New SAREP PAC/TAC Members
by Lyra Halprin and Bev Ransom, SAREP

SAREP, established almost 15 years ago, welcomes new members to its Program and Technical advisory committees every year. The committees were created to advise SAREP on program goals and make recommendations on competitive grants. The Program 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 faculty and staff from universities and colleges throughout California with knowledge and experience related to sustainable agriculture.

Under the guidance of the PAC and TAC, SAREP adapts to changing circumstances and needs throughout the state. Last fall, SAREP convened retiring, current, and new advisory committee members to revise the program’s strategic plan. Committee members confirmed that SAREP’s main goals are: 1) to support California farmers in developing and implementing sustainable production and marketing systems, and 2) to support California’s rural and urban communities in understanding and participating in sustainable food and agricultural systems.

“Our new advisory members continually teach us more about the needs and concerns of those we are trying to reach throughout the state,” said Sean L. Swezey, SAREP director. “As we broaden the makeup of our committees, our potential impact throughout the state grows.”

This spring, advisory committee members will be reviewing grant proposals and will recommend funding projects that can most effectively accomplish SAREP’s goals.

The following individuals have agreed to serve a three-year term on SAREP’s advisory committees:

Program Advisory Committee

v DAN BENEDETTI is one of seven partners who operate Clover Stornetta Farms, Inc., a milk processor and distributor in Northern California. As president, he is in charge of sales and public relations marketing. Clover has created a total approach to sustainable dairying through its North Coast Excellence Program, and also offers its own line of organic milk. Dan is committed to sustainable agricultural practices, organic dairy operations and the standards of Clover Stornetta’s North Coast Excellence program, which he believes help ensure the future of dozens of family farms in the San Francisco Bay Area. These systems reflect Clover’s desire to reconnect the consumer with the producer. In 2000, Clover was the first dairy in the United States to receive the Free Farmed label by the American Humane Association. Dan is a past president of the Dairy Institute of California and the Sonoma County Agricultural Marketing Program, is president of the Associated Independent Dairies of America, an advisor to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, a board member of California Independent Grocers Association, a member of advisory boards at Santa Rosa Junior College, California State University, Sonoma, and The Culinary Institute of America.

v STACIE CLARY is the director of the California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, a statewide coalition of farmers, consumers, environmentalists and farmworkers dedicated to promoting a sustainable and socially just food system. She is particularly interested in increased funding for sustainable and organic agriculture on-farm research and extension, state and federal policies benefiting small-scale and sustainable farmers, and community food security and labor issues. She has an 11-year history working with environmental and social justice coalitions, and has extensive experience motivating activists and volunteers, implementing public education campaigns, analyzing and shaping public policy, working with public officials, and fundraising. She is based in Santa Cruz.

v WILLIAM LACY is Vice Provost—University Outreach and International Programs, and is a professor of sociology in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis. Before coming to UCD in 1999, he was the director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and associate dean of the Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Human Ecology at Cornell University. The author/co-author of numerous journal articles and book chapters and six books on education, science, agricultural research and extension and biotechnology and biodiversity, he served on the administrative council of the USDA Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program.

v DAVID LIGHTHALL is the executive director of the California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS), an independent non-profit research organization located in Davis. His research interests include agricultural labor and immigration, technological hazards in agriculture, environmental health, food system policy, and sustainable rural development. Prior to joining CIRS, he taught at Colgate University in New York. Many of his publications focus on the interrelationships between social justice and technological change in agriculture. Within this area, he is particularly interested in the public health impacts of pesticides, the development of less toxic production practices, and improved health care and working conditions for farm workers. He has extensive experience conducting field survey projects in Hyderabad, India, the Corn Belt and High Plains of the U.S., and California. He recently directed a CIRS statewide health study of 971 California farmworkers funded by The California Endowment; it is the first randomized baseline health study of U.S. farmworkers.

v CRAIG McNAMARA is the president and owner of Sierra Orchards, a diversified farming operation in Winters, Solano County. The farm produces primarily walnuts and grape rootstock and includes field, processing and marketing operations. He is the founder and executive director of the FARMS Leadership Program, which helps high school students become lifelong learners and community builders through an understanding of sustainable agriculture. He has served as a board member of California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom and currently is an advisor to the Trust for Public Lands, and Project Food, Land and People. A graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program, Craig serves on the Diversity and Inclusion committees of the Agricultural Education Foundation and the California Walnut Commission, where he also serves as commissioner. Craig lives with his wife and three children in Winters, where he is a 4-H leader and school board member.

v ARTHUR NALDOZA is the deputy director of La Cooperativa Campesina de California, based in Sacramento. A Salinas native educated at San Francisco State, he was a rural clinic director, a staff consultant at the Center for Community Change, the executive director of Health Officers Association of California, and a lobbyist for Naldoza and Associates before assuming his current responsibilities. His areas of expertise are employment, health and education, and he is particularly interested in the stabilization of the agricultural work force.

v KAREN ROSS is the president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), a statewide association dedicated to enhancing the business of growing winegrapes through research, advocacy and industry leadership. She is also the executive director for Winegrape Growers of America, a national organization of state winegrower organizations. Karen previously served as vice president of government affairs for the Agricultural Council of California, and before coming to California was the government relations director for the Nebraska Rural Electric Association and field staff director for the late U.S. Senator Edward Zorinsky. In 1998, Ross was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to his Agriculture and Water Policy Transition Advisory Committee. She serves on the board of the Agricultural Education Foundation, the Ag Advisory Committee for the California State Fair, the California Wine Education Foundation, Women for WineSense, and the Ag Network. Ross serves on the board for St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children and is a former president of Soroptimist International of Metropolitan Sacramento.

Technical Advisory Committee

v KENT DAANE is an UC Cooperative Extension associate specialist in the Division of Insect Biology (ESPM) at UC Berkeley. His areas of interest include research in the biological control of insect pests in almonds, grapes, stone fruits, olives and pistachio crops; sustainable agriculture; insect-plant interactions; and the biology of parasites. Kent has lectured on insect biology, conservation and resource studies, enology and viticulture, and crop science at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, California State University, Fresno and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He has authored more than 50 papers in refereed and grower-oriented journals and magazines and UC ANR publications.

v MARIA de la FUENTE is the Cooperative Extension director and a farm advisor in Santa Clara County. A former professor and dean of research, development and extension at Monterrey Tech in Mexico, she has worked with UC Cooperative Extension for the last five years. Her specialties are mushrooms and other edible fungi, alternative and specialty vegetable crops (Chinese vegetables, chile peppers, garlic), and nursery crops and cut flowers. Her research has been expanded to address critical concerns of urban-based clientele including economic development and environmental issues such as integrated pest management, water and soil management, and green waste reduction and use. She oversees the Master Gardener and 4-H programs.

v MELANIE DuPUIS is an assistant professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz, where her specialties include food and agriculture, the environment, technology and policy. Her professional interests include organic food and consumer social movements. Her book Nature’s Perfect Food: Milk and American Identity will be published in the fall.

v LUCRECIA FARFAN-RAMIREZ is the Cooperative Extension director and health and community development advisor in Alameda County. She is responsible for the county’s Child and Youth Nutrition Program, which includes the Youth Expanded Food and Nutrition Program, Food Stamp Program, Nutrition Education and Training Academy, 5 A Day Power Play, Nutri-Link, and food security programs. She also serves as member of the Alameda County Maternal and Childcare Board, Food Security Advisory Committee of West Oakland, and other Healthy Start task forces and committees. Lucrecia is actively involved in linking research and practice in the area of agriculture and nutrition, particularly addressing the need of low-income communities through ecological models like food security, edible gardens, and farm-to-school lunch programs.

v WILLIAM HORWATH is a professor of soil biogeochemistry in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. Before coming to Davis he spent three years as a soil microbiologist with the USDA-ARS in Corvallis, Oregon doing research on composting on-farm wastes and the influence of riparian areas on water quality. Currently he teaches introductory soil science, nutrient cycling and management and organic chemistry of soil. His research is directed at understanding how soils store carbon or organic matter in both agriculture and forest ecosystems; results address the issue of soil carbon credits and the sustainability of practices leading to soil carbon sequestration. These relate to the potential of using alternative management strategies in California agriculture and forestry systems to store soil carbon and mitigate the effect of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on global climate change.

v JIM OLTJEN is a management systems specialist in the animal science department at UC Davis. He is conducting research on animal production systems including projects on improved grazing systems, and modeling the growth and composition of beef cattle. His special interest is modeling the effects of alternative scenarios on resource use and production. He previously served on SAREP’s Technical Advisory Committee from 1992-95.

v PHIL OSTERLI has been the Cooperative Extension director in Stanislaus County for the last 15 years, focusing primarily on water quality and land use issues. He spent the first 15 years of his career as a farm advisor specializing in row crops. A native Californian, he received degrees in agronomy from UC Davis.

v JOHN PHILLIPS is a professor of agronomy in the crop sciences department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His areas of expertise include small grains and garbanzo production, agricultural experimentation, Holistic Management, and precision farming. He is particularly interested in sustainable agriculture and farmland preservation. He is also a licensed California Agricultural Pest Control Advisor.

Continuing PAC/TAC

Program Advisory Committee: Tess Dunham, Mark Lipson, Scott Paulsen, Frank Tamborello and Diego Vasquez.

Technical Advisory Committee: Edie Allen, Ted Bradshaw, Holly Brown-Williams, Rachel Mabie, Mike Stanghellini and Cheryl Wilen. Biographies of continuing PAC/TAC members appeared in the winter issue of Sustainable Agriculture (Vol. 12, No. 1).

Retiring PAC/TAC

The following advisory committee members have rotated off the PAC or TAC: Bob Bornt, Frank Dawley, Debra Denton, Jeff Dlott, Tim O’Neill, Randii MacNear, An Peischel, Jim Rider, Beth von Gunten, Ernst Biberstein, Carlos Murillo, Doreen Stabinsky, Carolyn Stull, and Jo Ann Wheatley. UC SAREP is very appreciative of the work that advisory committee members do for the program.