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Farm to Fork: Delivering Another Piece of a Sustainable Local Food System |
June 23, 2008
By Leah Smith, Marin Farmers Market Association
Marin County is home to a progressive community of farmers, educators, and advocates who are currently collaborating in the creation of a regional food system. Working together to keep local and sustainable family farmers in business, we re-create the way the public relates to the food they eat. Through this hard work, Marin County is now the home of its own organic certification program called Marin Organic Certified Agriculture (MOCA). In 2007, Marin County approved a new countywide plan that acknowledges not only the importance of agriculture but also the value of local food systems for social, health and ecological reasons. Marin County’s UC Cooperative Extension office has a committed Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Advisor who trains farmers in how to diversify their businesses and grow food using sustainable practices. These are just a few of Marin’s innovative programs that are shifting our food system towards sustainability.
The Roots of Change Campaign Strategy articulates three levers: Leadership, Production and Distribution Systems, and Public Perception, along with several corresponding objectives, all as a strategy to transform California’s food system. In Marin County we are currently working on all three of these fronts in our collaborative, dynamic countywide effort. One innovative piece of Marin’s work toward a sustainable food system is a new distribution program called Farm to Fork - a local food-based delivery system offering healthy, seasonal, local food to Marin’s institutions. This system, in turn, offers new economic opportunities for regional farmers.
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Report from CDFA Listening Session – May 29th, Sacramento |
June 23, 2008
Jenny Lester Moffitt, Dixon Ridge Farms, 2007 ROC Planning Fellow
The State Board of Food and Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture have launched an effort to develop strategic agricultural vision for California. As stated in their web site, “this vision will be used to guide public policy and investment priorities at the state and national level for the next 20 years. It will be a vision that affects everyone who produces, ships, processes, markets, eats, drinks or wears California agricultural products. The California Agricultural Vision will consist of strategic goals that the agricultural industry wants to achieve by the year 2030.”
In a commendable effort to gather as much public input as possible, the CDFA has launched a series of listening sessions around the state and are seeking input from farmers, ranchers and processors as well as hunger, nutrition, conservation and rural development groups. Along with 50 plus individuals, organizations, farmers and food system leaders, I took advantage of a unique opportunity in Sacramento on May 29th to share with the Secretary of Agriculture and the State Board of Food & Agriculture my vision for agriculture in California by 2030.
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A Development Kitchen in Hollywood |
June 23, 2008
By Evan Kleiman, ROC Stewardship Council member, Owner/Chef of Angeli Caffé, Board Member of The Hollywood Farmers Market, and Host of Good Food on KCRW 89.9 fm and kcrw.com
Say the word Hollywood and all kinds of red carpet images come to mind. From paparazzi images of Hollywood highlife, to the nuts and bolts of shooting television and film entertainment, most Americans think that the streets of Hollywood are full of glitter and glitz. But for many of us, the day-to-day reality is quite different. In addition to the glitterati actors and actresses, Hollywood is also home to many low-income residents who find it very hard to make ends meet. So it’s no surprise that The Hollywood Farmers Market, which appears like magic each Sunday morning at Selma and Ivar, is such an important and vibrant part of the community. About one third of revenues generated each Sunday at the market come from shoppers using food stamp/EBT cards and Women and Infant Children (WIC) and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons.
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Oakland’s Food Renaissance |
June 19, 2008
By Brahm Ahmadi, ED of People’s Grocery and ROC Fellow 2007
While efforts to create jobs in green industries have dominated the spotlight of Oakland’s current renaissance, Oakland is also abuzz with an energetic movement to bring about a sustainable food system in the East Bay region that provides access to fresh, healthy foods for Oakland’s low-income communities of color. Oakland is home to numerous organizations that have emerged in recent years to improve Oakland’s “inner city food environments”. These organizations include People’s Grocery, Mo Better Foods, City Slicker Farms, and the Oakland Food Connection; they are hip, innovative, and grassroots. Together, these organizations- and othersm - are shifting the understanding of how social entrepreneurship and Oakland’s changing demographics combined with a rising awareness of a national obesity epidemic, can provide momentum for new solutions to the health AND economic needs of low-income residents. New opportunities are emerging that use social entrepreneurship to address Oakland’s need for fresh, healthy foods AND that simultaneously creates local jobs and spur economic development.
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Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Los Angeles |
June 19, 2008
By Mable Everette, DrPH, RD, ROC Fellow 2007
Public education efforts related to sustainable food and agricultural systems often appear disjointed or even non-existent, especially for the urban dwellers like those living in my town, Los Angeles. As a food and nutrition educator working in the public sector, I have the opportunity to help inform individual clients, consumers, and the community at large. My organization, Community Nutrition Education Services, Inc. (CNESINC) has undertaken the challenge to concentrate efforts on creating a broad public understanding of the interrelated roles of personal health, public health, and environmental conservation in the growth and evolution of a more diversified, healthier, and environmentally sustainable food system.
The problem in promoting sustainable food systems with many of California’s urban dwellers is the basic lack of knowledge of the very concept of agriculture. The task that we now see ahead for CNESINC is deciding how to best relay the concept of sustainable agriculture and its importance to urban consumers. The implementation of our approach has begun with clients, the consumers served by other partner community based organizations, and professional peers.
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