Dear Supporters of California Agriculture:

The Buy California Initiative-as funded by a federal specialty crop block grant-is based on the simple belief that California's agricultural products are the very best in the world.

This initiative aims to take that simple belief and turn it into a program to boost consumption of California's agricultural commodities and give growers of specialty crops a number of much-needed tools.

For the first time in California's history a comprehensive effort benefiting our specialty crop growers and producers is addressing such critical issues as research, agricultural education, nutrition, food safety and pest and disease eradication. These efforts are vital to upholding our mutual mission to provide safe and nutritious food in a fair marketplace with responsible stewardship of the environment.

From an initial federal grant of nearly $64 million, with $6 million in state funds and another $30 million in grantee matching funds, this effort is bearing fruit in rural communities and local schools throughout California. While the monies leveraged by this initial federal grant are substantial, it is the impact of those dollars that will leave the most lasting impression.

Already, an aggressive statewide marketing campaign is increasing consumption of California's unparalleled variety of fruits and vegetables. In Fresno, a public education campaign on motor vehicle safety is targeting the Spanish farm worker population in that region. And, in schools throughout Stanislaus County, students are getting the message that drinking milk is a "cool" thing. They now have the option of buying milk-instead of other artificially sweetened beverages-directly from vending machines placed on campus.

I invite you to take a closer look at these and the many other exciting success stories resulting from this Buy California Initiative.

A.G. Kawamura
Secretary