Program Notes
Staff Presentations
Janet C. “Jenny” Broome, SAREP associate director, made a presentation to California State Legislative staff members and University of California Office of the President representatives during their tour of UC Davis in May. Attendees met with College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dean Neal Van Alfen and others, including SAREP director Sean L. Swezey to discuss what UCD is doing in the areas of sustainable and organic agriculture. W. R. “Reg” Gomes, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, gave closing remarks.
Broome made presentations on the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) program during the spring, including one to the Pest Management Advisory Committee of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and one to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sean L. Swezey spoke at a workshop on “Certified Organic Tree Crops: Transition, Growing Practices & Markets” in Yuba City in March sponsored by UC Cooperative Extension Sutter/Yuba counties, the UC Davis agricultural and resource economics department, and SAREP. Also in March Swezey gave an update on organic apple production and new technology at the “7th Annual Moth Madness & Fungus Among Us” apple meeting and farm tour in Watsonville sponsored by SAREP and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. He also made a presentation on “Changes in Growing Techniques of Apples” at Focus Agriculture, sponsored by Agri-Culture, a Central Coast collaboration of educators, growers, business and community leaders and UC Cooperative Extension. In June he made a presentation on supporting sustainable food systems at the summer quarterly meeting of the Funders Agriculture Working Group (FAWG) in Marin.
David Chaney, SAREP education coordinator, was the primary organizer of “Agricultural Direct Marketing Strategies for Successful Businesses and Communities” in March at UC Davis. The workshop brought together professionals who work with farmers, ranchers and local communities to increase direct marketing channels. SAREP was a co-sponsor. Gail Feenstra, SAREP food systems analyst, participated in sessions on “Working Collaboratively with Local Business” and on Community Supported Agriculture. Jamie Anderson, a SAREP postgraduate researcher, participated in “Opportunities for Marketing to Schools as Community Institutions.”
Gail Feenstra participated in a panel on “The Endless Simmer: Creating and Sustaining Community in California through Food,” at the California Studies Association Conference in February in Dana Point, Calif. She also participated in the California Department of Education Garden Team Workshop in Davis in March, where she made a presentation on the community food systems link to school gardens.
In May Feenstra gave a presentation at “Emerging Opportunities in Science, Education & Policy,” a conference at Texas A&M University in Dallas, Tex. aimed at defining issues of urban agriculture and common ground between urban and rural communities. W. R. “Reg” Gomes, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, also attended.
Feenstra and Swezey participated in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Conference in Denver in April. Feenstra made presentations in workshops on “Building Capacity for Community-based Food Systems,” and “Community Food Assessment: a Comprehensive Community-based Food System Planning Process.”
Marco Barzman, SAREP biologically integrated farming systems (BIFS) coordinator, designed and taught a participatory course entitled “Agroecology: Theory and Praxis” at Stanford University during the spring quarter.
Visitors
SAREP co-sponsored a talk at UC Davis in June by Zhaoqian Wang from the Agro Ecology and Farming Systems Institute, Zhejiang University on “Ecology, Agriculture and Sustainable Rural Development in China.” Wang described examples of complete integration in Chinese farming systems. He also visited with SAREP staff. Australian Viv Burnett, research scientist for organic agriculture with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment with Agriculture, Victoria-Rutherglen, visited SAREP and met with Broome and Robert Bugg of SAREP and Yolo County farm advisor Rachael Long, and toured the Central Coast with Swezey.
In July, a group of five Australian ranchers and farmers and one Zimbabwean farmer visited SAREP. Jeri Ohmart of SAREP hosted their visit, which included a tour of Rose Loveall’s Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville that specializes in culinary and medicinal herbs and native plants. They also visited John Anderson’s Hedgerow Farms in Winters.
Awards
Robert Bugg, SAREP restoration ecologist and cover crop analyst, visited San José Del Cabo in Baja California Sur where he was hosted by Del Cabo Organic Vegetables. The trip was first prize from the talent show at the Ecological Farming Conference in January where Bugg sang a Mozart opera aria. His stay included a tour of collective farms that collaborate with Del Cabo in producing tomatoes and basil. He also visited Buena Fortuna Jardín Botanico in La Ribera, Baja California Sur, Mexico, which is managed by Gabriel and Kitzia Howearth and is dedicated to food and medicinal plants of the tropics and subtropics.
Gail Feenstra was the recipient of a fellowship to the Kellogg Foundation’s 2002 Salzburg Seminar in May on food security and community based food system. (See Achieving food security through community-based food systems for her article about the seminar.)
