June 10, 2011
Santa Barbara County Action Network is proud to be a member of the Santa Barbara Ag Futures Alliance, working to build bridges between environmentalists and agriculturalists.
The group seeks to educate members of the public about the realities facing agriculturalists and to preserve farming and farmland for the future.
At a recent community forum, Robert Abbott, an organic farmer based in Carpinteria and a member of AFA, said, “Farming is something people like to romanticize or demonize. There's not a lot of middle ground. We want to be honest about the facts and pressures, both economic and societal, and we want to tell people how great it can be, too.”
The alliance began an education program in March with community forums in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria that examined food and farming practices in Santa Barbara County, including production, processing, distribution and consumer perspectives.
The second part of the Farm-to-Fork Series was a bus tour of Las Varas Ranch in Gaviota, Givens Organic Farm in Goleta and Farmers' West Flowers and Bouquets in Carpinteria on June 4.
A tour of North County farm operations is scheduled for Sept. 10 and will include the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, Los Adobes de Maria farm worker housing and a large-scale farming operation. To register for the tour, visit http://santabarbaracoafa.org or call 886-0355.
