Roots & Relations
Bay Area Foodshed Strategy Lab

April 26-30, 2026 at Paicines Ranch

Apply

Gather with Bay Area land stewards, food organizers, and cultural workers to shape a bold, long-term vision and roadmap for food sovereignty in our foodshed.

Seeding a 100-Year Vision for the Bay Area

Across the Bay Area, people are working to build a food system rooted in sovereignty — where food is a human right, communities control their own food futures, we collaborate with the land, and the people who grow, prepare, and distribute our food are truly valued. Imagine if we were guided by a shared vision for future generations and could work in concert to grow that world, together.

Now is the moment to begin. As the pace of change accelerates and communities navigate political, economic, and ecological shocks, there is an opportunity to advance a transformative vision to grow regional food sovereignty. 

To seize this moment, we are inviting people working with land stewardship, food economies, storytellers and creatives working with food in the Bay Area, and their co-conspirators to co-create and advance a 100-year vision and transformative strategy.

〰️ How do we grow the world we want for future generations?

〰️ What wisdom do our roots carry that our regional food future needs?

〰️ How do we grow the world we want for future generations? 〰️ What wisdom do our roots carry that our regional food future needs?

Roots & Relations 
April 26-30, 2026 | Paicines Ranch, 13388 Airline Hwy, Paicines, CA 95043

Apply Now 
What to Expect

Our gathering will integrate story, creativity, embodied practice, and transformative strategy, and working backward from the vision to explore how we will bring the future we dream of into the present. Together, we will create a shared 100-year vision and a roadmap for how we will get there across generations of movement work, and we will create opportunities to build momentum with one another. 

OBJECTIVES
❋ Strengthen Solidarity Across the Foodshed

Deepen connection, alignment, trust, and solidarity with other Bay Area foodshed contributors.

Generate a bold vision for future generations and a roadmap for how we'll grow it together

❋ Co-Create the 100-Year Vision
❋ Commit to Purposeful Action

Leave with commitments to practice and action that are rooted in purpose

Find your place in the larger strategy, and feel the confidence that comes with clarity around your unique contributions

❋ Clarify Your Role in the Whole

Agenda

Through story, creativity, embodied practice, and transformative strategy, we will co-create a 100-year vision, identify crucial 6-year milestones, and commit to coordinated action towards sustained food sovereignty in the Bay Area. 

  • Opening ceremony, intros, context setting, meet the land

  • Letters from the future: how did you make it to hard times, the possibility of thriving, generating a vision. basis for back casting. 

    • Who do we need to be to get to that vision? 

    • Ask the land: what makes change possible? 

  • Backcasting that vision? ideally people are coming in small teams, coconspirators answering together. let people define for themselves who their coconspirators are. 

    • 6 yrs is possible to imagine 

    • integration

    DAY 4 - closing ceremony 

    • meet annually

  • What is my contribution? If these are the crucial horizon points, what’s the opportunity that i want to move into, that i want to make? Who do I need to be to get to that vision? ideally people are coming in small teams, coconspirators answering together. let people define for themselves who their coconspirators are. 

    • 6 yrs is possible to imagine 

    • integration

Q&A

  • Sunday April 26, 2026 -  Thursday April 20, 2026 at Paicines Ranch 3388 Airline Hwy, Paicines, CA 95043

    The opening session will be Sunday, April 26, with all-day sessions through Thursday April 30. Please plan to be present and offline for the full scheduled time, including meal times, which are so important for relationship building

  • We will gather 25-30 carefully selected contributors who are already building liberatory food communities through:

    • Revitalizing ancestral land stewardship practices and rematriating land

    • Contributing to grassroots food economies rooted in mutuality

    • Sharing stories of food and land that affirm collective cultural identity

    • Mobilizing capital to flow generously within the Bay Area foodshed

  • The cost of food and lodging will be covered. We will be relying on a coordinated carpool effort, which we can assist with. Keep an eye out for that. We will also follow up about specific lodging arrangements.

  • You can reach us anytime via our contact page or email. We aim to respond quickly—usually within one business day.

  • Please apply here by March 20, 2026.

    We will respond to your application by March 30, 2026.

    This gathering is invite only. If you would like to invite a co-conspirator, you can forward them the application link; please don’t post it publicly or share widely.

  • You can contact us at hello@foodculture.org with any questions or requests.

About the Organizing Teams 

  • Food Culture Collective

    Food Culture Collective is a network of culture-makers who are sparking imagination and action for socially just, climate-resilient futures. We activate grassroots food economies to grow systems that sustain life, through storytelling, food culture, collaborative art, and visionary community strategy.

  • People’s Food and Farm Project

    The People’s Food and Farm Project seeks to address the fractures and inequities in the Bay Area food system by building a grassroots movement and ballot initiative for a socially just, environmentally sustainable, and economically thriving food system that centers the voices, dreams, and wisdom of workers and BIPOC communities.

  • Paicines Ranch

    Located in central California's San Benito County, Paicines Ranch is a historic 7,600-acre ranch that works to regenerate ecosystems by growing healthy soil, nutrient-dense food and vibrant, diverse communities.