Letter from the Director
SAREP is now in its eleventh year. To reach the sometimes elusive and critical goal of sustainable agriculture for California has meant working with many organizations and individuals throughout the state. Our collaborative work has involved scientific research, extension activities and daily dialogue that contributes to the shift in practices on farms and in consumer actions.
Our greatest successes in the first years of the program were in working with systems-based projects. We were pleased to fund projects that helped identify how agricultural systems worked and showed how their component parts were connected. A key example of that work is the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems (SAFS) project, now in its ninth year at UC Davis. SAREP was the first funding source for the SAFS project, which compares organic/low-input/conventional cropping systems. One of its main focuses has been soil quality and microbiology. This research has major implications for all agricultural production systems in California. SAREP has stayed financially committed to the project because of the long-term information it has provided on how soils should be managed.
Our Biennial Report on the activities of the last two years shows that our most successful projects have been community-based. We are especially pleased to highlight SAREP’s work initiating and working with collaborative, community-based projects in both production agriculture and community and public policy areas.
Premier examples of collaborative work in production agriculture are the Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems (BIOS) and Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) projects. In partnership with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, SAREP helped turn an innovative collaboration it funded in 1988 between two almond-farming brothers and a Merced County farm advisor into BIOS, a voluntary team-management approach to helping farmers solve orchard and farming systems challenges. This collaboration successfully demonstrates what SAREP was set-up to do: help scientists look at alternative production systems growers are using in the field. The fact that California legislation (AB 3383) was passed unanimously and signed by Governor Wilson to start BIFS, which evolved from BIOS, indicates the broad support this concept has within the state. The BIFS funding program is administered by SAREP to help farmers reduce their use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. It is funded by US-EPA and the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Pesticide Regulation. Its team approach includes farmers, UC farm advisors and researchers, independent pest control advisors, and industry representatives. BIFS helps them develop solutions to problems in the field, and helps agriculture take a voluntary, pro-active approach to solutions.
In 1991, SAREP began to vigorously pursue economic and public policy issues affecting sustainable agriculture. Since that time, projects aimed at community food systems, regional "food sheds" and similar concepts have brought momentum to this important leg of sustainability. Some of the pivotal projects in this area are also community-based and highly collaborative. An outstanding example is the PlacerGROWN Agricultural Marketing project in Placer County. Aimed at identifying the impacts of local food systems on communities and agriculture, the project is attempting to increase consumer awareness and responsibility for their role in creating sustainable communities by educating them on the benefits of purchasing locally produced, processed and distributed food that is geared to seasonal availability. In collaboration with the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Sustainable Communities Consortium, SAREP has initiated a food shed analysis, looking at the structure and functioning of PlacerGROWN.
In the last two years, SAREP has emerged as one of the leaders in expanding sustainable agriculture to include the concept of a community food system—a collaborative effort in a particular place to build more locally based food economies. The program sponsored a widely attended conference on community food systems at UC Davis in October 1996 which showcased the research that has blossomed in this area. A proceedings from the conference will be published soon, and SAREP staff is coordinating a new project to profile a dozen California community food system projects.
SAREP has also funded projects that are both production-oriented and intrinsically tied to community sustainability issues. One of these community-based research projects is a SAREP-funded "win-win" effort seeking to improve the health of the Tulelake ecosystem while maintaining viable agriculture critical to the region’s economy. The project is developing and assessing solutions important to all major stakeholders, including environmental, agricultural and hunting interests.
We’re proud of the many projects we’ve funded over the years (since 1987, SAREP has awarded more than $3.2 million to approximately 230 basic and applied research projects, community development and public policy projects, seminars, field demonstrations and graduate student awards), and pleased that our work has contributed to changes in the state and the University. The current UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Strategic Plan includes several sections that specifically emphasize sustainability.
Now we must think about what we would like California to look like in the next 10 to 100 years. That takes a collective vision on issues such as water and pesticide use, land use patterns, animal management practices and animal waste, farmworker equity, fair prices for agricultural products, and the structural organization of agriculture. These complex issues require cooperation and buy-in from all the people they affect. We believe that community-based solutions are what will keep California agriculture alive and well, and we are committed to supporting those projects.--Bill Liebhardt, director, University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.