Good food, local food, Slow Food, food books, celebrity chefs and multiple food TV channels: You’d think with all the attention food is getting these days, there wouldn’t be any social or economic issues surrounding what we eat and how we produce our food. But talk to a farmer or a dairyman trying to earn a living from the land, an agricultural laborer or food service worker trying to provide for their family, a single mom trying to get healthy food for her kids, a public health nutritionist working to reduce obesity rates, a public water agency trying to provide for both urban and agricultural water demand, a neighborhood association worried about pesticide drift or an FDA regulator concerned over food safety, and you’ll start to see that there are many issues of concern in what’s known as “the food system.”
The term “food system” is used frequently in discussions about nutrition, food, health, community economic development and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps, as well as the required human resources providing labor, research and education. As with any system, attempts to affect any one part in isolation are rarely (if ever) successful because of the complex array of interconnected factors influencing each other throughout the system. What’s required is a systems approach, and that’s where Ag Innovations Network (AIN) comes in.
AIN is a nonprofit organization based in Sebastopol that’s been operating since 1999. Simply put, its purpose is to bring people together to build a food system that works for all by engaging stakeholders from throughout the system at several levels. AIN creates, facilitates and supports balanced and diverse coalitions that work to build a new food system through both consensus-based policy change and innovative design. It brings cutting-edge process design and facilitation arts, along with a deep expertise in the food system and sustainability approaches from around the world, to serve its programs and clients.
AIN founded and facilitates the California Food System Alliance Network, a growing network of county-based alliances of food system stakeholders that meet regularly and work together to strengthen farming, improve access to healthy foods and improve infrastructure to support regional food distribution. Active in eight counties (including Sonoma), the stakeholders include individual citizens, farmers, environmentalists, local value-chain businesses, public and environmental health professionals, food access advocates and representatives from local government.
In Sonoma County, the Food System Alliance has drafted a comprehensive Food Action Plan, as directed by the Board of Supervisors. The plan is being vetted extensively with stakeholders and will come before the board for approval in August. The plan would guide and inform food purchasing and policies for county departments, and serve as a valuable template for local businesses, governments and other organizations to model in their own planning on food issues.
On the statewide level, AIN convenes the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment (CRAE) and the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS), which include stakeholders in agricultural, environmental, resource and regulatory organizations and agencies operating at the state level. These coalitions have taken action on key issues facing agriculture: food safety, invasive species, challenges to water supply and quality, regulatory burden and climate change. Two spinoff efforts include a new statewide initiative to implement solutions that improve regulatory coordination and lift the burden on producers while maintaining high environmental outcomes, and the California Agricultural Water Stewardship Resource Center, an online toolkit for growers and others to learn about on-farm practices and access financial and technical resources for improving water conservation and stewardship.
AIN also provides “backbone” organizational support, including facilitative leadership, staffing, and project and financial management for multiple sustainable agricultural initiatives. Two notable national projects are the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC), which is organizing national grower groups, multinational food companies and international environmental organizations to create a common set of metrics for quantifying stewardship and sustainability performance on farms and throughout value chains for fruit, vegetables and nuts; and the Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG), an effort to engage agricultural producers, scientists, methodology experts, carbon investors and project proponents focused on the development and adoption of methodologies and protocols for GHG emission reductions and carbon sequestration associated with agriculture.
Finally, AIN has a thriving consulting practice in designing, implementing and facilitating meetings, conferences, processes and sustainability initiatives for agriculture and food-related businesses, government agencies, organizations, associations and coalitions worldwide. Recently, it facilitated an 18-month process for the Marin Community Foundation, resulting in the Marin Ag Worker Housing program, a groundbreaking public-private partnership being run by the Marin Workforce Housing Trust to finance the expansion and improvement of agricultural worker housing on Marin County dairies and ranches. In 2010, AIN facilitated CDFA’s “Ag Vision 2030,” a statewide multi-stakeholder action plan for California agricultural sustainability.
AIN is governed by a statewide board of directors drawn from the leadership of various agricultural sectors in California. Its staff of 12 is led by President/CEO Joseph McIntyre and VP/COO Dan Schurman.
