Conservation starts with communication. Communication starts with listening.

This past month, the Contra Costa RCD and agricultural support partners from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) met with farmers at the Knightsen Farm Center to kick off our monthly Agricultural Support Coffee Hours. 

The premise of these meetings is simple. CCRCD will bring the coffee. UCCE will bring the donuts. And farmers will bring the conversation. Through this event, CCRCD and partners are listening to our agricultural community, identifying needs and conservation issues, and structuring our programs to better support agriculture in Contra Costa County.

The event is marketed from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM, but is really meant to function more like office hours. If you can only come for 10 or 15 minutes, we’d be glad to have you and connect! Have some more time to be able to get deeper into conservation issues on your farm? We can talk for an hour (or two like we did at the last meeting!). Do we need to go out and walk the orchard rows? Let’s set up a site visit!

We originally thought this event would start slowly and build interest over time, so we set up one table for the conversation to follow. Then we had to add a second. And then a third, and then a fourth! We peaked somewhere around 15 people discussing problems and issues on their farms, and we listened to what those needs were: irrigation issues, soil health improvements, building more pollinator habitat, fixing up windbreaks to prevent dust issues, and more!

If we missed you last time, we hope you can join us this time! We want to learn what your specific needs are, so that we can better support you, your operation, and work with you to improve natural resource conservation now and into the future. We hope to see you at our next Agricultural Support Coffee Hour on November 4th, 9:30 AM at the Knightsen Farm Center (3020 Second Street Knightsen, CA 94548)!