www.brentwoodaglandtrust.org<\/a> or follow BALT on Facebook.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, we told you about BALT\u2019s work protecting prime farmland. But it takes\u00a0more than land to ensure that future generations will have a local source of food. It\u2019s\u00a0not farmland without farmers, and farmers must be able to make a living farming to\u00a0remain on the land. BALT has a duel mission: To permanently protect farmland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/roadside-stand-e1437426175370.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HwAU-1aU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>\n\nLast month, we told you about BALT\u2019s work protecting prime farmland. But it takes\u00a0more than land to ensure that future generations will have a local source of food. It\u2019s\u00a0not farmland without farmers, and farmers must be able to make a living farming to\u00a0remain on the land.\n\nBALT has a duel mission: To permanently protect farmland and to work with\u00a0farmers and the community to build an economically vibrant future for local\u00a0agriculture. For the past twelve years, BALT has worked to remove obstacles and\u00a0create opportunities for Bay Area farmers.\n\nAs agriculture consolidated over the past thirty years, it\u2019s become more difficult for\u00a0small-scale family farmers to compete in global markets. Local farmers have had to\u00a0build new business models to survive. Innovative farmers like Farmer Al take\u00a0advantage of their proximity to the Bay Area by connecting with their urban\u00a0neighbors through farmers markets and farm tours. Brentwood farmers have a long\u00a0tradition of u-picks and roadside stands, and people continue to flock to Brentwood\u00a0every summer to pick fruit. Farms like Frog Hollow Farm have also diversified their\u00a0farming operations by \u201cadding value\u201d to their bounty by processing it into wines,\u00a0olive oils, jams, salsas and baked goods.\n\nHowever, until recently, Contra Costa County\u2019s agricultural zoning was so limiting\u00a0that farmers were unable to take advantage of direct marketing, agricultural\u00a0tourism and value-added opportunities. While well intentioned, the County zoning,\u00a0designed to protect prime soils, prohibited all economic activity except growing\u00a0crops. Farmers couldn\u2019t make jams or jellies, wineries were prohibited and the size\u00a0of roadside stands was severely limited. Over the past decade, BALT has worked\u00a0closely with Contra Costa County to reform agricultural zoning to allow expanded\u00a0roadside stands, commercial kitchens, wineries and olive oil presses.\n\nThere\u2019s a still lot of work to be done! County zoning prohibitions against farm-to-\u00a0table cafes and farm stays continue limit agricultural tourism in East Contra Costa.\u00a0Together with local farmers, BALT will continue to advocate for local regulations\u00a0that support a vibrant urban-edge agricultural economy.\n\nFor more information about BALT and for updates on Brentwood farming, please\u00a0visit