The Food Alliance Seeks a Paradigm Shift For San Diego's Food Supply

Speaker 1: 00:00 This Thanksgiving week is a week when good food and plenty is at the center of our celebrations, but something is out of balance. When we see longer and longer lines at food banks and learn that here in one of the richest countries in the world, hundreds of thousands of people are experiencing food insecurity and San Diego County. That means they're going hungry. A consortium of over a hundred organizations in San Diego is working on a plan, a kind of paradigm shift, a new vision of how to make sustainable food sources more available to all San Diego ones. They want your feedback on the plan before Thanksgiving joining us to talk about the idea is Sona DSI, who is associate director of the San Diego food system Alliance. Sona, welcome to midday. Speaker 2: 00:44 Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:47 So Sona, why do we need a new food vision for San Diego? Speaker 2: 00:51 Right now we have a food system that does not work for everyone. In simplest terms. We have over half a million individuals in San Diego County that are hungry and this was pre pandemic post pandemic. That number has doubled. So now we're looking at close to one in three San Diego ones that are going hungry. Speaker 1: 01:11 We've seen lines on food banks this year, but pumping more food through food banks is not really the solution that we're looking for. Is it Speaker 2: 01:19 It's part of the solution. You know, food banks play a really critical role because we need a safety net and that's what food banks provide. They provide that strong safety net at the same time, we also need more. We also need to create new systems that will change the way that people are able to access food and who is able to access food. So Speaker 1: 01:42 When you say change systems, what do you mean by that? Speaker 2: 01:45 Right now? You know, the food system is really, you know, the power is concentrated in the hands of few. And so those, you know, those that are most impacted by the food system tend to be the ones that are more powerless and, or they don't really have the means for them to be able to create and define the food system that works for them. Something that is actually going to be healthy, provide them the, the ability that they need to be able to grow food, prepare food, serve food. Speaker 1: 02:14 Now you've been engaged in, in 18 months of collecting ideas from people on, on re-imagining the food system here. What, what have you discovered what specific ideas are emerging Speaker 2: 02:24 Earlier this summer? As you mentioned, we did have a robust community engagement opportunity where we had over 2200 San Diego ones that we heard from. And 60% of them were individuals that live in areas that are the most impacted by food system or are essential workers. So those that are actually working to, to produce and prepare and serve our food. And you know, what we, what we heard a lot of what we heard is, is access to healthy, affordable food is a challenge. There's a lot of challenges associated with reducing and or addressing some of the racial and ethnic disparities that exist within our food system. And then for workers, a lot of the challenges are, you know, low wages inability to make a living. You know, the profit margins in farming fit fisheries, food businesses are really low, historically low. And so there's a lot of challenges for businesses to really be able to, you know, continue to stay afloat. And we saw this also during the pandemic this year, you know, where we've had over 50,000 jobs, food system jobs that have been lost in this in the past year, Speaker 1: 03:32 How big a share of our economy is, is the food industry. Speaker 2: 03:35 There's still a little bit more that we're doing to really fine tune those numbers, but roughly we're looking at about 10%. Speaker 1: 03:42 Now, one of the things that you mentioned in your reports is that, um, thousands of small farmers in San Diego County are threatened by the increasing cost of water and not to mention the cost of land and labor. Is that part of the new vision? I mean, most of our food is currently imported from out of the County, but could we be producing more of our own food locally? Speaker 2: 04:05 Absolutely, absolutely. This is really a core, a core element of food vision in 2030. You know, we saw this year, you know, with the, with the pandemic, when people would go to the grocery store and you would see the shelves empty. Now, all of a sudden there was, there was this awareness and re you know, renewed, um, acknowledgement that we actually are an agricultural producing County here in San Diego County. We produce food and local farmers and local food businesses are really the ones that were able to step up during this time when you might not have been able to get what you wanted from the grocery store. And so there's a, a real big need to create a stronger local food economy. That's really gonna allow us to weather, weather, these storms, you know, now, and also those that will come in the future, Speaker 1: 04:54 Right? I've seen some initiatives to plant fruit trees instead of ornamental trees, for example, is there something simple that each one of us can do to support a more sustainable food system in our community, just on a daily basis? Speaker 2: 05:08 Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's, um, you know, the first, the first three that always come to come to mind for me are, are supporting farms and fisheries. So really supporting those local local businesses. And there are many directories available. Um, I know edible San Diego also has a directory for supporting local farms and fisheries. Of course, the San Diego County farm Bureau as well. That's one, the second is also supporting those local food businesses. So local restaurants, you know, this is a challenging year for local restaurants and food businesses. So all the more today is a really good day where, you know, you can go out and you can order a takeout, you know, but it support those businesses because if we don't support them today, they might not be here tomorrow. And then the other, the third thing I would say is that as we, as we started with this, with this interview around food insecurity, there is a growing for food banks to really be able to provide food for those that need it right now. So there are several donate funds. There's also several opportunities to volunteer and support those food banks to really be able to allow them to get food to those that need it most right now Speaker 1: 06:14 That dovetails with the idea of food waste, which, you know, when you hear the figures, it's quite shocking how much food we waste every day in San Diego County. Speaker 2: 06:22 Yes. You know, Alison it's actually pre pandemic levels. We had 500,000 individuals that were food insecure, and we were throwing away approximately 500,000 pounds of food. So you can see, you know, that there's, there's really, if that food could be, if we could reduce the amount of food that we waste and really divert that and move that, make it available to those that need it and get food to, to really either for those that need it, or even other mechanisms for addressing food waste from composting and animal feed are also other mechanisms, but it really is an opportunity for us to acknowledge and honor the resources that go into producing food and really make sure that we use, use them to the fullest and get that to people that need it and, or the resources that might need it Speaker 1: 07:11 Once the results of the survey come out next year. What's the next step. Speaker 2: 07:15 Yeah. That's a great question too. So we hope to have the results out by January in January of 2021. And then we really want to spend the first half of 2021 going back to those that we spoke with in this process. So a lot of the workers, a lot of the individuals that we connected with through the, through this 18 month process and figuring out how are we going to mobilize to make this vision happen? Speaker 1: 07:41 We've been speaking with Sona, decide who was associate director of the San Diego food system Alliance. And if you would like to take their survey, it's open until Thanksgiving, just Google San Diego County food vision 2030, and you'll see the link Sono. Thanks so much for your time. Speaker 2: 07:57 Thank you, Alison. Really appreciate you having me.