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, chef’s and school garden programs, and consumers. We call these roundtables Food System Alliances (FSA). The first FSA is operating in San Mateo County.
If you are interested in bringing an Ag Futures Alliance to your County, please see our introductory presentation and our Starting an AFA Frequently Asked Questions.
If you are interested in or have become a new member of an AFA, please see our New AFA Member Frequently Asked Questions.
Ventura Ag Futures Alliance Tackles Thorny Fumigant Issue
October 2008: For the past 10 months, the members of the Ventura Ag Futures Alliance (AFA), an ad-hoc group of producers, labor representatives, environmentalists, and community leaders, have been discussing one of the most divisive issues in agriculture, the use of pesticides. Specifically the use of fumigants, such as methyl bromide, metam sodium, and chlorpicrin which are critical to commercial strawberry production (and many other crops) in Ventura County.
The issue is a sensitive one from all sides. Strawberry production in Ventura county was worth $366 million in 2007, easily making it the highest farm gate product in the County. Yet the use of fumigants are under increasing restrictions. Methyl Bromide was banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol as an ozone depletor, though its use continues under federal rules. More recently, other fumigants used by agriculture have come under restriction by the Air Resources Control Board as contributors to smog. Ventura is in a "non-attainment" zone for air quality and the Board in conjunction with the Department of Pesticide Regulation have put strict limits on the use of these chemicals. Anti-pesticide advocates have long targeted fumigants as one of the most toxic of the chemicals workers and communities are exposed to.
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Yolo AFA Celebrates Legislative Victory
When the Yolo AFA set out to better protect ag land in the County, it did not expect to become the main proponent for a change in State Law, but that is exactly what happened this year. After hearing increasing reports of conflicts between rural residences and production farming, the group saw an opportunity to avoid conflicts by giving new home buyers clearer information about the life near farms. The group got together with local State Representative Lois Wolk and crafted AB 2881, which strengthens California’s Right to Farm laws by assuring that all buyers of property in ag areas understand the nature of having a working farm as neighbor. The bill passed 34-2 in the State Senate and 54-0 in the Assembly and on September 30, 2008 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law. You can read the press release from Lois Wolk which cites the work of the Alliance as well as press coverage from the Davis Enterprise.