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Humans need three basic things: water, food and safety. Without these essentials, we cannot survive, much less thrive.
When we have them, it can be easy to take these basics for granted. For many of us, we turn on the faucet and clean water fills our glass. Go to the grocery store and there are many food options. Walk around the block and it’s safe enough to disappoint us.
But despite standard expectations for some, these everyday moments of basic well-being and security are far from guaranteed for millions of Californians. In a state of abundance, why do some people still struggle to meet their most basic needs? And what can we do to fix this?
In the summer of 2024, the Possibility Lab invited public policy researchers from across California to share their ideas for addressing these questions. Here we present reports from three policy experts: Nikola Ulibari (water), Anastasia Telesetsky (food) and Mikaela Rabinowitz (public safety). According to these researchers, abundance is not just about the numerical supply of basic goods; it is also about the allocation and distribution of these resources.
Water is relatively unique among basic commodities in that it is extremely difficult to create more of it. The amount of water on Earth today is essentially the same as billions of years ago. What does abundance mean in the context of a fixed resource?
According to Ulibari, this means acknowledging that our existing water supply is not actually scarce. In fact, water is already abundant for most Californians, whose homes are served by a massive infrastructure system that moves water from wet to dry parts of the state. However, there are variations in who has access to it.
Although clean water is readily available for most people, many residents slip through the cracks. Thousands of households, especially in rural areas, are not connected to the water supply system, leaving them dependent on groundwater wells that can dry up during drought or due to local overpumping. And among those connected to the system, nearly a million Californians receive water that does not meet the standards set by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Meanwhile, a growing number of Californians face new or worsening affordability challenges water prices are rising faster than inflation.
Sustainable water abundance requires the regeneration and preservation of our natural ecosystems. In terms of net supply, California’s infrastructure already collects enough water to support all Californians, according to Ulibarri, so closing the capital gap does not require extracting more water from the environment. Instead, the report suggests expanding the use of water recycling technologies and spreading existing water supplies to a wider range of residents. By investing in the water system’s infrastructure and workforce, and by redesigning utility rates to make them more affordable, Ulibarri suggests California can maintain water abundance for generations to come.
Water is elemental, but food is not far behind in its essentiality. By many accounts, California already produces an abundance of food. The agricultural industry of the state is a a major exporter to consumers across the country and the world. Still, Telesecki points out that 11.4 percent of California households are food insecure, meaning millions of state residents have limited or insecure access to adequate food. Moreover, conventional industrial agriculture is water-intensive and soil-depleting. How can California ensure that all residents have access to a nutritious diet under these conditions?
For Telesecki, the answer is multifaceted. Telesecki describes a range of policy interventions that could improve access to food deserts, such as investing locally in cold storage and subsidizing grocery delivery to underserved areas. In addition, Telesetsky proposes wider use of agricultural innovations, including seawater greenhouses and regenerative farming techniques.
Beyond these interventions and innovations, however, Telesecki envisions food abundance in terms of strengthening local farmers and communities. To that end, Telesecki is encouraging California to pilot new models of growing and sharing food, including locally sourced community kitchens that provide free or paid nutritious meals, with government funding to cover the kitchens’ overhead costs and providing basic income programs to participating local farmers. Telesecki describes the potential of these community kitchens as not only addressing food insecurity, but also cultivating connections between people and strengthening their ties to the land.
Community-level investment is also at the center of Rabinowitz’s vision for abundance in public safety. Many state and local budgets allocate significant funds to the criminal justice system, but at the same time are often perceived as productive unsatisfactory results in terms of solving serious crime and improving safety outcomes. According to Rabinowitz, police officers are often expected to provide community services that are better handled by social workers and community organizations. In particular, reliable funding is lacking for many community-based organizations that facilitate evidence-based programs aimed at intervention against violence in the community through peer mentoring.
Rabinowitz says California can do three things to help police departments fulfill their direct law enforcement functions and ensure the flow of resources for interventions that reduce violence: Reduce, improve and reinvest. By reducing the amount of non-criminal 911 calls assigned to police officers, by improving law enforcement’s ability to solve serious crimes, and by reinvesting resources into community-based interventions that work, Rabinowitz argues that California can create the conditions for abundant public safety that everyone enjoys.
Read the full notes on water, food and public safety
Achieving abundance to meet basic needs
For all their differences, these three experts on California’s water, food and safety suggest one thing in common: They’re arguing for stronger and more effective leadership from state government. Rabinowitz proposes creating a single violence prevention office within the California Department of Justice to consolidate and build on existing efforts across the state. Meanwhile, Ulibarri and Telesetsky stress the need for the state to put more teeth behind existing legislation that classifies water and food as human rights.
From the state legislature to community-led initiatives in California, there are numerous opportunities to improve the delivery, allocation, and distribution of resources so that all people can meet their basic needs.
To learn more, visit the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab’s Abundance Accelerator site