The Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint
To bring Bio-Industrial Manufacturing to the California Central Valley
The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors held Special Meetings at offsite locations to discuss the Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint, which was recently released to the public.
According to the blueprint, Stanislaus 2030 is “a collaboration among business, government, and civic stakeholders to create and deliver a joint strategy and investment plan for regional economic growth and opportunity in the coming decade”. Further, it states the vision is to “commit to build a high-performing diverse economy to match our multi-cultural lifestyles and dreams of the future” by “creating pathways … to achieve economic mobility by building an economy that is diverse, inclusive, connected, vibrant and sustainable”.
However, reading beyond the first few pages of this blueprint document it becomes clear that the true mission of this plan is the establish The California Central Valley as a Bio-Industrial Manufacturing Hub.
Bio-industrial manufacturing, is defined as the use of biological systems—including microbes like bacteria, yeast, and algae—to create new materials or sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based materials.
The process began in September 2021 with a discovery and analysis of the Community, to begin community engagement and bring together local researchers. With various other steps already taken, the plan is currently in the Moving Forward / Implementation phase.
In all, the blueprint outlines the investment of over $75million to provide everything from job training, expanding The National Farmworker Jobs program, Streamlining permitting processes, and $31 million to develop a manufacturing facility to help “move from lab-based viability to commercial Manufacturing”, which will apparently establish the region as a national industry leader.
This project is being funded in whole or by The US Department of Treasury under Federal award number SLFRP2096. $109,959,250 has already been paid out to Stanislaus County in 2021 under this award number according to USASpending.gov.
The Blueprint continues to describe the framework as being created by the Brookings Institution, one of the partners in the initiative. Known officially as the Metro Monitor Framework, which guides decisions and workforce development strategies, has already been adopted by dozens of regions over the past five years. Representatives from The Brookings Institution are actively involved locally with this initiative, having given many presentations to the leaders of this plan and the public.
Stanislaus 2030 is being driven by 31 private, public and civic leaders on the Executive Committee, over 200 leaders form the Leadership Council, Elected officials from City, County, State & Federal Representatives, as well as various workgroups and what is described as the Backbone Team. They also include local and non-local, businesses, educational & medical institutions, local banks and credit unions as well as various public-private partnerships.
A few of those named as being specifically involved are:
Andy Foster, President of Aemetis, Inc, a leading producer of renewable biofuels and natural gas
Ann Veneman, who previously served as the 27th United States Secretary of Agriculture and as the fifth executive director of UNICEF, appointed by the UN Secretary Kofi Annan
Karen Warner, who served as District Chief of Staff for the US House of Representatives from 2018-2021, now the Founder/Director of BEAM Circular Bio-economy Hub, which focuses the transformation of waste into value across food and agricultural systems.
Though the plan has been recently unveiled, infrastructure is already in place in the community with the addition of Modesto Junior College (MJC) as a member of BioMade -Bio-Industrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem . BioMade is a nonprofit created by the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC), for a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII). BioMADE, who received $87million from the Department of Defense for this initiative, will begin training MJC students with the necessary skills for working in the Bio-Industrial facilities.
Stanislaus 2030 appears to speak to concerns the community has had for many decades now, including the availability of well-paying jobs that are close to home, increasing the standard of living, access to adequate child care, and much more being described in the “Framework for a vibrant economy”.
In my next article - my Interview with Mani Grewal, Stanislaus County District 4 Supervisor, where I was able to sit down with him and talk at more detail and ask some important questions which are not specifically mentioned in the plan itself.
In addition, other upcoming articles will include on-location reports of specific facilities that are opening up in the local area, including the re-opening of the facility which was a US Army Ammunition plant located in Riverbank, California, which will be providing support to this proposed new industry, and what this may mean for people who live in the areas surrounding them.