January 1998
UCD Sustainable Ag Researchers Receive National Grants
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded two Fund for Rural America grants totaling $725,000 to projects involving researchers from the UC Davis-based Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) and the UCD Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. Less than 7 percent of the Fund for Rural America applicants were funded. At UCD, a grant for $400,000 will be used to increase the adoption of sustainable ag practices and promote farmer leadership in California, while the second grant, for $325,000, will demonstrate and build the economic development potential of farmers' markets as rural enterprise incubators in California, New York and Iowa with investigators at Cornell and Iowa State. "We are very excited to be participating in two large-scale projects that link sustainable agriculture with rural community development," says Bill Liebhardt, SAREP director. Gail Feenstra, SAREP food systems coordinator, is leading the California component of the three-state farmers' market project. Feenstra will also be a collaborator on the grant headed by Karen Klonsky of the UCD Davis Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics which will work with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission to increase adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and build farmer leadership skills to strengthen local community connections.
Media Contacts:
Lyra Halprin, (530) 752-8664, lhalprin@ucdavis.edu
