development of a certification system that will ensure that California maintains the world's highest standards of sustainability in agriculture.

Additionally, ROC supports the work of two other groups:


 The Roots of Change Workforce Workgroup
Project Leader: Martha Guzman, California Rural Legal Assistance
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For a list of Workforce Workgroup participants click here .

The Workforce Workgroup was established in early 2005 to explore issues related to the agricultural workforce in the state of California. The goals of the Workforce Workgroup are twofold:
  1. Increase the understanding of the current situation for food workers in California; and
  2. Build a vision for a sustainable workforce in California within the context of a sustainable food system.
More recently, the group has held a series of meetings across the state to engage farm workers and employers in articulating and prioritizing key levers for change in the workforce.


Roots of Change Business Leaders Council
Project Leader: Jim Cochran, Swanton Berry Farm
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For a list of current Business Leaders Council members click here .

In 2004, ROC convened sustainable food business leaders as an informal group to explore the role of business in creating and maintaining a sustainable food system, and to think through how businesses can operate in, and support, the transition to a New Mainstream food and farming system in California. The group has identified three primary objectives for moving niche businesses to the mainstream:
  1. Develop new best practices and business relationships (i.e., the development of new types of values-driven supply chains);
  2. Support and replicate existing, as well as build new, sustainable business models; and
  3. Develop new sources of capital that will help food and farming businesses maintain high ecological and social standards, and reorient existing sources of capital toward sustainable food enterprises. 

In addition, ROC is currently working to support and connect California's food system leaders in the follow ways:

1. ROC Planning Fellowships
Held annually, the ROC Planning Fellow Process brings together a cross-section of food system leaders to develop effective strategies to move the entire California food system towards sustainability. The Fellows have the ability to strengthen leadership skills and create new networks.

In the spring of 2007, ROC convened its first class of annual Planning Fellows to define and prioritize strategies that will launch a twenty-five year campaign to achieve a sustainable food system in California.  These sessions are now complete.  The priorities and strategies are now being honed and documented, and will be available here by late October 2007.  This work will be the foundation for upcoming 2008 RFP's.

Fellows are chosen through an open application process.  The 2007 PF Process was held May - June.  The next PF Process will be held in the fall of 2008. 

For more information about the Planning Fellowships click here.


2. The Roots Of Change Leadership Network
The Leadership Network is a learning community that supports connections, contributions and collaborations of food systems leaders from across the state.  Everyone in the California food system is welcome to join.

For more information about the Leadership Network click here.


3. The California Food Systems Network
ROC is currently developing a California Food Systems Network (CFSN)  that will help to connect food system leaders throughout the state.  The portal will provide on-line tools for California food system leaders to connect, collaborate, and co-create - all functions to help the system learn from itself and grow.   

To visit the CFSN click here .

4. A Primary Objective for 2008 :  A Sustainable Food, Fishery & Farm Policy
This is a critical moment for California. Policymakers are searching for solutions to critical challenges related to our future food supply. By creating a sustainable food system we could become the global leader in nurturing healthy communities, ecosystems, and local economies.

Based on input from stakeholders across the State, Roots of Change recommends that a good food, fishery and farm policy define:  

  1. Principles of sustainability to be pursued
  2. Goals to be achieved in the economic, environmental and social spheres
  3. Structure for a public-private partnership that would guide implementation.
California’s model food policy should include initiatives that:

  • Develop and operate local, regional and export marketing tools and promotion systems for California’s food products
  • Provide grants to universities, commodity boards, commissions and food system nonprofits to assist producers in transitioning to sustainable production and employment practices
  • Train and educate emerging and current food system workers, through higher education, to enhance career development
  • End the farmworker crisis by offering housing grants, health insurance, health screenings, immigration and employment counseling
  • Provide grants to purchase conservation easements for lands to become sources of sustainably produced food
  • Provide more money for healthier school meals and provide nutrition, gardening and cooking education in all public schools
  • Develop more distribution and retail systems, and enhanced cooking and nutrition education for low-income communities
  • Provide enhanced funding for exotic and invasive pest exclusion, inspection and enforcement
  • Provide grants to communities engaged in developing local food security through education, entrepreneurship, and consensus building.
Please note, this is a developing concept that will be informed and refined through further research and public dialog. We welcome your thoughts on this concept. Please direct comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
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