The Vivid Picture project describes

The Vivid Picture project describes a vision of a sustainable food system in the state of
California in the year 2030 and proposes a change agenda for reaching that future.
Fundamental to an analysis of California’s food system is an understanding of the
influence of geophysical factors, such as temperature and precipitation, upon food
production. Over the last two decades, the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) has developed an agro-ecological zone methodology for describing
the cumulative effect of geophysical factors on agricultural regimes or, conversely, the
appropriateness of various types of agricultural activity for specific regions. In this paper
we apply a modified version of the FAO agro-ecological zone (AEZ) methodology to the
California landscape.
Starting from the current knowledge of what grows where, we can also develop an
understanding of what might plausibly grow where. For example, crops that are
associated within a particular AEZ in the graph above may be considered substitutes for
each other in that zone. By providing a basis for assessing the viability of alternative
agricultural regimes, an AEZ analysis at this resolution allows for the performance of
scenario planning with the assurance that one can know where on the landscape demand
for specific crop types can be satisfied. In addition, AEZ analysis allows for the
delineation and mapping of foodsheds for given levels of eater demand of specific crop
types in specific localities. Unfortunately, time constraints have not permitted us to
achieve these outputs for the Vivid Picture project.