The year 2001 is the final year for five projects (prunes, walnuts, rice, citrus, and strawberries) and 2002 is the final year for the two remaining projects (apples and dairies).

Main BIFS Program Goals and Activities for the Next Two Years

• Analyze pesticide use trends of the seven current BIFS projects and compare to county and statewide commodity-based use patterns.

• Evaluate the synthetic fertilizer use and impacts of BIFS alternative fertilization practices.

• Use the BIFS Workgroup to increase University of California engagement in the BIFS program.

• Increase statewide outreach for BIFS projects, starting with the conference "Partnerships for Sustaining California Agriculture: Profit, Environment and Community," March 27-28, 2001. Please see http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/agpartners/

• Conduct local and statewide surveys of BIFS commodities to evaluate the impact of the BIFS program.

• Continue to provide and coordinate technical support to BIFS projects in the areas of outreach and participatory extension, economic analysis, statistical analysis, and biological farming.

• US-EPA intends to continue support of the BIFS program, but this money will not be enough to fund completely new BIFS projects. We need to secure additional state funding for new and/or expanded BIFS projects. No new funding for additional or expanded BIFS projects has been identified at this time.