The state of food and ag: stakeholders gather to problem-solve

At the inaugural Sonoma County Food Forum, more than 300 eaters,
farmers, grocers, processors, and non-profit representatives came
up with an idyllic vision for the future of food and agriculture in
Sonoma County.
The big question is how to get from here to there.
“Costs are rising for us, while the price we can ask is staying
the same,” said panelist Keith Abeles of Quetzal Farm.
“We don’t get to set what the retail prices are,” said Tom Scott
of Oliver’s Market.
Farmers and grocers both noted that they operate on razor-thin
profit margins, leaving little room for error at a time when
customers are pinching pennies and governments are cinching up
budgets.
State funding for the Williamson Act—a 46-year-old statute
offering farmers a property tax break in exchange for keeping land
in agriculture and waiving development rights for a set period of
time—is on the chopping block. Much of Sonoma County’s dairy, eggs,
produce, and processed goods are currently shipped out of the
county.
“Seventy percent of our product goes out of county,” said
cheesemaker Sheana Davis.
Land prices remain prohibitively high for young farmers starting
out, and available parcel sizes are often too small to make
ranching or farming financially viable. Even the climate can
conspire against local farmers: west county’s comparatively cool
summers means that farmers can have a hard time competing in
regional Bay Area markets.
“We have the most water, the most cold, and we’re the last to
market with product,” said Abeles, who specializes in dry farmed
tomatoes and peppers.
On the consumer side, low-income neighborhoods suffer from a
shortage of fresh produce and a surplus of fast food restaurants.
Twenty eight percent of Sonoma County adults are obese; healthy
calories are more expensive than unhealthy calories, pushing them
even further out of reach for low-income residents.
Yet the self-selected group attending the Food Forum was
confident that the future needed to include financially sustainable
diversified agriculture, as well as affordable food.
“This is about social and economic justice,” said Fifth District
Supervisor Efren Carrillo.
Food, speakers noted, is not just simple sustenance. On the
consumer side, food translates into community and health.
“Food is the foundation for health care,” Third District
Supervisor Shirlee Zane said. “Food is so much more than fuel. Food
is love… Food means everything to us as human beings.”
On the producer side, food can mean preserving environmental
quality and heritage.
“The number one benefit (of agriculture) is open space … farming
is the savior for endangered species,” said dairyman Doug
Beretta.
Working in small groups, forum attendees came up with a number
of ideas to present to the board of supervisors to help Sonoma
County achieve a sustainable, equitable, vibrant agricultural
future.
Chief among them was the effective marketing and promotion of
Sonoma County products. Farmers suggested customer education, for
example a “no perfect apple” campaign to remind eaters that produce
doesn’t need to look perfect to be delicious.
More tangibly, attendees hoped for key pieces of agricultural
infrastructure: an aggregation hub that would help small farmers
process and distribute their product, as well as a multi-species
meat processing facility that might even be mobile in order to
cater to small farms.
Participants were adamant about the continuation of the
Williamson Act, and the need to simultaneously support farmers
while providing fresh local food for low-income residents. Farmers
and eaters alike desired closer connections between local farms and
schools, and expressed the need for regulatory flexibility when it
comes to schools growing and cooking their own food.
While these big goals were met with nodding heads and smiles of
agreement, some attendees took the next step of trying to figure
out how to accomplish them: the hiring of an agricultural
coordinator as a county position, for instance. Others suggested a
quarter cent sales tax, like the tax that funds Sonoma County
Agricultural Preservation and Open Space (SCAPOS), specifically to
support agriculture. Alternatively, SCAPOS could divert more funds
towards the preservation of agriculture.
The supervisors in attendance were not permitted to comment on
policy at the meeting, but were enthused and energized by the
forum.
“Sonoma County has been blazing the trail for many years when it
comes to promoting local agriculture and healthy eating habits
through iGROW, Ag and Open Space District initiatives and the
recently launched County Lands Program which will open up public
lands to family farmers,” said Fourth District Supervisor Mike
McGuire after the meeting. “That said, there is much more work
still to be done. We need to focus on partnerships that provide
outlets for North County farmers to sell and process their
products, work collaboratively with the agriculture community on
permitting issues, study a potential local program to backfill the
Williamson Act, and if and when the State cuts the funding, we need
to develop a focused initiative to promote Sonoma County’s bounty
here at home and throughout our region.”
While this was the first Sonoma County Food Forum, organizers
noted it would not be the last. Farmers and eaters left the forum
dreaming of what might be.
Paul Kolling, apple farmer, sharecropper, and owner of Nana
Mae’s Organics, was dreaming of a physical location—possibly the
fairgrounds—that would aggregate, process, and sell local products.
Maybe it would even have live music. As he put it, “The
possibilities are endless.”
Lynda Hopkins can be reached at [email protected].