Dumbo Feather – February 2019

So particularly at a time of climate change and all sorts of weather and environmental

disasters, I find that I don’t know how we can not rationalise putting our natural commons

back into public ownership and managing them like the commons that they are. How we

do that is partly by example. So at the Ranch, which is only 1900 acres, we’re trying to run

regenerative ranching in a way that would inspire a million acres in California alone. There

are 18 million acres of grassland in California. We’re trying to get, in five years, a million of

those acres to start regenerative practice based on the results that we can show them in our

small learning laboratory. But we’re also looking at the systems levers available to us. So we

are sponsors of something called “California Food for California Kids.” An effort to increase

the constituencies in favour of healthy meals for California school children, over 50 percent

of whom are growing up in poverty and therefore eligible for fee-reduced lunch. If their

lunches were grown in California by and large they’d meet a lot of other standards that clean

up the supply chain in California.

So we’re eschewing the federal commodities subsidies that are like barrels of oil that turn

into cheese once you put powder in them and poorly-raised meats or things like that.

Over-preserved, over-processed, over-pesticided, all those foods are less likely to happen

if you buy simply in California. But we have to put more metrics on it to make sure that

is in fact true and other values are achieved like farm labour friendly, like distributive

ownership patterns, co-operative buying, et cetera. But we started there. And in five years

you’ve got a third of the school districts that represent a third of the billion meals served

in California. Nine hundred million meals are served a year to California school children.

That is just a massive demand trigger. So those school districts are now changing the food

that’s grown and supplied in California in ways that shape all those other benefits that

I described. And we just have to keep growing it so it’s every one of the billion meals.

Yes. This is the year of

policy and metrics.

Well I do read these critiques every chance I get. I’m

a very slow reader. So I wish that some people would

start writing their critique in pamphlet form [laughs].

So The Colour of Money and How The Other Half Thinks

and Realistic Goals. I do try to stay current on literature

that seems to be taking on the systems change that we

I love that. Building the supply base as well as the demand. And really demonstrating

to the farmers that this is what’s wanted these days. The flow-on effects that

I’m sure you can demonstrate to the state in terms of the health of children is

remarkable. Even though we might not have the sort of finite data on that today.

The demand triggers that we have available to

us—schools, hospitals, municipalities, prisons—

getting locally grown food to those will increase

the constituency in favour of healthy food for

everybody and sustainable land management

practices. Again, it’s our mutual needs that show

us the way to mutual resiliency.

So I just wanted to finish with a couple of questions

about leadership. Where can we, and where do

you, look for heart-led courageous leadership in

this moment in time? I’d love for you to share what

areas of inspiration you’re finding in the work that

you’re doing and in a broader sense?

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KAT TAYLOR

DUMBO FEATHER