Proposal to Prototype a
Central Valley "Grow Better" Initiative
We’re assembling a core project team to begin a campaign to transform agriculture, with benefits including jobs, economic justice, healthy food, and community resilience.
The team will begin by reaching out to people involved in Regenerative Agriculture (RA) farming in California, and mapping who’s who in RA. We are exploring assembling this information in an independent, crowd-sourced Central Valley Grow Better wiki.
We’ll identify communities in one or two counties in California's Central Valley where farmers and advocates are already using or promoting RA. There, we’ll begin to assemble a coalition to build awareness and support for RA's rapid adoption. Leading the project and featured will be people involved in every aspect of producing and distributing food —especially owners and employees at farms now successfully using or planning to incorporate RA practices. They’ll be joined by job-seekers, community organizations, educators, experts, policy advocates, inventors and investors.
They'll develop recommendations in partnership with officials in elected offices and at government agencies and their staffs. Ideally, while the Biden Administration’s proposed national Civilian Climate Corps is advancing, we’ll gain funding to launch a pilot California Grow Better Corps. We’ll promote the Initiative’s status with regular progress reports to participants, partners, supporters, and funders.
Facts about the Central Valley
From the US Geological Survey’s California Water Science Center)
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More than 250 different crops are grown in the Central Valley with an estimated value of $17 billion per year
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Approximately 75% of the irrigated land in California and 17% of the Nation's irrigated land is in the Central Valley
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Using fewer than 1% of U.S. farmland, the Central Valley supplies 8% of U.S. agricultural output (by value) and produces 1/4 of the Nation's food, including 40% of the Nation's fruits, nuts, and other table foods.
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The predominant crop types are cereal grains, hay, cotton, tomatoes, vegetables, citrus, tree fruits, nuts, table grapes, and wine grapes.
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About 20% of the Nation's groundwater demand is supplied from pumping Central Valley aquifers, making it the second-most-pumped aquifer system in the U.S
Healthy Soils and the Climate Connection: A Path to Economic Recovery on America’s Farms
Click here for an introduction to the opportunities for regenerative agriculture in the coming years, in this 21-page new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2).
Learn more about Grow Better at Climate Changes Everything.