"Cracker maker opens plant at 12th and F."

That recent headline in The Bee added a lift to hopes that Sacramento can help rebuild its economy around an industry that once flourished in town – food manufacturing and processing.

Using locally grown grains, produce and dairy products, Peter Weber quietly set up shop near downtown Sacramento. His company makes specialty crackers, designed to go with specialty cheeses.

A century ago, Weber's enterprise would not have been all that noteworthy. The Sacramento region was an agricultural hub. Farms, canneries and food manufacturing plants of all kinds employed thousands of workers.

But agriculture went out of fashion. Hit with international competition, plunging commodity prices and agribusiness consolidation, and not enough support from business boosters, the region's food economy shrank. Dozens of canneries closed or moved their operations further south. Farmland was gobbled up by housing.

Sacramento's economy drifted in other directions: military industrial spending, high tech, biotech, business and financial services, and housing, among other things. But as those sectors have waxed and mostly waned in recent years, regional leaders have begun rethinking Sacramento's agricultural past.

The regional assets that once made Sacramento an agricultural hub – good soil, favorable climate and plenty of water – remain. A new food ethic that promotes, fresh, organic, healthy and locally grown foods has taken hold. Many farmers are doing well, not only capitalizing on strong prices for products such as almonds and rice, but growing and selling specialty crops for restaurants in the Bay Area, Sacramento and elsewhere.

In recent years, the Sacramento Area Council Of Governments has launched a special project – the Rural Urban Connections Strategy, RUCS – to better track the economic activity of locally grown and processed foods. Along with other groups, SACOG hopes to lure food manufacturers and other agribusiness companies back to the Sacramento region.

Some things are already working.

Popular farmers markets are generating income for a growing cadre of small-scale farmers. So are direct-to-consumer deliveries of fruits and vegetables.

More restaurants feature menus that include locally grown ingredients.

It's a trickle, not a stampede.

Cracker maker Peter Weber is but one example of the changing times. He says he came to Sacramento because "it's a great place to live." He found plenty of available spaces to site his facility and a great labor force, "people willing to work and work hard."

At a time of so much dismal economic news, the Sacramento region's slow, modest and still tentative move back to the farm – back to its future – offers a glimmer of hope.

The Bee's past stands

"Conversations about food used to focus mainly on this question: 'What's for dinner?'

Increasingly, people want to know: 'Where is my dinner coming from?' "

– Sept. 8, 2009

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