Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the San Diego Food System Alliance began a process to address the current local food system’s impact on the region. On July 12 it released its San Diego County Food Vision 2030, a 10-year plan to address a sustainable food system in San Diego County, that address food systematic injustice, fighting climate change, and building resilience in creating a system that rebalances power so that communities have a say in how their food is grown, produced, sold, and shared. San Diego County Food Vision 2030 report is the first of its kind in San Diego County.
SDFSA Executive Director Elly Brown said that this has been a two-year journey with deep research and engaging with organizations and individuals, in particular those individuals that are impacted by today’s dominant food system.
“And when we talk about a food system, really, we’re talking about a set of relationships and resources that bring the product from farms, from oceans, all the way to your plates,” said Brown. “So those that are most impacted by this dominant food system are folks that live in low income communities, across San Diego County, the workers in the system and small scale farmers and fishermen, which we have a ton of in San Diego County.”
Brown said with this report, they wanted to uplift the voices and shape a community rooted vision for the county’s food system. She said with the launch of the report and a website examples of projects that are happening “on the ground” in the county, this brings a narrative behind what is happening in the current food system from data, as well as organizational leaders across the county.
“The idea is to for this to be a plan but also movement going forward, and this is really just a beginning,” she said. “It’s a movement and we want Food Vision 2030 to breathe and have a life of its own and really just prolific in San Diego County. It is really a big picture plan for what we want to call on for debate for the next decade, the following decade, and the decade after that.”
Brown said they want to elevate innovation that is happening in San Diego’s food system.
For more information about San Diego Food Vision 2030 visit www.sdfoodvision2030.org.