Vivid Picture's Expanding Network of Partners

The Vivid Picture is a collaborative project working to create a blueprint for a healthy food system for the entire state of California. The project continues to develop new working partnerships throughout the state's entire food system.

New partners recently joining the Vivid Picture team:

Organizational Partners

The International Forum for Globalization (IFG) (www.ifg.org) Representing more than 60 organizations in 25 countries, IFG is an alliance of leading activists, scholars, economists, researchers and writers formed to stimulate new thinking, joint activity, and public education in response to economic globalization. Debbie Barker, executive director of IFG, will work to identify global economic conditions for 2030 that might affect the Vivid Picture for California - given current trends. IFG's work on the Vivid Picture also includes understanding the desired global economic conditions for 2030 for creating the Vivid Picture in California, as well as drawing possible strategies to bridge the gap between what the current projections are, and what that ideal scenario would be to support the implementation of the Vivid Picture.

Team Members

Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center (www.crcworks.org), holds 33 years of experience in community capacity building as an administrator, researcher, journalist and educator. Mr. Meter teaches the economics of agriculture at the University of Minnesota, and has taught economics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he also received a Masters in Public Administration. His work will include the development of new economic data and information that can given context to a Vivid Picture and input into the GIS database-driven scenario-building tool. He will also identify useful measures of the strength of community-based food economies in California, including, where possible, specific constraints on the local system, practical targets for achievement.

Dr. Tom Gillpatrick, PhD and David Lakey, MBA from The Lake Group (www.lake-group.com) have joined the Vivid Picture team to evaluate the current economic model's strengths and weaknesses. Dr. Gillpatrick is the Juan Young Professor of food marketing and the executive director of the Food Industry Leadership Center at Portland State University. Mr. Lakey is president of The Lake Group and works with senior executives and company leaders on growth strategy, organizational capability, marketing and brand development. Their work has included the evaluation of economic assumptions used in the existing scenario-building tools as well as helping to develop some Vivid Picture scenarios. They have worked on the economic formulas used in the existing scenario-building tool, as well as provided input on the datasets required for the tool.

Public Interest Contributors

Each of the following participants provided a written vision statement for a sustainable food system for California and have agreed to provide feedback on draft materials of the Vivid Picture:

Zenobia Barlow, Center for Ecoliteracy
Janet Brown, Center for Ecoliteracy
Lisa Capozzi, formerly of the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture
Stacie Clary, California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Larry Cohen, Prevention Institute
Andy Fisher, Community Food Security Coalition
Julie Guthman, UC Santa Cruz
Helge Hellburg, Marin Organic
Susan Johnson, Ventura County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner
Charlene Orszag, Tierra Miguel/California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo
Claudia Reid, California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Ruth Rominger, formerly of The Natural Step
Bob Scowcroft, Organic Farming and Research Foundation
Ron Strochlic, California Institute for Rural Studies

Trade Advisory Panel

The following individuals have recently joined the Trade Advisory panel. They have participated in an interview process about their vision for a sustainable food system and have agreed to review draft Vivid Picture materials:

Michael Bauccio, Bon Appetit
Paul Cultrera, Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op
Mark and Aaron McAfee, Organic Pastures Dairy Co.
Jimbo and Colleen Someck, Jimbo's
Leland Swenson, Community Alliance with Family Farmers
George Work, Work Family Ranch

While not an official partner on the Vivid Picture project, there is one more important new player to mention:

Martha Guzman of California Rural Legal Assistance has recently joined the Roots of Change Council, the Council advising the Vivid Picture project. Ms. Guzman is legislative advocate for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in Sacramento. Formerly, Martha was Legislative Specialist with the United Farm Workers of America working on resource issues, such as water and pesticide-use, and their relation to public health and economic justice. Ms. Guzman also worked on United Farm Workers' Farm Worker Safe Drinking Water Program in 33 small, rural communities in the Central Valley. She has served on the steering committee for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water and as a member of the California Water Commission.

Reported by Ali Edwards, Straus Communications
December 15, 2004

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