In today’s extremely competitive economic landscape between regions both in the state, and across the country, identity and branding are critical keys to success. I remember as a child, my father describing to me how he was recruited to the Sacramento region from the East Coast in the early 60’s. As a young professional, he was brought in on a flight to the Sacramento airport – at night. He and my mother were here for three days. On the first day, he was escorted to San Francisco, the second to Tahoe, and the third to the Napa wine country. At that time, Sacramento was most assuredly a “place between…” Sacramento was between here and there. Today, on the other hand, we are a place to be. Our own region full of innovation, a vibrant economy, and somewhere people want to come to!
Today we are our own destination, we are America’s Farm to Fork Capital.
Placemaking and a sense of identity is important. We all live it every day that we choose to live here, work here, and play here. We have our own sense of our neighborhoods, our communities, and our region. While the identity of our separate communities and neighborhoods, in which we all take pride, may be different than the identity that we express to the world, the two identities are both important for our success as a region. Just as live music makes Austin a unique place, our unique positioning of urban and suburban communities surrounded by the farmlands that produce the fresh produce we all take for granted in our markets, schools and restaurants is something to embrace. Just as Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World, we are America’s Farm to Fork Capital.
The city first adopted this slogan several years ago, and the City Council further ratified it this year. A step that the Metro Chamber was proud to support.
While we understand that each and every neighborhood of the region has its unique identity, being America’s Farm to Fork Capital gives us a national identity, one that brings our region together and declares our place in the competitive landscape of attracting innovation, jobs, industry, employees, and economic stability and growth.
We are proud to support the City of Sacramento’s declaration as America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital. There are plenty of innovative partnership possibilities with this brand, and as we have already seen, it will serve us well as a catalyst to what lies ahead.
Robert Dugan 
SVP, Public Policy & Economic Development
Sacramento Metro Chamber