There is often a lack of inclusion and participation of the private sector in the work of building local food systems. For example, the recently funded Oakland Food & Fitness Collaborative doesn’t have a single private sector partner from the food industry. This is a huge gap in our strategy and we need to think critically about how to bring the private sector into the fold. Of course the focus in the private sector should be on local and regional businesses that share our economic values and our vision for a sustainable food system. Local companies such as Delightful Foods, Revolution Foods, Numi Organic, Wholesoy, Premier Organics, Natural Choice Distributors, etc, share these values and could be instrumental allies in this effort.
We need to especially focus on private sector partners who have food manufacturing and processing capacity. While we’re making progress in the localization of agriculture and food retail and distribution, there is a particular gap in the localization of food manufacturing and processing capacity in Oakland and the region. This component is critical because about 70% of food products on the market are value-added and involve some degree of manufacturing and/or processing. We can not capture and localize this market segment if we just focus on local agriculture and don’t leverage the capacity and infrastructure offered by manufacturing companies in the private sector. There seems to be particular opportunity for Oakland to expand food manufacturing given the amount of decaying and unused industrial infrastructure that exists here. We can attract regional manufacturing business to relocate or expand their operations to the area in order to take advantage of the local industrial infrastructure. This will require the participation of the public sector and specific policy within the city to incentivize these companies to locate in Oakland.
Many of these companies would like to be in Oakland because it is a major distribution hub that they already have to distribute through from a distance. Being in Oakland would reduce these companies’ transportation costs, which would give them greater competitive advantage. But there are barriers that keep these companies from coming to Oakland, such as the prohibitive costs of real estate and tax structures. We need to identify and address the barriers so these companies can afford to set up shop in Oakland and create local jobs and generate tax revenues for the city. Simultaneously, we can be building the capacity of local entrepreneurs in Oakland to start food manufacturing businesses themselves. This will require technical assistance, incubation and incentivization that can position these local startups for success.
If we don’t take advantage of the underutilized industrial infrastructure that currently exists in Oakland then much of those facilities, as we have already begin to see in the Jack London area, will be rezoned and redeveloped as housing, which will undermine the ability to build a robust food system that has a strong manufacturing sector. Various public officials have decried the trend of rezoning of industrial and commercial areas as it is diminishing our infrastructure and job stock. Yet, developers counter this by arguing that the current disuse of these industrial zones is an indication that there is no longer an interest in having industry in Oakland. We need to show that this is incorrect and that there is huge opportunity for revitalizing and redesigning the use of industrial zones through localization and food systems development. My hope is that this will be a central focus of the Oakland Food Policy Council.
