March 1996
Sustainable Agriculture in Cyberspace
How do you get information about sustainable farming practices out to rural communities? The Davis-based UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) reaches out on the Internet to farmers, farmworkers and consumers with data on biological farming techniques, production and community food system projects, as well as the program's newsletters, summaries of more than 100 SAREP-funded grants, requests for proposals for its two grant programs, an extensive cover crops database and other computer applications. Now in its tenth year, SAREP presents summaries of recent grant projects and an introduction to its World Wide Web server in the program's new Progress Report 1993-95, which is itself available on the Internet at (http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu ). "It's a challenge to get this useful information to the people who need it," says Jill Shore Auburn, SAREP associate director. "On our World Wide Web home page you can search on a word such as 'grapes' or 'rangeland' and find everything on that topic-newsletter articles, projects we've funded, and so forth. Plus, on the Web you can follow links from our articles to related information at other sites with one click of the mouse button. Already, two of the projects we've funded have their own Web sites!" Auburn stresses that SAREP information is available in written and video formats, and local workshops have always been an important way the statewide program communicates and collaborates with farmers and consumers.
Media Contacts:
Lyra Halprin, (530) 752-8664, lhalprin@ucdavis.edu
