The goal is to advance community and economic development programs that work to secure – for the present and future, and within the means of nature – a just and equitable life for all species. Columbia Foundation focuses its grantmaking on the following:

Promotion of sustainable food systems that work toward: secure livelihood for farmers and farm workers; protection of natural resources and biodiversity; the viability of marine ecosystems and fisheries; protection of public and environmental health; access to affordable, nutritious food from local and regional sources to meet the needs of people of differing cultures and incomes; and creation of thriving regional food economies:

$35,000 to the BRENTWOOD AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST, Brentwood, Ca., for the Brentwood Regional Marketing Project, to create a regional identity for sustainably produced local foods and to link small-scale family farmers in East Contra Costa County with urban markets in the San Francisco Bay Area.

$50,000 to CALIFORNIANS FOR GE-FREE AGRICULTURE, Occidental, Ca., for continuing support of its education and organizing campaign on the human health, economic, and environmental impacts of genetically engineered crops in California. The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center is the sponsor.

$50,000 to the CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY, Washington, D.C., for general support of its California office, which runs two initiatives: (1) the Agricultural Biotechnology Watch Project, which uses policy, legal, and public education tools to promote human health and environmental protection by ensuring that genetically engineered food is appropriately regulated, tested, and labeled; and (2) the Organic and Beyond Campaign, which promotes sustainable food systems that are humane, socially just, ecologically sound, and appropriately scaled.

$50,000 to HEALTHCARE WITHOUT HARM, Jamaica Plain, Mass., for the California Healthy Food in Health Care Project to harness the purchasing power of healthcare institutions to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable, locally based food system.

$75,000 over three years to MARIN ORGANIC, Pt. Reyes Station, Ca., to create an interconnected, all-organic agriculture-production system in Marin County, and the branding, marketing, and distribution systems that will build a viable regional-food economy.

$50,000 to the NORTHCOAST REGIONAL LAND TRUST, Bayside, Ca., for an initiative to protect the productive capacity of the region’s dairy, ranching, and row-cropping agricultural lands, and the natural systems that support regional fisheries through strategic conservation planning and implementation of specific agricultural land-protection projects.

$50,000 to the ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION, Little Marais, Minn., for research, public education, and advocacy about the opportunity to replace destructive and trade-distorting cotton subsidies with subsidies that strengthen ecological-farming practices, support small and medium-size family farms, and improve rural economies.

Creation and dissemination of economic development models that work toward the goal of sustainability:

$40,000 to the ALLIANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE JOBS AND THE ENVIRONMENT - EDUCATION PROJECT, Eureka, Ca., for continuing support of the North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative, a collaboration among labor, environmental, and community leaders to create a sustainable “restoration economy” in Humboldt County and adjacent areas in Northern California. A restoration economy is one that is ecologically based; that creates high-skill, living-wage livelihoods; and that promotes sustainable communities through landscape and watershed restoration.

$50,000 to the ELLA BAKER CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Oakland, Ca., to establish the Institute for Restorative Justice and Economics (also known as Reclaim the Future) to build alliances among criminal justice, social justice, environmental, business, labor, and government leaders to prioritize investing in the creation of green jobs for low-income and people-of-color communities.