Denny Jackman is a Modesto native and longtime land-use planning and farmland protection advocate.

Urban sprawl in the Central Valley of California has been mostly driven by significant expansion of residential zoning, which in turn draws commercial zoning for service support.  Little expansion of the urban footprint has been attributed to industrial, commercial or business park zoning alone.  If that pattern continues, when the economy is revived, the use of Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) to curb sprawl in the Central Valley may do little to protect farmland. 

When a UGB is formed urban development inside expands with a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses until the boundary is reached, and the UGB is re-considered.  If the land-uses inside the boundary do not provide for adequate industrial or commercial areas or are eroded over time by switching those uses to residential development, the pressure to expand the boundary for “job creation” may discount the value of the UGB as a farmland protection tool.

A Residential Urban Limit (RUL) is a selective refinement of an UGB that does not restrict commercial or industrial development.  The value of a RUL is that it can be used to direct residential growth away from prime farmland and save important transportation access for commercial and industrial uses.  For smart growth projects, the RUL can be designed to restrict only R1 & R2 zoning, thus allowing for multi-purpose projects.

Here is an example of how a RUL could be used to direct growth and protect farmland: 

Modesto, California straddles the 99 freeway and has expanded north and east along the Tuolumne River.  The east side of the existing urban area is mostly lower quality soils while the north, south, and west sides are high quality soils.  A RUL could restrict residential growth on the three sides thereby directing the majority of urban growth onto the lesser soils east.  The north and west sides near the corridor may be “reserved” for use as commercial, industrial or farmland.  Due to the high value of access to the 99 freeway corridor use of a RUL to prevent residential development enhances opportunities to draw industrial and commercial users over the long term.  Until the conversion, the prime farmland is retained as part of the agricultural industry.  Additionally, a three-sided RUL allows for a large area of potential residential development and thus would not significantly affect land values as may be caused by a completely closed boundary.

Although many of the cities throughout the Central Valley are surrounded by prime farmland, the use of a RUL would improve the long-term ability of urban areas to retain access to prime transportation corridors and improve land-use efficiencies by constraining residential sprawl. 

As an overview, the Modesto Residential Urban Limit Initiative provides a long-term planning tool to enhance the effectiveness of urban planning while avoiding superior agricultural soils and water recharge areas adjacent to the urban area.

What it does:

• Helps representatives establish some long-term planning goals that are assured by a public vote.
• Establishes a line that restricts residential uses below a density of 10 dwelling units per acre.
• Provides for more certainty of long-term planning for industrial or commercial development due to a more difficult conversion to residential zoning (perceived in the past as bait and switch).
• Enhances long-term planning for industrial or commercial that may require more substantial infrastructure trunk line capacities, ie. sewer, water, transportation.
• Allows long-term planners to “cherry pick” high quality access locations such as along major transportation corridors,  such as Freeway 99 or between Kiernan Avenue and Pelandale Expressway.

What it does not:

• Restrict continuing ag uses.
• Restrict commercial or industrial (business park) zoning uses.
• Restrict residential uses meeting/exceeding 10 du/acre.

This modest policy improvement acknowledges that urban development will occur in our region.  While, prime farmlands in-wait for commercial or industrial conversion would continue to our agricultural economy, our city will gain a more efficient and precise tool for its urban planning needs.

The amount of carbon in the atmosphere has arrived at 400 parts per million. 

The last time it was at that level was in the Pliocene Era, about 2.5 to 5 million years ago.  At that time, a Los Angeles Times article notes, sea levels ranged from 16-131 feet higher than they are today and global temperatures were upwards of 18 degrees Fahrenheit hotter. 

“For the previous 800,000 years, CO2 levels never exceeded 300 parts per million, and there is no known geologic period in which rates of increase have been so sharp.  The level was about 280 parts per million at the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 18^th Century, when the burning of fossil fuels began to soar.” 

With such a rapid increase in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions having been released, there is a potential that the full effects of climate change will lag behind the statistics of how much carbon, methane and other contributing gases are in the atmosphere.  By the time the effects of climate change become apparent, and there is an effective consensus to enact regulatory and policy solutions to confront the problems, it may be difficult to meaningfully reduce the already accumulated gases and cascading ecological outcomes.

Yet, the process to instigate these solutions is underway – even in the San Joaquin Valley.  A recent Fresno Bee editorial acknowledges a “new normal” where projected temperatures for the Southwestern United States are poised to “rise 2-6 degree Fahrenheit by 2041-2070 even if global emissions of greenhouse gases are substantially reduced.”  This will directly impact snowpack and riparian flows, diminishing water availability for cities, agriculture and fisheries.  Additional effects include impacts on high value crops, increased flood events and higher tides.

The paper exhorts local leaders to take the threats seriously – “To adapt to a changing climate, cities and counties will have to be proactive in planning for more extreme floods, droughts and fires, even if it means changing their general plans that were developed under the ‘old normal’.”

Bees are fundamentally important for human food production – and they increasingly stressed by die-offs and colony collapse. 

A Fresno Bee article and a Sacramento Bee editorial acknowledge the importance of bees for food production and emphasize the threats to them.  Citing the United Nations, the editorial notes that “more than two-thirds of the 100 crops providing 90 percent of food worldwide depend on bee pollination.”  For the agricultural economy in the United States, bees pollinate $20 to $30 billion in crops annually yet, since 2006, approximately 30% of hives have been lost each year. 

While a number of potential causes have been identified – including poor nutrition, loss of forage diversity, parasites, viruses, mites, disease and drought – the primary attention has focused on pesticides, and in particular neonicotinoids.  The neonicotinoid controversy has become an international issue as the European Union is poised to restrict the use of three compounds found in neonicotinoid pesticides as a precautionary measure until the threat they pose can be determined.  Conversely, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency have been slower to respond, seeking to have more conclusive scientific evidence before making a regulatory decision. 

California annually demands sixty percent of the bees in the United States, much of them bound for the state’s almond orchards which produce eighty percent of the world’s crop.  So more than other regions, almond growers in the Central Valley are anxious about the potential loss of honey bees as they are dependent on the pollinators for their nut production.  A Sacramento Bee article notes that most of California’s 820,000 acres planted in almonds is located in the Valley.   In the region, not only are bee colonies collapsing, those that are available are weakened and “substandard” for industry standards; still, with diminished supplies, growers are paying high prices for these colonies.  A Valley bee broker estimates that there is demand for 2.5 million hives for almond pollination, but believes that there are currently only about one million hives. 

Another Fresno Bee article hints at the looming crisis as California beekeepers have lost between 20% to 50% of their colonies this year.  A Madera keeper exclaimed, “It is unbelievable what has been happening.  Last winter we lost about 42% of our bees and the winter before we lost 66%.”

Bob Heuer brings two decades of experience writing about agriculture, finance and regional economies to his work as a public policy and marketing consultant.  He represents the Evanston/Skokie School Dist. 65/202 legislative committee as a gubernatorial appointee to the Illinois Local Food Farms and Jobs Council.

Local and sustainable constituencies feed the growing consumer demand for transparent supply networks that shorten the geographic distance between farm and fork.  Hindering this fundamental redesign of the marketplace is limited farm-production capacity. 

Small-scale farming can drive development of a food system that promotes public health, self-reliant communities and the creation of jobs that can’t be outsourced. Here’s a three-point plan:    

• Take advantage of food policy councils.  
• Embrace a wide range of training methods, such as SPIN Farming.
• Get acquainted with Farm Credit System.

Food Councils 

The good food movement’s biggest challenge is growing the number of farmers profitably supplying nearby markets, farmer David Cleverdon told last fall’s Healthy Farms Healthy People forum in Springfield, Illinois. He envisioned a bottoms-up “farm by new farm” effort to build “a foundation of knowledge, experience, wisdom, talent and relationships.”

Recreating farming’s social capital could be job one for the many food councils springing up nationwide.  According to Harvard University’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, these “much-needed mechanisms” are forming at the municipal, county, regional and state levels in order to “identify and advocate for food system change.”

The Illinois Food Farms Jobs Council —a community-led coordinating body authorized by state law—acts as a conduit between state government and the many entities seeking to grow local food demand, access, production and/or infrastructure.   Our farmer-training working group promotes cooperation between University of Illinois Extension, community colleges and NGOs around the goal of creating 5,000 Illinois farmers by 2020.  

Alternate Training Methods   

USDA’s national goal is to create 100,000 new farmers within five years.  Part of the solution is a do-it-yourself learning series called SPIN—a.k.a. Small Plot IN-tensive.  SPIN’s explicit goal is to teach people how to make money farming without having to initially invest in land or expensive equipment. The SPIN-Farming learning series was created by a Canadian farmer and developed with a U.S. entrepreneur.  The business model enables people to generate revenue by producing commercial-grade crops from multiple garden-size plots for direct-market outlets. SPIN’s web-based support group provides a peer-to-peer mechanism for professional development.  

“Incorporating the SPIN-Farming learning series into existing training programs can increase their effectiveness and produce measurable, bottom-line oriented results,” SPIN co-author Roxanne Christensen says.

Full disclosure: This article is an outgrowth of a SPIN marketing project. I became acquainted with SPIN years ago while consulting for Farm Credit Council —the Washington, D.C.-based trade group for Farm Credit System   .

Farm Credit System

FCS is a government-sponsored, agricultural-lending network created by Congress nearly a century ago.  There had been a national outcry that private banks weren’t meeting farmers’ needs. FCS was envisioned as a financial institution to serve American agriculture in good times and bad.  FCS has evolved into a vital asset to agribusiness—and an enigma for many others it was intended to serve.

In February 2008, as a consultant for their lobbying organization, I co-authored a report that sought to inform FCS affiliates about the local food marketplace. “Growing Opportunity” definitely caught the eye of FCS’ regulator, the federal agency Farm Credit Administration.   

Two months ago, FCA began requiring FCS lending associations to create annual marketing plans showing how they serve all segments of agriculture.  FCA’s “diversity and inclusion” regulation  encourages FCS lenders to reach out to “local food farmers and other new generation farmers” through training programs in management, business planning, and finance.  

Get “more seeds in the ground”

 Increased farm production will spur investment throughout the food supply network—aggregation, processing, distribution, marketing and waste management.  Thriving regional-scale food systems would provide high-volume wholesale channels with an ample supply of “healthy, green, fair and affordable” products.

There’s consumer-education work to be done to support what we might call foodshed economics.  The more familiar term “reducing carbon footprint” could become the organizing principle to integrate foodsheds within the policy framework of watersheds.

The key is growing the number of local-food farmers. As farmer Gary Tomlin told a recent Illinois Council meeting: “we have to get a lot more seeds in the ground.”

 “At SPIN-Farming, we’ve seen that new farm businesses track the experience of any other small business startup,” Christensen observes. “For the hundreds that make it, thousands fail. Success is therefore a numbers game. The more farming talent that can be developed, the more new farm businesses will be created. As locally-based farming becomes more commonplace, it will become obvious why real food is worth the price.” 

The San Joaquin Valley is the most productive agricultural region in the United States.  Six of the nation’s top ten agricultural producing counties are in the region with Fresno, Tulare and Kern topping the list.  This output is calculated at over $30 billion in farm gate sales and $106 billion in overall economic impact when factoring in direct, indirect and induced economic benefits.

Yet, paradoxically, recent findings by the Food Research and Action Center, under the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, found “food hardship” – determined by household survey responses acknowledging not having enough money to purchase food in the last year – highest in the San Joaquin Valley.   Connecting food hardship with hunger, the study finds that two of the most prominent cities in the Valley lead all metropolitan areas in the United States: Bakersfield in Kern County ranks first (26.7%) and the City of Fresno in Fresno County (22.4%) is fifth.  In comparison, the national average is 18.2%. 

These findings resulted in soul searching, particularly in Kern County.  The Bakersfield Californian noted the “unenviable position” of its top ranking in food hardship but also acknowledged that the ranking wasn’t a surprise to local organizations and individuals who work to alleviate hunger in the community.  A food bank program manager noted, “The reporting we have gathered with our clients shows an increase in individuals who are one paycheck away from not having food on the table and at risk of becoming homeless.”  Another community member working to feed people in Bakersfield commented, “The numbers are shocking because we come from such an agricultural valley that produces an abundance of food that feeds a large portion of America.  This shouldn’t be happening and we need to find a way to stop these numbers from growing.” Locally, the most vulnerable populations were identified as seniors and youth.

A subsequent Bakersfield Californian editorial, “We Knew, But Hunger Figures Still Hit Hard,” forthrightly confronted the troubling issue of hunger in the city and valley.  “We’ve known for some time that hunger is an issue in Kern County.  The irony has been duly noted: The Central Valley, whose fertile soil produces so much of America’s food, struggles with hunger every day, and in every community.”  Noting President’s Johnson’s historic programs under his War on Poverty were not sufficient, the paper summoned the local community – service groups, youth organizations, churches, schools and businesses – to action, declaring “we must act.”

Recently, a Kern Food Policy Council has formed through the Community Action Network of Kern with the support of the United Way and California Endowment.  The Californian reports that the council “will look at creating new community gardens, coordinating sectors in the food system, launching support programs and services and creating community engagement advocacy.”  In Fresno similar efforts acknowledge the presence of “food deserts” in the city and aim to confront the crisis of food insecurity in the region.  Groups like Fresno Metro Ministry have ongoing hunger and nutrition programs including a community garden project that partners with the City of Fresno to ensure healthy foods are available to urban residents.  Innovative approaches, like the Food Commons, are looking to integrate physical, financial and organizational infrastructures to build a regional food system around food insecure communities.

One day, can the San Joaquin Valley not only be the world’s most productive food producing region but also lead the United States with the most robust local food economy in the country?  Everything is here to make that the case – enormous need represented in hunger and poverty statistics, resilient multicultural communities with generational knowledge of farming, an unparalleled culture of food production, and massive technological and agricultural infrastructures. 

The resources and expertise are in place to realize this achievement.

New town development is a problem throughout the Central Valley of California.  Recently, when the Sacramento County approved the Cordoba Hills project, concern was raised throughout the region that the intent and substance of California’s recently passed climate-related legislation (SB 375) was not having a substantive effect on poorly planned development projects inconsistent with the emission reductions proposed under the law.  A Sacramento Bee Editorial makes this case as new towns propose thousands of new homes with tens of thousands of residents, which in turn corrodes the purpose of SB 375’s Sustainable Communities Strategy goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled.  The Cordova Hills development will be watched with interest as similar projects are being proposed in other counties, including Yokohl Valley in Tulare County, Friant Ranch in Fresno County or Tesoro Viejo in Madera County.

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors, after receiving recommendations from its Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee, voted to protect more farmland from conversion to solar photovoltaic development.  The Visalia Times Delta reports that more than 650,000 acres of farmland will be more protected because of the policy.  The crux of the policy is that solar development should not be placed on farmland designated as prime farmland under the California Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program (FMMP), identified as Class I Soil by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), or land that was farmed in permanent crops for at least one year out of the preceding decade, unless designated by the county on a case by case basis.  The Tulare County Farm Bureau and its Executive Director Tricia Stever Blattler were instrumental in achieving the Tulare farmland protection policy.

Amanda Eaken is Sustainable Communities Deputy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

I recently had two occasions to ride the train en route to Los Angeles through the San Joaquin Valley, the next region of California to implement Senate Bill 375 – California’s sustainable communities and climate projection law. California’s fastest growing region, the San Joaquin Valley is home to 4 million people and is expected to double in size to over 9 million by 2050. Under SB 375, regional planning agencies are (re)designing their long range (20 year) land use and transportation plans with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Bakersfield is the county seat of Kern County, the southernmost county out of the eight that comprise the valley. Since Amtrak only goes as far as Bakersfield before you have to switch to a bus, I scheduled some meetings with the planning staff of the Kern Council of Governments (COG) – the regional planning agency responsible for implementing SB 375. I was curious to learn how this agency would improve its transportation and land use planning to meet not only its state-assigned greenhouse gas emissions target, but also use this planning process to clean the air, reduce urban sprawl and save valuable farmland—all of which have been long-standing local goals.

Rob Ball, Kern COG’s Planning Director, and his Senior Planner Pete Smith were kind enough to offer a bike tour of Bakersfield. We were joined by Councilmember Bob Smith and Cindy Parra from Bike Bakersfield. Troy Hightower, Modeler at Kern COG—to my great disappointment—was unable to join our casual bike tour because of his asthma, which studies have found is exacerbated by the region’s chronic air pollution. In fact, the American Lung Association ranks Bakersfield as the most polluted metropolitan region in the country. Imagine the irony: Troy used to ride his bike to work. Now, because the air quality has gotten so bad, he has to drive.

The bike tour highlighted some of the best and worst Bakersfield has to offer. The bike and pedestrian trail along the Kern River provides an excellent recreational and commuting option for local cyclists. We also pedaled through the Westpark neighborhood to the east of downtown, which, though it lacks official bicycle lanes or trails, boasts lovely, quiet, tree-lined streets like Palm Street that make for excellent cycling. Unfortunately this is the same neighborhood where 310 homes will be demolished to make room for the controversial Centennial Corridor Highway 58 expansion project—the single largest transportation project in Kern’s long range regional transportation plan. I know this project has a long history, but it’s unfortunate to see a neighborhood destroyed to make room for a freeway. Seems more American cities these days, from Cincinnatti to Pittsburgh, are doing the opposite—tearing down freeways to (re)create livable neighborhoods and parks, as this recent article about freeways and cities discusses.

To get an update on Kern and its partner agency’s efforts, on January 24th, the California Air Resources Board will hold a hearing in Bakersfield on the development of the SB 375 Sustainable Communities Strategies by the valley counties. These planning agencies are slated by October of this year to adopt plans to reduce their emissions.

The experience implementing this law in other parts of the state shows that the process is leading to the creation of stronger, healthier communities. Kern’s neighbor to the south, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) region, adopted its own sustainable communities plan in April of last year to significant praise, and for good reason: the plan reduces congestion and air pollution by 24%. It creates 4.2 million jobs. It saves enough farmland and open space to cover nearly 30 percent of Yosemite National Park—400 square miles.

There is so much that the public strongly supports that valley counties can do to plan for a brighter future. To date, 90 percent of building permits in the San Joaquin Valley are doled out for single family homes, most of them in very low density areas. Yet analysis from Fresno Council of Governments (COG) suggests that up to 35 percent of the valley’s population would love to live in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, and there is a strong unmet demand for rental housing. Plans for the future should provide a better mix of housing types and locations, helping to save farmland and reduce pollution, by locating housing closer to jobs and amenities and cutting travel distances.

Kern’s last regional transportation plan spent 97 percent of its funding on roads and highways, but only 2 percent on transit and less than 1 percent making walking and biking safer. As a result, the great majority of people drive everywhere, for anything they need to do, worsening air quality. And yet Kern County’s own surveys show that valley residents want to see more public transportation, and safe walking and biking. While they are definitely taking steps in the right direction, the latest draft of Kern’s Sustainable Communities Strategy still has the majority of funding going into roads and freeways and most housing going into low-density, suburban sprawl. Isn’t it time for a new approach?  Pioneers like Cindy and Bob are fighting to get more funding for safe bicycling and Kern COG should support their efforts.

Interested in how this planning process will impact local residents and the economy – and lead to cleaner air for everyone? I’ll be discussing these and other themes at the Valley Futures Forum this Thursday January 17th in Modesto.  If you long for cleaner air, a healthier community for your family, or more affordable choices for getting around, we urge you to get involved in your community’s process to help your local agencies adopt—and stick to—a resolution for cleaner air in 2013.

The effort to alter the California Environmental Quality Act is underway.  Senator Rubio will lead a committee that proposes to change this cornerstone legislation, as detailed in this Sacramento Bee article. 

In response, through his Bakersfield California Op-Ed, Gordon Nipp of the Kern Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club, details the democratic structure of CEQA in its design to inform the public of potential adverse outcomes from development projects, mitigate for significant impacts, and demand redress, through litigation if necessary, when the law is violated.

As changes in CEQA are foreseeable, citizens and interests on all sides need to weigh in to ensure that potential reform is in the public interest.

A San Joaquin Valley advocacy collaborative of public interest organizations working on SB 375 implementation in the region has articulated a platform to better explain the mulitple benefits of climate policy. 

A concise 2-page platform and more detailed 4-page platform were recently completed to assist community members in understanding how SCS policies may improve the quality of their lives.  The collaborative also hopes that the platform will be a vehicle to begin conversations with policy makers and elected officials as valley residents seek to be involved in crafting and adapting the policy to their lives, neighborhoods and communities.

The SCS platform may also represent a vision for how we will adapt, respond, grow and prosper in an era of more limited resources and changing environment.  Rather than a static document, the platform is meant to be a starting point to promote citizen engagement in the meaningful policy arenas that affect their lives.

Take a look.  Get involved.  Joint together.  Educate eachother.  Engage the change.