ROC's 2009 Successes
ROC continues to work hard behind the scenes and on the ground to
accomplish our goal of creating a sustainable food system in California
by the year 2030.
Highlights of our 2009 successes:
- Roots of Change attracted more than $3.5 million in direct
and indirect funding to support a broad set of network projects to
change the food system. Directly, we raised $1.8 million that flowed
through ROC, and the remaining $1.7 million flowed to network
partners. ROC is 61% of the way to the five-year goal of $11.4 million
in revenue for the ROC network, having attracted more than $6.9 million
into food system work in the first three years.
- California Department of Food and Agriculture
awarded ROC $500,000 to help increase access of fresh food at farmers'
markets around the state for those on government assistance. In
addition USDA Risk Management Agency awarded ROC $200,000 to empower
disadvantaged producers and under-served crops.
- In May, the San Francisco Urban-Rural Roundtable presented it's recommendations to Mayor Gavin Newsom, which resulted in an announcement in July by the mayor for the first regional foodshed policy in the country. (Los Angeles
has recently started their Urban-Rural Roundtable and is working to
develop a pathway to metropolitan foodshed planning in Southern
California.)
- In July, ROC and the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, held a Summit with 130 leaders from across the nation to accelerate the development of sustainable foodsheds that offer fresh, healthy, regional and sustainable food to all people regardless of income level or location.
- ROC
played an integral role in the California Department of Food and
Agriculture Ag Vision process, with over 20 network partners taking
part in the consensus building. Specifically, ROC helped write
potential policy papers for immigration reform and healthy food access.
- Through AgVision and the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment, both processes under the expert management of Ag Innovations
Network, ROC has begun to activate relationships with California
production agriculture leaders, which will become increasingly
important moving forward.
- The six county roundtables, run by partner organization Ag Innovations
Network, continue to successfully build bridges within the food system
networks in their communities. This years success' range from
addressing the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors with a set of
recommendations for an ag buffer ordinance, to submitting a well
recieved op-ed on light-brown apple moth prevention measures in Yolo
County, to working with the San Mateo Farm Bureau on the initial stages
of a food-processing cooperative.
- Over the Thanksgiving holiday we gathered 2,537 signatures from supporters around the nation to thank the USDA for the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative, and to urge their continued focus on locally grown food.
- Finally,
and perhaps most importantly over the long-term, ROC's network of
concerned citizens increased 320% to 31,000 people (with over 20,000
from California) and more are joining every month.
ROC's 2008 Successes
As we continue to progress, check out some highlights of our 2008 successes:
- As a culmination of the 2007 Fellows’ work, the Stewardship Council approved California’s Campaign for a New Mainstream in Food, Farming & Fisheries.
- As a result of ROC’s advocacy, the California Department of Food and Agriculture launched the “Ag Vision ” process to set a strategic plan for sustaining agriculture in the state by 2030.
- ROC agreed to help plan, organize and fund Slow Food Nation. At Slow Food Nation, which attracted 80,000 people, ROC convened the first Changemakers Day for 600 food system leaders, and launched FoodDeclaration.org, the nation’s first high-profile effort to reframe federal food and agriculture around the primary goal of health.
- ROC’s 2008 Fellows organized into four action teams and built collaborative projects in the areas of Labor, Regional Food Systems, Healthy Food Access, and Outreach to Conventional Agriculture.
- ROC launched the first Urban-Rural Roundtable to develop “foodshed” policies for the City of San Francisco.
- By year’s end, ROC’s network included over 6,000 active state-based members and over 17,000 people nationwide have endorsed the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture.
- ROC invested or helped attract over $2.5 million for food system work aligned with California’s Campaign plan in 2008.
ROC's 2007 Successes
ROC had many successes in 2007, success that will set the stage for more progress 2008. We:
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Expanded our Stewardship Council to seventeen very 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.
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Mapped and launched The ROC Leadership Network (now named the ROC Changemakers Network) composed of grassroots and grass top leaders. We did this by reaching out to eight California communities to invite their members to join and over five hundred new leaders have so far accepted the invitation!
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Launched the Planning Fellows Program and provided 27 fellowships that supported deep participation of food system leaders in development of ROC’s strategy.
- 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.
And, from 1999 - 2006, ROC achieved the following:
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;
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Economic vitality for regional producers, manufacturers, distributors and purveyors;
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Personal health, well-being and community-building through food and nutrition;
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Natural resources used well and fairly so that their usefulness can be maintained in perpetuity; and
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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 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.
Read the summary document: The New Mainstream
Building Momentum for Change: Cultivating County Ag Futures Alliances (AFA)
Project leader: Joseph McIntyre, Ag Innovations Network
www.agfuturesalliance.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:
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To enhance the capability of leaders and organizations;
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To increase the visibility and credibility of these leaders and organizations; and
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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.
Roots of Change Strategic Planning Fellowships
Annualy selected, the ROC Planning Fellows are group of CA food system leaders working together to develop strategies to create a sustainable food system for CA by 2030.
The 2007 class of ROC fellows was selected to reflect a level of diversity and experience representative of the current CA food system. The Planning Fellows engaged in a nine-day facilitated strategic thinking process. This year, 27 leaders from all over California were chosen to work together to define and prioritize strategies for a twenty-five year campaign to move the State’s food system to a sustainable model by 2030.
Read more about the Planning Fellowship Process.
California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment
Project leader: Jonathan Kaplan, Natural Resources Defense Council
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.
The Roots of Change Workforce Workgroup
Project Leader: Martha Guzman, California Rural Legal Assistance
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:
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Increase the understanding of the current situation for food workers in California; and
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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.
Read the 2007 Workforce Workgroup Report.
For a list of Workforce Workgroup participants click here.
Sustainable Food Business Advisory Board
Project Leader: Jim Cochran, Swanton Berry Farm
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:
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Develop new best practices and business relationships (i.e., the development of new types of values-driven supply chains);
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Support and replicate existing, as well as build new, sustainable business models; and
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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.
For a list of Sustainable Food Business Council members click here.
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