Tag Archive for: Agriculture

Leaders Convene to Discuss the Future California Bioeconomy

Fundamental here is something about the way we work together as institutions and individuals – a collaborative spirit is needed to solve this problem that does not acknowledge siloed boundaries. –Joseph McIntyre, Ag Innovations Is waste wasted? Or is our thinking too limited? Everyday California farmers produce byproducts that must be disposed of in one […]

Cultivating California’s Bioeconomy: Turning Ag Waste Into Profit

Is waste wasted? Or is our thinking too limited? Everyday California farmers produce byproducts of the food we eat that must be disposed of one way or the other. But are we throwing away money? What if we could transform waste into profit and at the same time deliver substantial environmental benefits? There is an […]

Taking a More Holistic Approach to Food Hub Feasibility: Measuring the Impact of Value Chain Coordination

In this 3-part series, Ag Innovations is examining food hub feasibility in a non-traditional way. This series weaves together insights from a growing body of food systems research and past experience in food hub development. In our first post, Efficacy of Food Hubs, we agreed on the USDA’s current definition of a food hub, then called for […]

CRAE Summit: 4 Opportunities for Preserving and Enhancing California’s Working Lands

What needs to happen next to preserve and enhance working lands in California? This was the final question posed to leaders who participated in the 2015 CRAE Summit on the Future of Working Lands. The answers were as diverse as the state’s farms, ranches, and working forests, which have adapted to environments ranging from the deserts of […]

CRAE Summit: New Perspectives on How Working Lands Work

If there is to be a future for working lands in California, that future is the effective shepherding of our working lands to maximize economic value and the variety of ecosystem services upon which we all depend. – Joseph McIntyre, Ag Innovations President Last month, over 70 leaders from diverse sectors came together to co-create […]

California’s Drought: We’re All in This Together

As California endures its fourth straight year of severe drought, anxiety about our water supply intensifies. The members of the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment (CRAE) – a forum for dialogue among agricultural, environmental, and governmental leaders—ask our fellow Californians to adopt a fresh perspective. Media coverage about the current California drought has been extensive. Unfortunately, […]

Moving the Dial on Regulations

In the year and half since Ag Innovations’ last word on the topic of regulations, progress has been made toward the recommendations advanced in our two reports on the subject: Permitting Restoration (2010) and Regulating for Agricultural and Public Outcomes (2014). Last September, the Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Act was passed, simplifying the permitting process for small-scale, voluntary habitat […]

A Strategic, Connected, and Adaptive California Water Action Plan

In California’s multiple responses to the drought, there is one key initiative that remains relatively unknown: the California Water Action Plan (Plan).1,2 The Plan calls for coordinated action to address the dynamic and interconnected challenges faced by the state’s water system. Thus far, our ability to resolve these challenges has not kept pace with the increase […]

The Drought Blame Game

So, who really IS to blame for California’s drought? With media headlines demonizing the almond industry for their gallon-per-nut water usage and scolding urban populations for their lack of water conservation, there’s no clear-cut, single answer. The members of the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment (CRAE) recently met to untangle the myths surrounding our current […]