By Todd Manley
Last week, Sacramento hosted the first-ever Terra Madre Festival in the United States, bringing together farmers, ranchers, conservationists, students, and community members to celebrate the connections between food, nature, and culture. Organized in partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), the festival embodied the Slow Food movement’s values of good, clean, and fair food.
As part of the festivities, I had the privilege of moderating a panel titled “Paddies with Purpose: Growing Rice and Resilience,” which highlighted how California’s rice fields nourish not only people, but also the environment and communities across the Sacramento Valley.
Rice production in Northern California has always been about more than a crop. Our region’s ricelands serve as surrogate wetlands, providing essential habitat for millions of migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway. They also support fish populations, create open spaces for biodiversity, and sustain the regional economy.
Our region’s ricelands are also central to the Floodplain Forward Coalition, a broad partnership of landowners, water districts, conservation groups, and agencies working together to maximize habitat value from land and water resources in the Sacramento Valley.
The panel I moderated at Terra Madre reflected this collaborative vision. Each speaker shared how ricelands are a living demonstration of the Coalition’s principle: that land and water can simultaneously support agriculture, restore ecosystems, and strengthen community resilience.
Photo Brian Baer
Gabrielle Katanic, with Lundberg Family Farms, highlighted how farms like theirs are advancing innovative practices that sustain rural economies while contributing to environmental stewardship. California Trout’s Jacob Katz described how reconnecting rivers to floodplains turns post-harvest rice fields into food-rich rearing grounds for young salmon, helping restore endangered fish populations. Sandi Matsumoto, with The Nature Conservancy, emphasized how science-driven partnerships are scaling up efforts to create bird habitat, recharge groundwater, and expand flood protection—all core goals of the Floodplain Forward approach.
The Terra Madre Festival provided a unique platform to connect local stories from California to the global Slow Food network. In the Sacramento Valley, landowners, water managers, conservation organizations, scientists, and our state and federal partners are showing how agriculture can be both productive and regenerative—sustaining communities while restoring ecosystems. It was inspiring to see how our regional efforts resonated within a broader international conversation about climate, biodiversity, and community health.
Related Materials:
Check out Water and Flavor: Telling the Stories Behind Sacramento Valley’s Farm-to-Fork Movement — a piece that highlights how water makes possible the ingredients, meals, and partnerships that define our region’s special food culture.
