Central Valley Food Economy Summit (Video & Survey)

The Central Valley Food Economy Summit brought together food entrepreneurs, farmers, nonprofit leaders, economic development professionals, and public sector partners to explore how investments in food system infrastructure can strengthen the Central Valley’s economy. Hosted by F3 Local, the event focused on opportunities to expand shared kitchens, food hubs, processing facilities, cold storage, and other critical infrastructure that supports local food businesses and producers.

https://vimeo.com/1200612696

This video features insights from Yonatan Weinberg (F3 Local), Andrea Carbine (New Venture Advisors), Andrea Kelley (FoodLink Tulare), Jorge Zegarra (College of the Sequoias Training Resource Center), and Devon Jones (City of Visalia). Thank you to each of our interviewees for sharing their perspectives on building a stronger, more resilient local food system. The feedback and insights from this gathering will directly inform a food infrastructure feasibility study, now underway in the Central San Joaquin region.

To learn more about the F3 Local Food System Infrastructure Feasibility Study, visit: https://ucanr.edu/site/f3-local-farm-food-innovation/feasibility-study

We also encourage food businesses, farmers, processors, and community partners to participate in the Mapping California Food System Infrastructure survey. Food system infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures that

underpin food production, distribution and consumption – think: cold storage,

transportation, co-packing, commercial kitchen facilities and more. A lack of

infrastructure scaled to the needs of small and mid-scale farmers, ranchers and food

businesses has long been an obstacle to economic viability in the Central San Joaquin

Valley. Improved access to needed infrastructure stands not only to increase economic

opportunities for these business, but also increases access to healthy, locally grown

food within our communities.

To better understand the infrastructure needs of small farm and food businesses and

ultimately support them with improved market opportunities, F3 Local is collaborating

with Roots of Change on an effort to characterize and map supply chain infrastructure

needs as well as existing assets across the state.

F3 Local is seeking input from farmers, ranchers as well as other food system

businesses within the Central San Joaquin to improve our understanding of these needs

regionally. If this sounds like you, please help us by filling out this brief 8-10 minute survey about your farm or food business and the services you provide or those that you may need.

SURVEY IN ENGLISH

SURVEY IN SPANISH

F3 Local will utilize this feedback as part of a food infrastructure feasibility study to more

clearly identify gaps and explore solutions and the resources needed to address them.

For more information, please visit F3 Local’s feasibility study website or reach out to

Susan Ellsworth at sellsworth@ucanr.edu.