Sonoma County Food Forum Raises Questions About Economy, Sustainability

A cornucopia of ideas promoting localization of the county's food market were tossed around at the first-ever  Sonoma County Food Forum Thursday at the Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. The packed event, which featured speeches by several county supervisors and agribusiness leaders, sought to further the discussion in Sonoma County about sustainable farming practices, food miles, and the impact of our purchasing decisions on the economy and our health.

Perhaps the day's most poignant moment came during a question and answer segment between the audience and the afternoon panelists, when Rohnert Park Vice Mayor Jake Mackenzie directed a question to Oliver's proprietor Tom Scott about the survival of local grocery stores in an age when big box retailers like Wal Mart, Target and Costco are expanding their reach into the food market.

Mackenzie cited the recent closure of Pacific Market in Rohnert Park – one of the area's last remaining local grocery strongholds – which came less than a year after the Rohnert Park Target added a full grocery outlet to its department store. Pointing out that a large group of residents in north Rohnert Park are now well outside of walking distance to any food source, Mackenzie wondered what local markets could do to stay afloat.

“I think all of us are truly sad about [the closure of Pacific Market],” Scott said. “I think it's tragic. The Pacifics and the Olivers' of the world are reactionary. I think we do what we can to seize on whatever marginal opportunities we get … I don't want to make it sound dire, but this is a very risky business to be in."

“The situation is dire,” responded Mackenzie.

The forum, which ran from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and was attended by about 300 people, also featured a locally harvested lunch. Among the attendees were four county supervisors – Shirlee Zane, Mike McGuire, Efren Carrillo and David Rabbitt – who were there to collect ideas for potential policy proposals. Almost every other attendee had some professional affiliation with the local food market.

The event was put on by the The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, University of California Cooperative Extension,  Sonoma County Department of Health Services, and the  Sonoma County Food System Alliance.

Thursday's forum underscored the astonishing broadness and complexity of the food system, even on a purely local level. Figuring out ways to promote the local food market, bolster small-scale growers and wrest some control away from agribusinesses and giant food suppliers was more or less the underlying theme of every discussion, but the suggestions those problems gave rise to were manifold.

“It would help to have a definition of what 'local' means,” said panelist Tom Scott, General Manager of Oliver's Market, which has two locations; one in Santa Rosa and one in Cotati.

“When I market local goods, there's a bit of a problem when I define 'local' as Sonoma County and my competition defines it as the western hemisphere," Scott said.

One after another, speakers attempted to tackle the enigma of a county that grows some of the best produce in the world and is renown for its food and wine cultures, but is also a place where many farmers, distributors and sellers are struggling to stay in business.

Among the problems cited were a lack of cooperation among both farmers and distributors, the absence of a major local processor for meats and dairy products, insufficient promotion of locally grown food, unused land space and water shortages.

Several speakers cited the need for an intermediary that aggregates the harvests of local farmers, helping to drive down the prices of locally grown food through bulk sales and boosting competitiveness with national distributors. Other types of cooperation were also urged, including the sharing of local distribution facilities to reduce overhead.

“I'd like to see more of an open dialogue, and people working together to improve their product,” said cheese maker Sheana Davis, who owns the Epicurean Connection in Sonoma and was a panelist at Thursday's event. Davis said she has cut costs dramatically by sharing a production facility with other local food producers, and suggested the creation of a network to help other producers find a similar arrangement.

“If there's a commercial kitchen and you have a list of producers using it at different times on a schedule instead of renting it individually … it's a lot cheaper,” she said.

Other attendees touched on the need for local government to play a greater role in the food economy. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, Director of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, said the government could do more to promote the use of food stamps, which can benefit local grocers and are now accepted at most of the county's farmer's markets. Maddux-Gonzales said that, among Sonoma County residents who are eligible for food stamps, only 29 percent of them actually register for them.

“This is federal money that is left on the table that could be used to benefit local farmers,” she said.

Supervisor Mike McGuire said both municipal and county officials should explore policies that provide economic aid and incentives to local farmers. He said one example of that would involve the Williamson Act, a state law passed in 1965 that provides property tax relief to owners of farmlands who pledge not to use them as development sites.

“There are a lot of unused county lands that we could use to assist families that want to get into farming,” he said. “These are lands with conservation easements – they can't be used for developments like a large hotel or a house – but there's an incentive to use them as farmland.”

Correction: This article originally stated the Williamson Act was passed in 2010. In fact, the 2010 legislation was passed to set aside a new block of funds for the Williamson Act.