For Immediate Release: November 25, 2014
Contact: Paul Towers, PAN/Sacramento Urban Ag Coalition, 916-216-1082, ptowers@panna.org
Sacramento Chefs Call for New Urban Ag Law
Sacramento, CA – In advance of Thanksgiving, over three-dozen chefs and food luminaries are calling on area political leaders to advance new laws that would spur greater urban farming. Citing increased interest and political commitment to local food, the chefs delivered a letter urging Sacramento City and County officials to take the next step and pass laws that promote new economic and cultural opportunities.
"The Sacramento Region is leading the way towards building a better food system, connecting with and encouraging new farmers and forms of agriculture. We need to adopt new policies that keep us at the edge of innovative ways to use land that serve our communities, and to empower and enrich those who live in the City and County of Sacramento," said Michael Tuohy, executive chef at ESC Sacramento, and a letter co-author.
“Growing Sacramento into ‘America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital’ should be about more than our city’s relationship to California’s agriculture industry and our commitment to facilitating global agricultural research. We should be looking for ways that a big city can become a model for integrating healthier lifestyles and food systems that move to more sustainable directions. Urban agriculture could be the beginning of a great conversation for Sacramento,” said Ed Roehr, chef at Magpie, and also a co-author of the letter.
“Because of our place on the globe, and because of the culture here in California’s capital, we may have an opportunity to have Sacramento become a national leader in how cities eat, feed themselves and think about food. This an opportunity Sacramento should pursue,“ Roehr added.
Specifically, the 39 chefs are calling on City and County political leaders to support and advance the bill proposed by the Sacramento Urban Agriculture Coalition that would encourage sustainable, fair and healthy urban agriculture. They support provisions that would update zoning and sales requirements that would encourage more small-scale farmers, promote green farming practices and challenge practices inconsistent with Sacramento’s vision as a farm-to-fork leader.
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The Sacramento Urban Agriculture Coalition includes the Alchemist Community Development Corporation, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Pesticide Action Network, Sacramentans for Sustainable Community Agriculture, Slow Food Sacramento, Soil Born Farms, Ubuntu Green and Yisrael Family Farm.
