Agenda 12-14-21; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 1 to the market. He gave an example of an egg producer, which Weaver Street Market pays 2 140% of market rate. He said it is important for the market to build relationships to help farmers 3 get the resources they need to be successful. 4 Commissioner McKee said that type of relationship with stores is important to farmers. 5 He said it is important to connect the producer to the buyer. 6 Chair Price said she thinks Ashley Heger and James Watts are doing this. 7 James Watts said the key to this is building vibrancy and capacity for a farmer to build 8 institutional sales components to their farming. He said he wants to see a more diverse 9 economy available to a wider and more diverse group of farmers. He said mistakes will be 10 made, but they keep at it. 11 Commissioner McKee said the same is true for farmers. 12 Commissioner Richards said she did not hear specifics on whose job it is to address the 13 reimagining of the system. She asked if anyone is doing that work. She said she was 14 expecting to hear that connected to the economic development area. 15 Mike Ortosky said a number of people are focused on these issues. He said the 16 struggle is the cost of food being too high and wanting to pay farmers more. He said farm fresh 17 food is very expensive, and the system incentivizes buying from large grocery stores. He said 18 former Commissioner Jacobs led an effort to bring Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) 19 certification to Orange County. He said the idea was that anyone selling to an institution 20 (schools, etc.) had to be GAP certified. He said he thought there would be a lot of demand, but 21 there are almost no GAP certified farmers in Orange County. He said direct sales farmers do 22 not to be GAP certified to sell at local farmers markets or to larger producers. He said many 23 years ago, farmers could make a living on farms about 50-100 acres, but that is not true 24 anymore. He said it is easier to sell at Weaver Street Market than it is at the school system. He 25 said there is not a lot of farming in the middle. He said making a living in farming is very difficult, 26 and this comes partly from an adjustment of cultural values. He said he hopes this can change 27 through the building of regional infrastructure and development of relationships with local 28 institutions to become buyers of the food. 29 Commissioner Richards said she wanted to know if there is a plan is to address the 30 problems and who is working on that. 31 Ashley Heger said part of reimagining is having those with lived expertise to make these 32 plans. She said the Council is collecting data and hopes to share this information in the spring. 33 She said she could provide more information that other food groups in the state have prepared 34 on the needs and the costs of addressing needs. 35 Mike Ortosky said that it is his job, it is Ashley Heger's job, and economic development's 36 job to create the plan. He said it might be time to create a regional community and economic 37 development plan, primarily crafted by people who actually do the work everyday. He said very 38 specific action items are needed. 39 Commissioner Hamilton thanked the group for giving an overview of the complexity of 40 the problem. She said the board has to prioritize the use of limited resources. She said she will 41 prioritize based on values, the provision of services to the most vulnerable and economic 42 development. She said she wants to meet the needs of the most hungry, and know the statistics 43 and barriers involved. She sad she wants to build resiliency in the food system, and the 44 pandemic has highlighted issues here. She said she wants to address systemic racism, and the 45 lack of black farmers in the community. She said she wants to consider how to build 46 relationships, and support existing farmers. She said there is also the question of the role of the 47 food system in economic development at large. She said these are all different areas that 48 require data for intervention and to track success and failures. She said the data needs to be 49 specific, and she hopes to get closer to this in the next presentation. 50 Mike Ortosky said the discussion tonight was to frame the topic, and he would like to 51 come back with more information and data and a larger plan.