Events
Co-Sponsored Webinar
Supply Chain & Procurement Transparency
October 29, 2026 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PDT
This webinar is co-sponsored by Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) and Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (FORA).
Procurement from public institutions in California represents a powerful, largely untapped opportunity to direct billions in public spending toward a more regenerative food system, but the lack of transparency in today’s food supply chain is a significant barrier and costs the public millions of dollars each year.
Leveraging public procurement to advance regenerative agriculture and other priorities depends on the ability of institutional buyers to make proactive, informed purchasing decisions in alignment with those goals. Yet the vast majority of public food purchases move through opaque distribution systems. Buyers often cannot access farm-of-origin information, including production practices, without tremendous effort and expense, if at all. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to direct public dollars towards producers and practices that advance shared goals and can lead to institutional buyers abandoning values-aligned procurement altogether. Moreover, according to a recent financial analysis, this murky process costs the public an estimated $23 million each year in labor and fiscal costs for TK-12 school districts alone.
But solutions are possible.
Join researchers, practitioners, legal and policy experts, and a representative from the California Department of Food & Agriculture to explore findings from the California Supply Chain Transparency research effort, hear a preview of a vetted menu of policy and funding solutions, and learn how this work can move from research into action.
Speakers:
- Jennifer O’Connor, Executive Director, Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (Moderator)
- Kevin Irby, Managing Director, Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (Moderator)
- Nick Anicich, Farm to School Program Manager, CA Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Farm to Fork
- H Nieto-Friga, Founder and CEO, SupplyChange
- Tiffany Germain, Research & Policy Advisor, NextGen Policy
- Debbie Friedman, Senior Director of Policy & Strategy, Food Insight Group
