Leilani Clark
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Letter to the Editor
Our job here at Made Local Magazine is to tell the endlessly inspiring, diverse, and true stories that rise within the Sonoma County food system. A celebration of diversity is more important now than ever. That we happen to live in a region with a long history of economic growth that’s dependent on immigrant labor…
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Locavortex: September Climate Strike
How we eat, and how we dispose of the food we eat, are inextricably connected with climate change. As locally based organizations like California Climate & Agriculture (CalCAN) have made clear, the way food is grown has significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture can either contribute to the problem or be a solution as…
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Bringing It All Back Home
Nearly a decade ago, Acre Coffee introduced a Portland-inspired minimalist coffee vibe locally. If you’ve ever mistaken Acre Coffee for an outside chain, you wouldn’t be alone. In fact, owners Steve DeCosse and his wife Sharon Fitzgerald laugh with an easy familiarity when asked about the misconception. “People assume we are a franchise,” DeCosse says…
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True Cost of Farming
Humberto Castañeda Produce is the largest grower of vegetables in Sonoma County – and they are struggling to survive. Humberto Castañeda Produce lies next to a particularly fast stretch of River Road between Santa Rosa and Forestville. I miss the turn on the first pass, just glimpsing the numbers of the address as I whiz…
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LOCAVOX: Stories from the people who make our food system go
SHEBA PERSON-WHITELY Executive Director at Sonoma County Economic Development Board Earlier this year, Sheba Person-Whitely became the new executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. We spoke to her about what she’s observed about the local food system over the last couple of months. Made Local Magazine (MLM): What are your thoughts on the…
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The End Bit
The Sonoma County Food Action Plan aggregates opportunities for growth in our local food system into four action areas, or pillars, with multiple goals and subgoals under each. We’re highlighting the pillars here in no particular order. Pillar 2: Economic Vitality • Support local food system jobs and commerce. • Encourage institutional purchasing that supports the local…
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Letter from the Editor
Summer always feels like a time when I get to reconnect a bit with my childhood self. To be honest, the moments that spark joy for me haven’t changed much since I was an eight-year-old on summer break from Evergreen Elementary School: A bite of fresh, cold watermelon on a hot day; a trip to…
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Beef as a Solution: Freestone Ranch Completes Carbon Farm Plan
Misty West Gay and Jon Gay, along with Jon’s sister Susan and her family, started Freestone Ranch in Freestone back in 2006. More than a decade later, their grass-fed, grass-finished beef operation is the first ranch in Sonoma County to have completed a Carbon Farm Plan in collaboration with Fibershed and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation…
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Radical Family Farms: A Farm With Heart
At Radical Family Farms, vegetables are more than food. They are a bridge to reclaiming lost history and culture. A favorite in Chinese cuisine, pea shoots happen to make an excellent cover crop for degraded soil. For that reason, Leslie Wiser, a child of immigrants from Germany and Taiwan, planted peas (along with clover, hairy…
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My Favorite Eats
Neil Pacheco loves food. He shares his passion for Latino food (and non-food related) entrepreneurs on his La Morenita FM show, What’s Cookin’ Sonoma County and through a heavy social media presence. In 2019, he was included on North Bay Business Journal’s list of notable Forty Under 40 professionals. Born in Texas, of Oaxacan roots,…