The United States Department of Agriculture’s Southwest Regional Food Business Center (SWRFBC) advances resilient, diverse and competitive local and regional food systems by improving opportunities for food and farm businesses across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. The center’s three pillars of service are coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building.
The Center for Agroecology is a key partner in the SWRFBC, serving 14 counties across California. Center for Agroecology lead, Tim Galarneau, and Regional Food Systems Specialist Héktor Luis Calderón Victoria work with a range of partners and affiliates including farmers, food enterprises, food hubs and aggregations entities, while deepening engagement across our subregion.
Counties include:
- North Central Coast (Mendocino, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Solana)
- Bay Area (San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, & Santa Clara)
- Monterey Bay (San Benito, Santa Cruz, & Monterey)
- South Central Coast (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura)
View a map of our 14-county subregion
As the SWRFBC launches into the second year of connecting small producers and enterprises across Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah, the states have identified specific priority areas for support. These include farm-to-market (direct to institutional sales), added-value product development pathways, food safety and regulatory guidance, business services and financial planning, and grant development. Last year in our subregion, over 80 producers were engaged, eight grant projects supported, statewide and regional supply chain partnerships strengthened, as well as procurement-to-contract impacts established.
In addition to advancing partnerships across the subregion through technical assistance with producers and enterprises, we will be elevating attention to farmer/rancher/fisherfolx-to-institution efforts across schools, hospitals, and colleges and universities.
