About Us

ABOUT AG INNOVATIONS

Ag Innovations is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Sonoma County, California that cultivates the collaboration needed to solve California’s environmental, agricultural, and natural resource challenges. We are trusted facilitators, process designers, and project managers. Our extensive knowledge and deep networks in ag, food, water, fire and forests, and rural communities enable us to identify the right problems to tackle and the right people to engage.

Our Mission

The mission of Ag Innovations is to facilitate collaboration among diverse groups to develop holistic solutions to California’s most complex agricultural, natural resource, and environmental challenges.

Vision

At Ag Innovations, we envision a future where California’s people and places are healthy and resilient in the face of a rapidly changing climate. Communities are creative and effective in how they steward the natural and agricultural systems that we all depend on, and work together across rural and urban divides.

We strive for a future where people come to the table to work together and find common ground, whether it’s in the barn or in the conference room. Diverse voices are sought out, and while they may not agree on everything, people leave conversations energized and ready to lead collaboration towards new solutions for a long and thriving future.

Values

We are dedicated to:

Creating long-lasting, effective change by helping our groups think systemically.
Seeking multi-benefit, generative solutions that support communities, farms, ranches, forests and natural lands in order to improve our ability to adapt to changing conditions in the future.
Designing and facilitating our processes to be welcoming, inclusive, and diverse, to see clearly the historic patterns and relationships that keep things the way they are, and to lift up and care for all voices and all needs.
Striving to courageously and skillfully address issues of power, race, and inequity with our groups and in our organization.

Our Work

We are dedicated to unlocking the desire for change and the creativity that is possible whenever we bring diverse leaders together to create a better future.

CONVENING
As experts and thought leaders in the application of a systems approach to ag and natural resources opportunities and challenges, we persistently scan the landscape for other leaders and organizations to co-sense the future system that is waiting and wanting to emerge. We utilize our extensive network to bring the right people to the roundtables, coalitions, and social innovation labs that are co-creating new solutions.
FACILITATION AND DESIGN
We design and facilitate effective processes to tap the collective wisdom of these groups and efforts. We synthesize and curate the new paradigms and knowledge emerging from these processes to create new ways of thinking and acting in the system.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
We provide “backbone” project management, communications, and fiscal management services to enable these efforts to be effective containers for innovation and change.
REPORTS AND SYSTEMS MAPS
We create vehicles for communicating their results and injecting their new knowledge into the system. We foster and develop the leadership capacities of the members of these collaborative efforts.

We are dedicated to co-creating systems that realize society’s highest hopes for the future: A water system that stewards natural resources and enhances ecosystem services from working lands. A system of forest health and resiliency that creates economic prosperity and opportunity for foresters, workers and communities. An agricultural system that promotes individual well-being, public health, and community vibrancy. A food system that serves the needs of farmers and workers, families and communities, and public agencies and business.

Our work is time-tested, as demonstrated by the decade-long contributions of projects like the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment (CRAE). CRAE is synonymous with thoughtful leadership on divisive issues arising between agriculture and environmental perspectives. Since our founding in 1999, we have been active in growing local leadership and capacity through our regional food system alliances, which now extend across California and into Arizona. The California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS) has literally been rewriting the paradigm of how to manage water in California since 2006. Its work is widely cited by water managers and leaders around the state and continues to push the envelope on innovative solutions to one of our state’s greatest challenges.

Because of our deep expertise in food, ag and natural resources systems and collaborations, organizations around the country seek to partner with us on their projects. We bring our research, process design, and facilitation skills to clients as diverse as the James Beard Foundation and Second Harvest Food Bank, to help them arrive at the best possible outcomes through collaborative, impact-provoking efforts.

Join Our Team

ABOUT AG INNOVATIONS

Our Mission

Vision

Values

Our Work

CONVENING

FACILITATION AND DESIGN

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

REPORTS AND SYSTEMS MAPS

Current Work

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