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August 24, 2020
Sign and share the Climate Coalition Petition
The General Plan must do better in supporting farmers to grow more local food, help new young farmers of color get started, move farms toward regenerative agriculture, and increase food security.
Join us in asking the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to strengthen its commitment to localizing our food supply and making it more resilient to climate and economic impacts (in other words more regenerative). To make comment on this for the VC2040 General Plan, email to Susan Curtis <[email protected]> no later than Monday, August 31, 3:30 p.m..
PETITION: To support all 40 of the recommendations from the 350 Climate Coalition including these about pesticides, sign the Petition to the Supervisors: CLICK HERE
INSTRUCTIONS: To comment to the Supervisors during the September 1 hearing or ahead of time by email: CLICK HERE.
Here are some of our recommendations to make our food supply more secure:
- Recognition of “Ventura-County Grown” to localize the food supply.
- Purchase of increasing amounts of products from local farmers by County Food Service so farmers are set up to supply in a crisis.
- Growing food on unused County land to help new farmers get started.
- Support regenerative farming practices.
The pandemic has shown the fragility of the national food distribution system and opened opportunities for local small farmers to try successful variations on their business models. Farmavore, a CSA box business in Camarillo, for example has quadrupled their business.
People are realizing that since the majority of our food supply is brought in through national supply chains, for security, they must support local farmers.
Demand has created supply. And this should continue to expand. Our county feeds people at schools, hospitals, homes, and jails. If 40% of that food came from Ventura County farms, that would be good business for local small farms (we don’t grow much coffee, potatoes, or wheat in our county).
To increase purchasing, County Procurement should include quantitative benchmarks. The county agencies are key to developing a resilient local system to supply healthy, locally grown food. The food for the hospitals and jail will be fresher and will support local farmers to make sure we have food in a crisis.
The other part of the solution for food security is to support beginning small-scale farmers (especially BIPOC) to help supply local markets for greater food security. We recommend two new policies for the General Plan tp address land access:
- Increases land access on one to ten acre blocks of county land, for farmers that use regenerative practices that avoid tillage by using minimally disruptive tools, such as a broadfork, and that maximize crop diversity.
- Support regenerative farming as a land use in and near Existing Communities. Current zoning ordinances may even be a barrier to access to small farming opportunities for young, beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers who can make a livelihood creatively on a small piece of land serving local needs.
