Yesterday I went to the Roots of Change program in San Francisco. This was one of a series being held around the state, and as there wasn't one here a number of us from Sonoma County drove into the City and then wrestled with the Friday afternoon traffic on the way home. Thank goodness it was not summer! Just a beautiful late winter day.
I thought from the preliminary notices, and from the use of the tool Attendr, that it was going to be a networking opportunity. No such luck. We got to network with the people at our table, and with those whose name tags we could read at the short break. Mostly it was a presentation on the Roots of Change project, Our Common Vision: A Bright Future for Healthy Communities, Farms, and Food in California.
The Roots of Change folks are looking for people for their stewardship council and leadership network. The work was begun by mostly rich, mostly male, all white folks from my part of the world, and it shows. They seem to want to make more room at the table, but I'm not sure they know how. Fortunately in the open question time (very awkward in a crowded room of more than 100 - for all the expertise in group work in the room the process really stunk) several people raised questions. What does it mean that white folks have developed the values list and now want others to buy in? There were claims that appreciative processes had been used - but it didn't seem like all the stakeholders in California's food system had been appreciated, just some.
Can Slow Food and People's Grocery really make common cause? In theory it looks like they could, but in practice there may be just too much of a cultural and economic gulf - and too much power and privilege among slow foodies which they are unwilling to question or give up.
Some of the same questions came up that were raised at last year's Sustainable Enterprise conference here. In particular, the conflict between those who are tinkering with the existing patterns of capitalism, and those who think we need some serious economic reform, if not a revolution, surfaced. I respect the will of RoC folks to, as one put it, connect social networks with financial networks - but if they don't both experience some serious change I think the project will be a flop.
If it's still all about shopping (oh no, not again) where's the transformative change?
Whatever happens, the RoC folk have lined up a number of foundations to help in their efforts, and they will be making grants, most likely in the areas of urban-rural partnerships; improving the skills and innovative efforts of workers and leaders; and strengthening community-based food systems. It may pay to be in touch with them.
What else did I learn?
A woman at our table is helping farm workers in the Watsonville area who have a vision of being more than farm workers, who have the vision to be farmers and entrepreneurs themselves.
http://www.albafarmers.org/Homepage.html
I picked up some information on the platform of the California Coalition for Food and Farming - what they would like to see in the 2007 Farm Bill, and how they are organizing Californians to support a national bill that will help us achieve our goals of security and sustainability here. I plan to stay in touch with this group. Nothing much will happen here without some enabling legislation at the national level. We provide about half of the nation's fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts, and more than half of the organic produce - but the majority of farm subsidies go to a few commodity crops grown on huge farms in middle America. (And it struck me as pitiful that this group has an annual budget of $40,000 - which the RoC folks could probably chip in and double if they were really interested in change. Change for change, anyone? We should have passed the hat right then and there. Instead the speaker was patronized for advocating her cause.)
Finally a scary prediction that I need to check out. Apparently the demand for ethanol is driving a policy that may encourage outsourcing it. That could have an incredible impact on the food security and food sovereignty of other nations. Imagine not using your land to grow food for your people because you are growing fodder for U.S. trucks and autos!
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