SAREP's future, market forces

We had welcome news on July 6 that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will provide $1.5 million to UC Davis for an endowed Professorship in Sustainable Food Systems. This professor will be the Director of the new UCD Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) and UC SAREP, ANR's existing statewide program focused on sustainable food and farming systems. The prestige and funding from this endowment will help to recruit an internationally recognized Director for the ASI and SAREP, who will be able to bring new ideas, vitality and leadership to research, education and outreach to sustainable agriculture at UC. Coupled with other resources that the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and ANR will provide, the recurring funding that an endowment generates from interest payments will provide a firm foundation for growth in UC efforts for sustainability. This collaboration shows a keen willingness by both the College and ANR to take advantage of the synergy produced by the coordination of their activities in sustainability, while maintaining SAREP's unique role in statewide research and education.

We still have a long way to go. A recent survey by SAREP (see page 4, "UC organic ag resources match statewide production") showed that the 2003-04 investment by UC ANR into research and education on organic agriculture was about $6.7 million or 2% of its total budget (which included many other worthy activities such as nutrition, forestry and human resources). While UC ANR's overall investment will pleasantly surprise some people by approximately matching the proportion of all food production in California that is organic, others will argue that the UC should provide even more leadership and investment.

However, the history of integrated pest management (IPM) research and outreach suggests that public sector investment alone is not necessarily enough to achieve sustainable outcomes. Despite the large investments that have been made in IPM over the years (the combination of federal, state and private funds has been estimated at more than $60 million per year in California alone), reductions in pesticide use have been modest, even if one ignores relatively benign pesticides like sulfur and focuses on the more risky pesticides. The investment has certainly generated a range of alternatives to pesticides, but a key issue is probably the relative lack of incentives for growers to adopt these more sustainable practices. The market seems more inclined to reward low prices than healthy and sustainable production. SAREP continues to focus attention on such social and economic considerations that are critical to improving the sustainability of agriculture.