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News from the Ag Futures and Food System Alliances
March 18, 2008
The Ag Futures and Food System Alliance are regional “roundtables” made up of food producers, consumers, local leaders, health care advocates, and environmentalists to build bridges between often polarized parts of our community, with the shared purpose of creating a food system that reflects our best hopes and desires for the future. Today there are five roundtables working across California.  Each receives support from Roots of Change and from local community members and groups.  Here is a quick rundown on each:

The Ventura County Ag Futures Alliance (AFA) has been in operation since 2000 and has spawned California’s largest grassroots effort to build farm worker housing, brought hundreds of citizens together to advance stewardship efforts in their county, and published six citizen white papers on topics ranging from pesticide use to providing health care for farm workers.  Each of the white papers has been backed by concrete local actions.


The Yolo County AFA  has since 2004 focused largely on issues of land use and planning in the County. Their work on ag land mitigation policy and advocacy for farm land preservation in the county General Plan has made them a key resource for County planners. The group is now leading the charge to strengthen the California Right to Farm laws and to bring new processing capacity to the County.

The San Benito County Food System Alliance (FSA) is tackling how to get local food in the hands of local consumers. In a small county such as San Benito this becomes a problem of creating alternative distribution systems and new connections between local growers and restaurants, schools, and institutions.

The San Mateo County FSA has launched three projects in its first year! These included an effort to get all the mayors in the County to sign on to the US Council of Mayors call for Farm Bill reform, a new “Business Savvy” farmer program designed to give small- and medium-sized farmers marketing and computer support to take advantage of value-added opportunities, and creation of a comprehensive “food shed” inventory of the programs and needs in the county related to healthy, sustainable food.

The Santa Barbara County AFA is the newest AFA and is deep into the sensitive process of developing trust and common ground between ag and the environmental community in this historically fractious County.

All of these efforts have some common themes and beliefs:
•    One of the key strategies for building a better food system is creating strong grassroots organizations of leaders who can speak to the common good around food and agriculture.
•    That it is possible for local communities to make real changes, even in a global food system.
•    That as we build more AFAs and FSAs, they become a powerful network capable of making change far beyond their local borders.

Our goal is to create more of these roundtables where people can come together, build consensus, solve local problems, and help create a positive future for themselves and future generations. If you are interested in learning more about the AFA/FSA program and how you might start one in your community or county, please contact Joseph McIntyre at Ag Innovations Network at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Joseph McIntyre is the executive director of Ag Innovations Network and leads the Ag Futures and Food Systems Alliance project from his homebase in Sebastopol, California.
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