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ROC History

In 1999, a group of foundations came together to explore the challenges facing the modern industrialized food system. They sought to maximize the impact of their philanthropy in pursuit of healthier food and farms. They issued a 2000 report, Roots of Change, that catalogued the challenges, as well as the emergent responses to these challenges. In 2002, the foundations recruited an advisory group, the Roots of Change Council, to define the environmental, social, and economic problems related to food and agriculture in California and to take action that would simultaneously address them.

The Council made three initial grants in 2004. The first grant was for the Vivid Picture Project, which rendered The New Mainstream: A Sustainable Food Agenda for California. This document, issued in December 2005, described a vision for the food system in 2030. It offered 1,000 pages of supporting research, and identified 11 values, 22 goals, 3 initiatives, and 75 indicators that would move the state toward the vision. These identified parameters are the DNA of Roots of Change. Two other grants launched the coalescing of a network of Californians who could create the new Mainstream. In 2006, the Council hired its first executive tasked to redesign Roots of Change as a service entity in support of the network seeking healthy food and agriculture.

Historical Timeline of Roots of Change

·      1999: Funders Agricultural Working Group (FAWG) is formed to review impacts of grantmaking on development of sustainable agriculture and food systems.

·      2001: FAWG issues a report: Roots of Change: Agriculture, Ecology and Health in California. It clarifies the challenges and suggests a set of directions to be pursued that involve strategic grantmaking that will unleash cumulative impacts.

·      2002: FAWG morphs into the collaborative Roots of Change Fund. ROC Fund contributors form a Stewardship Council of food system leaders to advise them.

·      2003: The Council defines for the Fund two priorities for action: 1) there is a need for a “vivid picture” of a sustainable food system and 2) there must be network of leaders empowered to achieve the vision.

·      2004: ROC makes its first three grants in line with the above priorities. Ecotrust begins the Vivid Picture Project to define a sustainable food system based on interviews with over 150 leaders from the food system, and creates a series of scenario-planning exercises. At the same time, ROC funds Ag Innovations Network to begin aggregating leadership using consensus-building roundtables, which have become the CRAE and the AFAs/FSAs.

·      2005: Ecotrust issues its final report in December, The New Mainstream: A Sustainable Food Agenda for California.

·      2006: The Council mounts a campaign to promote the New Mainstream agenda and begins to expand ROC’s capacity for action.

·      2007: ROC initiates its Fellowship program to hone an implementation strategy and to firmly embed that strategy within the fabric of California’s “food system movement.”

·      2008: As a culmination of the 2007 Fellow’s work, the Stewardship Council approves California’s Campaign for a New Mainstream in Food, Farming & Fisheries. As a result of ROC’s advocacy, CDFA launches the “Ag Vision” process to set a strategic plan for sustaining agriculture in the state by 2030. At Slow Food Nation, which attracts 80,000 people, ROC convenes the first Changemakers Day for 600 food system leaders, and launches FoodDeclaration.org. ROC launches the first Urban-Rural Roundtable to develop “foodshed” policies for the City of San Francisco. ROC is invited to brief the Obama USDA transition team and to prepare a memo outlining its policy suggestions. By year’s end, ROC’s network includes 6000+ active state-based members and 17,000+ people nationwide endorse FoodDeclaration.org.

·      2009 ROC receives $750,000 in government grants for implementation of projects related to food access, sustainable foodshed policy development and small farm viability. ROC launches first on-line letter campaign that generates over 2500 letters to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in 3 weeks. ROC surpassed its target of 15,000 network members by December.

·      2010 ROC launches Ag Outreach Dinners to engage 70 to production agriculture leaders in the state to discuss the tough issues regarding their future. ROC President asked to join AG Vision Coordination Committee preparing recommendations for next Governor of California. ROC launches its second on-line petition campaign and generates 4600 signatures in 3 weeks. ROC recognized by media consultants as undertaking cutting edge web 2.0 work in the food and agriculture space. ROC meets its network growth target of 40,000 by May, seven months ahead of schedule. Michelle Obama adopts ROC supported Farmers Market innovations in her Let’s Move! campaign’s community program recommendations for the nation.

Since 2004, ROC has invested nearly $7.2 million directly in projects to transform the system. Its work has attracted another $3.8 in matching funds for its projects.