Roots of Change

RFSI Data Gathering & Listening Session - Ukiah
2025-05-27 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join us in Ukiah for a meeting to discuss building strong and adaptable food system infrastructure!
Led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Mapping (RFSI) project focuses on enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain by supporting local and regional producers with an emphasis on small and underserved businesses. The initiative seeks to expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, and fair wages, and to create new and safe job opportunities.
By creating more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers this program will also result in thriving local communities, strengthen food security, and promote fair economic opportunities. Together with Roots of Change (ROC), Institute of the Environment (UC Davis), and infrastructure financing experts, this project will serve to improve supply chain resilience for small and mid-size regional producers, positively impacting historically disadvantaged communities.

RFSI Data Gathering & Listening Session - San Luis Obispo (SLO)
2025-06-02 11:00 - 13:00 | CA
Join us in San Luis Obispo for a meeting to discuss building strong and adaptable food system infrastructure!
Led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Mapping (RFSI) project focuses on enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain by supporting local and regional producers with an emphasis on small and underserved businesses. The initiative seeks to expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, and fair wages, and to create new and safe job opportunities.
By creating more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers this program will also result in thriving local communities, strengthen food security, and promote fair economic opportunities. Together with Roots of Change (ROC), Institute of the Environment (UC Davis), and infrastructure financing experts, this project will serve to improve supply chain resilience for small and mid-size regional producers, positively impacting historically disadvantaged communities.

RFSI Data Gathering & Listening Session - Riverside
2025-06-04 11:00 - 13:00 | 4500 Glenwood Dr A, Riverside, CA 92501, United States, 4500 Glenwood Dr A, Riverside, CA, 92501, United States
Join us in Riverside for a meeting to discuss building strong and adaptable food system infrastructure!
Led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Mapping (RFSI) project focuses on enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain by supporting local and regional producers with an emphasis on small and underserved businesses. The initiative seeks to expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, and fair wages, and to create new and safe job opportunities.
By creating more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers this program will also result in thriving local communities, strengthen food security, and promote fair economic opportunities. Together with Roots of Change (ROC), Institute of the Environment (UC Davis), and infrastructure financing experts, this project will serve to improve supply chain resilience for small and mid-size regional producers, positively impacting historically disadvantaged communities.

RFSI Data Gathering & Listening Session - Los Angeles
2025-06-05 11:00 - 13:00 | Larta Institute 1149 S Hill St, Unit 900, Los Angeles, CA 90015, Larta Institute 1149 S Hill St, Unit 900, Los Angeles, CA, 90015, United States
Join us in LA for a meeting to discuss building strong and adaptable food system infrastructure!
Led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Mapping (RFSI) project focuses on enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain by supporting local and regional producers with an emphasis on small and underserved businesses. The initiative seeks to expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, and fair wages, and to create new and safe job opportunities.
By creating more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers this program will also result in thriving local communities, strengthen food security, and promote fair economic opportunities. Together with Roots of Change (ROC), Institute of the Environment (UC Davis), and infrastructure financing experts, this project will serve to improve supply chain resilience for small and mid-size regional producers, positively impacting historically disadvantaged communities.

RFSI Data Gathering & Listening Session - Clovis, Fresno
2025-06-10 11:00 - 13:00 | Valley Community SBDC, 390 West Fir Avenue #300 Clovis, CA 93611 United States, Valley Community SBDC, 390 West Fir Avenue #300, Clovis, Fresno, CA, 93611, United States
Join us in Clovis for a meeting to discuss building strong and adaptable food system infrastructure!
Led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Mapping (RFSI) project focuses on enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain by supporting local and regional producers with an emphasis on small and underserved businesses. The initiative seeks to expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, and fair wages, and to create new and safe job opportunities.
By creating more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers this program will also result in thriving local communities, strengthen food security, and promote fair economic opportunities. Together with Roots of Change (ROC), Institute of the Environment (UC Davis), and infrastructure financing experts, this project will serve to improve supply chain resilience for small and mid-size regional producers, positively impacting historically disadvantaged communities.

ROC Meat Pavilion @ Terra Madre Americas 2025
2025-09-26 - 2025-09-28 | SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, 1400 J St, Sacramento, CA 95814, Sacramento, CA, 94720, United States
Join us at ROC’s Meat Pavilion at Terra Madre Americas on September 26-28, 2025. The program will include live interviews, cooking and butchery demos, and a celebration of regenerative agriculture. You won’t want to miss it!
This year’s Terra Madre gathering will continue to build on the momentum of connecting diverse food communities across the Americas, focusing on agroecology and community wisdom throughout the continent.
The area dedicated to agroecology will show how deeply it is rooted in the reconstruction of relationships between people, agriculture and environment, food systems and society. The space will showcase the interconnections with agroecological systems in the USA and the richness of projects and initiatives of the Slow Food network in Latin America.
With a wide range of participants and activities, Terra Madre Americas will highlight regional and global food systems, sustainable agriculture, and food justice movements. The event will emphasize collaboration, education, and the celebration of food sovereignty, bringing together farmers, cooks, activists, academics, and policymakers from across the Americas.

Food Policy Champion Awards & Scorecard Release Ceremony
2026-02-03 17:30 - 19:30 | Mulvaney’s B&L, 1215 19th Street, Sacramento
Roots of Change, in collaboration with the California Food & Farming Network, along with close to 50 organizations working across the food & farming system, are excited to celebrate our annual Food and Farm Policy Champions, along with the release of the 2025 Food & Farm Scorecard. The scorecard annually tracks the voting records of California state legislators on key food and farming policies and honors a select few legislators that have stood out.
2025 award recipients are

Senator Sasha Renée Pérez
Assemblymember Alex Lee

Please join us in celebration
Doors open at 5:30pm, program begins at 6pm. Appetizers will be served; no host bar.

Bioneers Conference 2026
2026-03-26 - 2026-03-28 | Various (Berkeley, CA), Berkeley, CA, United States
The Bioneers 2026 conference will feature an exciting line-up of visionaries, authors, and activists across a diverse spectrum of social justice movements and in the area of food and farming. The Bioneers team realizes the importance of agriculture on our ecosystems and health. Bioneers is generously offering a 20% discount to the Food and Farming Community (apply in registration):
DISCOUNT CODE: 360b20
This year’s food and agriculture highlights include:

—Raj Patel, award-winning writer, film-maker and academic, one of the world’s leading experts on sustainable food systems and global food inequities, author of: several major books, including: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.

—Leah Penniman, groundbreaking Black Kreyol farmer, food justice activist, founder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Black, and a leading light in movements for community self-determination, solidarity, and land and food sovereignty.
—Note: Raj and Leah will also engage in dialogue together in a historic session on the afternoon of Saturday, March 28th.

—Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of so many highly influential books about food, including: This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, though this year he will be discussing his most recent work on the topic of consciousness, not on food-related issues.

— Bay Area Green Tours will be offering another of their immensely popular East Bay Foodscape tours as a pre-conference day-long outing. These inspiring and immersive excursions visit some of the most innovative social enterprises and non-profit urban farms stewarding the land, supporting their communities. A locally-sourced lunch is provided. March 26th | 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Note: A separate fee and pre-registration is required for this event.

Our afternoon workshops and panels will include:
—Regenerative Landscaping with leading permaculture practitioner Erik Ohlsen who will explore how to repair the environment by combining permaculture with cutting-edge regenerative practices, not only on farms and gardens, but on even larger landscapes.
—How Farming Affects the Nutritional Quality of Food and Human Health with Dan Kitteridge: founder of the Bionutrient Food Association and Mary Purdy of The Nutrient Density Initiative.
—A panel of Leading Visionary Companies working with farmers in their supply chains, including Dr. Bronner’s whose Les Szabo will share the firm’s new, groundbreaking Purpose Pledge (https://www.purposepledge.org/about). Other companies to be announced soon.
A Post-Conference Regenerative Landscaping Workshop
This daylong workshop at the Permaculture Skills Center in Sebastopol, CA, will include regenerative theory, demonstrations, and hands-on activities, as Master Permaculture teacher and designer, author of The Regenerative Landscaper, Erik Ohlsen, shares his expertise on how to repair the environment by using permaculture and regenerative practices. March 29, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm. Note: A separate fee and pre-registration is required for this event.
For details and registration links for the Restorative Food Systems programming, visit: https://conference.bioneers.org/food-farming-at-bioneers-2026/
To review the schedule, visit: Daily Schedule – Bioneers Conference
Bioneers is generously offering a 20% discount to the Food and Farming Community: discount code is 360b20 (apply in registration).
