Welcome to the Ag Futures Alliance
The Ag Futures Alliance (AFA) is a county-based collaboration between farmers, ranchers, farm-workers, conservationists, and civic leaders who share a desire to build a vibrant, healthy, and durable food system.
The first Ag Futures Alliance was started in 2000 in Ventura County, California when leaders in the farming community decided to engage farming critics in process of sharing views, trust-building, and ultimately identification of common ground. In the years since the founding of the AFA movement, new alliances have been formed in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Yolo Counties.
Ag Innovations Network (AIN) is proud to be the sponsor and facilitator of the pioneering Ventura AFA and the AFA project. Our goal is to create a network of AFAs across the state of California that ultimately can link efforts to more effectively improve local, state and federal policies that impact agriculture, the food system, and the environment.
In 2006, we expanded the vision of the alliance to include more stakeholders in a healthy food system, including public health, food security advocates, chefs and school garden programs, and consumers. We call these roundtables Food System Alliances (FSA). The first FSA is operating in San Mateo County. Sonoma County launched its Food System Alliance in December 2009. We plan to launch a new alliance in the Central Valley this year.
If you are interested in bringing an Ag Futures Alliance to your county, please see our introductory presentation and our Starting a Food System Alliance Frequently Asked Questions.
Yolo Regional Food Forum
July 2010 The Yolo Ag Futures Alliance hosted a Regional Food Forum in July to assess the challenges and barriers to building a strong regional food infrastructure. More than 65 participants, comprising 40 farmers/ranchers and 25 ag support representatives from Yolo and Solano Counties, gathered to recommend specific actions towards enhancing the local economy and viability of regional agriculture. Attendees included the Yolo Ag Commissioner, Cooperative Extension, Economic Development, bankers, distributors, a farmer’s market manager and the Health Department. Recommendations targeted strategies for keeping regionally produced food in a regional supply chain, to regional consumers. For more information, please see the Yolo Ag Futures Alliance.
Roots of Change Network Summit, Oct. 6-8, 2010
For the past 10 years the Ag Futures and Food System Alliance project has been building a network of leaders connected by a shared desire to protect agriculture, the environment, and public health in California in perpetuity. The Roots of Change Network Summit, Policy in Service of Innovation, will be held in Los Angeles from Oct. 6-8, 2010. This summit will be the first ever effort to bring together the members of the Alliances, participants in the San Francisco and Los Angeles Urban-Rural Roundtables, ROC Fellows, and others who are working together for a better future for farmers and communities. The highlight of the event is the California Food and Farm Bill Convention where participants will have a chance to weigh in on and endorse a set of policies to support the changes we have all been working towards over the past years.
This is a packed couple of days and includes:
- The unveiling of the ROC Network Systems Dynamic Mapping Project, where we will get a chance to see a new model of how the California food system actually works and can be changed
- Game changer sessions where we will hear the latest from four cutting edge projects that point the future direction for modern food systems
- Breakout sessions on 6 topics ranging from “Competition and Cooperation: How do we increase farmer power in the marketplace” to “CA and Federal Farm Bills: How do we use state and federal policy to serve innovation?”
AND…For the first time ever, we will hold a one-hour “Meet your fellow Alliance members” session. This will be a great opportunity to finally meet other Alliance members from around the state.
Logistics and registration information is available on the ROC website.