A Thriving Ag Project All-Hands meeting took place on March 22, 2021. The team finalized five draft scenarios for discussion with the Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB) at this meeting. The five draft scenarios were (1) business as usual, (2) payments for performance of ecosystem services and achieving nutrient balance, (3) managing urban growth and maintaining existing farmland, (4) increasing farm profitability through local food efforts and growing urban-rural relationships, and (5) a dietary shift to plant-based proteins and alternative meats. Out of the meeting came several suggested refinements to the five scenarios that the Project Team will be incorporating into its work.
The project team will be selecting a subset of volunteers from the SAB, based on interest, expertise, and the content of the scenarios, to provide more frequent comment and feedback as the details of the five scenarios mentioned above are finalized. The entire SAB will be reconvened in fall 2021 to review the results of work by the project team on analyzing the five scenarios.