Summer, 1996 (v8n3)
It's been almost ten years since September 26, 1986, the day California Governor George Deukmejian signed Senate Bill 872 into law. Sponsored by Senator Nicholas Petris of Oakland, the bill enacted the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Act of 1986, which requested the Regents of the University of California to establish the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). Petris carried the bill in response to farmer, consumer and researcher concerns that California farming practices be more ecologically sound, economically profitable and socially responsible.
SB 872 charged newly created SAREP with administering a competitive research grants program for sustainable agricultural practices and public policies, developing and disseminating new and existing information on sustainable practices, and coordinating long-term farmland research. The program found a home at UC Davis, its first public and technical advisory committees were selected, and the first Request for Proposals for grants went out in early 1987. In March of that year Bill Liebhardt was selected SAREP director, the first grants were awarded to eight projects, and the program was on its way.
"We have always used the enacting legislation as our blueprint," said Liebhardt. "In the last ten years, SAREP has awarded more than $2.8 million to approximately 200 basic and applied research projects, economic and public policy projects, seminar and field demonstrations and graduate student awards. It has also provided the seed money for the first long-term irrigated farmland study in a Mediterranean climate anywhere in the world."
SAREP administers a second funding program to help farmers reduce their use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, called the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) program.
SAREP's enabling
legislation requires it to have both public and technical advisory committees
to advise the university on program goals and make recommendations on
the award of competitive grants. The Public Advisory Committee (PAC) includes
individuals actively involved in agricultural production, as well as representatives
from government, public organizations, and institutions of higher education.
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is made up of universitywide faculty
and staff with knowledge
and experience related to sustainable agriculture and makes recommendations
about the scientific merit of grant applications. Each PAC or TAC members
serves for three years. New members in 1996 are listed here.
Public Advisory Committee
JENNY BROOME is an environmental research scientist at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Her areas of expertise include plant pathology, epidemiology and management of fungal diseases of plants. She is interested in cultural and biological control of plant pathogens, the use of weather/microclimate monitoring to guide plant disease management, integrated pest management, environmentally and socially just agriculture, and viticulture.
CYNTHIA CORY is the director of marketing and commodities for the California Farm Bureau Federation, and works with the state legislature and agencies on agricultural issues. She focuses on marketing, commodity, and transportation issues that facilitate getting California ag products off farms and ranches into marketing channels and ultimately to consumers. She works with a diverse set of concerns that range from emu ranching to drug and alcohol testing of commercial truck drivers. One of her particular interests is in developing relationships between different sectors of agriculture and between urban and rural communities.
DAVID COSTA is a managing partner of a family farm in Lemoore, Kings County which produces upland cotton, pima cotton, corn, wheat, barley and alfalfa using conventional farming methods (with an emphasis on reduced chemical inputs), cover crops and manures. Licensed as both an agricultural and civil engineer, Costa would like farming to remain a viable income-producing industry in California, and to that end, wants to see issues like urban sprawl and over-regulation addressed. He serves on various water boards and is a director of the local Resource Conservation District board. His family ranch cooperated with the UC in a six-year potassium deficiency study which resulted in a major change in the way cotton and other commodities are farmed.
LEONARD DIGGS is the owner/operator of Leonard Diggs Organic Farms, a small organic operation in Sonoma County. He raises vegetable crops including salad mix, tomatoes, specialty peppers, and strawberries. The winner of the UC Small Farm Program's 1996 Pedro Ilic Award for Outstanding Farmer, Diggs is particularly interested in agricultural education. He has taught gardening to elementary level students, teaches specialty crop production at the junior college level, and is hoping to teach high school "life skills" classes to show young people how science and the humanities affect their lives. Diggs serves on the Sonoma County Solid Waste Board, the Sonoma County Agriculture Literacy Project, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau board, the UC Small Farm Program Advisory Committee, and is active in the North Coast chapter of California Certified Organic Farmers.
JAMES LIEBMAN is Staff Scientist at the Pesticide Action Network North America Regional Center (PAN) in San Francisco, part of an international network of citizens' organizations working to end pesticide dependence and promote safe and sustainable pest control. Trained as a plant pathologist, Liebman has worked extensively on the ecology and control of agricultural soil fungi, and in agricultural policy. Prior to his work at PAN, Liebman worked at the Environmental Health Policy Program at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health where he analyzed pesticide use in California and proposed adoption of a statewide pesticide use reduction program. He also has worked to assess and promote alternatives to the soil fumigant methyl bromide. He is a contributing editor to the IPM Practitioner and a member of the Materials Review Committee of the California Certified Organic Farmers.
BROCK TAYLOR is the agronomist/assistant manager of Vaquero Farms in Stockton, San Joaquin County. He is responsible for all water and fertilizer management decisions for processing tomatoes, cotton, garlic and onions, and coordinates production trials and technological innovations to produce consistent profitable production levels and maximize resource use. A public member of the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Fertilizer Inspection Advisory Board and an executive member of the Fertilizer Research and Education Subcommittee, Taylor is particularly interested in agricultural economics and production management. He has also done agronomic consulting in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
MICHAEL STRAUS handles marketing and sales in his family's Marin County organic dairy. Straus Family Creamery is the first organic dairy in the western United States, and family members are working to promote sustainable agriculture in the dairy business. Straus is interested in sustainable communities, particularly as they relate to agriculture, the environment, and business. He is a Marin Conservation League board member, and likes ice cream.
Technical Advisory Committee
TIM HARTZ is an Extension Specialist with the vegetable crops department at UC Davis. His areas of expertise include irrigation and fertility management and general cultural management of vegetable crops. He is particularly interested in water use, cost and availability; groundwater protection; and soil quality.
CRAIG KOLODGE is the superintendent of the UC Bay Area Research and Extension Center and the county director for Santa Clara County UC Cooperative Extension. A plant pathologist by training, Kolodge worked as a private consultant in pest management and as a research and development scientist for an agrochemical company prior to joining UC Cooperative Extension. He is particularly interested in urban-based sustainable agriculture education; alternative systems of plant disease control; and start-up farming enterprises for urban individuals.
TERRY PRICHARD is an Extension water management specialist for the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. His specialties are irrigation water management, water infiltration, crop water requirements, crop response to limited water supplies, water quality, and soil salinity. Current specific research interests include improvement of vine quality through irrigation management, and the use of cover crops to deplete spring soil moisture.
JANET SAVAGE is the field program supervisor and an instructor in public health nutrition at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She is particularly interested in community food security, regional food systems, and biotechnology (specifically recombinant DNA) and its impact on sustainable food systems.
ROBERT L. "ROB"
THAYER, JR. is a professor of landscape architecture at UC Davis,
and is a practicing land planner, researcher and author. His research
focuses on resource conservation strategies for regional land planning
and the theoretical, perceptual, and practical basis for sustainable landscape
design and development. He is particularly interested in the intersection
between agricultural, habitat, open space, and urban land uses. He is
committed to the notion of regional ecological realism, also known as
"bioregionalism," and is concerned about what agricultural land
and landscape patterns are sustainable over the long-term in particular
ecological regions. He has won eight awards from the American Society
of Landscape Architects, including the ASLA Presidential Award of Excellence
for his 1994 book Gray World, Green Heart: Technology, Nature and the
Sustainable Landscape.
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