By Karen Ross, Secretary
California Department of Food and Agriculture
We work hard to make California a better place to live because of what we grow and how we grow it.
At the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), we work to build and safeguard resilient food systems – including programs that improve nutrition for students and extend additional benefits to seniors and other deserving Californians. We support farmers and ranchers, and improve conditions for workers and the larger agricultural community, and promote an equitable marketplace.
In this report, you’ll find both urgent efforts and longer-term projects that put farmers and ranchers and workers throughout the food chain in a better position to do what they do best.
In California agriculture, as in California writ large, leadership is simply a natural result of what we do.
From the most immediate pressures like addressing pests and diseases, to the most far-reaching like nutrition and climate change, to the most fundamental like fairness in the public marketplace, CDFA partners with California’s agricultural community to show the world what works.
I encourage you to read these examples, and to consider them as we all reflect upon the past year – and upon the true nature of leadership.