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 […]
After five years of deep dialogue, research, and case analysis on key water issues, the California Roundtable on Water & Food Supply (CRWFS) took on a new challenge this past year: assessing a gubernatorial initiative. What happens when you bring the CRWFS Connectivity Approach to bear on one of the state’s most holistic efforts at water management to date? […]
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 […]
Every community must answer the question, “how will we feed ourselves?” The way we answer this defines and describes us. Four years ago, the Sonoma County Healthy & Sustainable Food Action Plan (FAP) was issued as a call to action to answer this and many other food and farming related questions. The Plan was the […]
“The Healthy & Sustainable Food Action Plan can lead us to our final destination – a society where each of us has a place at a bountiful table, where we protect the natural world, and where true prosperity is created by those who grow and prepare our food.” – Joseph McIntyre, Ag Innovations It’s been […]
I have been working as an organizational development and facilitation consultant on climate adaptation in Sonoma County since 2009, when the Laguna Foundation selected climate adaptation as its main focus at their annual conference. From that conference was born the North Bay Climate Adaptation Initiative (NBCAI), a coalition of natural resource managers, policymakers, and scientists working […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
I recently had the pleasure of facilitating one of my favorite kinds of meetings – a kick-off for a new collective action project. The topic was habitat conservation for monarch butterflies and pollinators in the state of Missouri and the mission was to bring key players together to co-create a first-ever collaborative statewide conservation strategy. These […]
