From the
Director:
Sustainable Agriculture Must
Continue To Grow In California
California agriculture enters the new millennium under the most uncertain and contradictory economic, environmental, and social conditions in a generation. California farmers and ranchers confront record low prices for many of the mainstay animal, field, and orchard commodities that we supply to the rest of the nation and the world. At the same time, they face increased global competition and dumping of foreign agricultural commodities, expanded demands for land and water by a growing urban population, and increased regulations to improve water quality, protect wetlands and other endangered habitats and preserve endangered species. Yet we expect these same farmers and ranchers to maintain increasing levels of productivity and efficiency that have been emblematic of California agriculture over the last half century. Under these conditions, some academics suggest the dismal prospect of the abandonment of agriculture in California's economic future.
It is in these difficult times when the concept of sustainable agriculture, in the broadest sense, prompts critical questions: What should agriculture's role in our economy and society be, and how should we plan to ensure this role for the future? What human partnerships will be required to shape a sustainable future for California's diverse communities? Why is the future sustainability of California agriculture one of our most important environmental issues of the 21st century?
California's farmers and ranchers manage nearly one-fourth of the state's surface area, a resource far larger than the state's wilderness areas, state and national parks, and other public natural preserves combined. The majority of this area is urban edge or metropolitan in character. The public is far more familiar with the managed agroecosystems at the edge of all major coastal and valley urban areas than it is with our national parks! This agricultural open space is the next frontier in the future stewardship of California's natural and human resources. While much environmental conservation has been successfully advocated and funded on public wildlands, the vast stewardship potential and positive environmental impact to be gained on largely privately-held California agroecosystems has been overlooked. I believe that only farmers and ranchers, in proactive partnership with sustainable agriculture researchers, consultants, industry representatives, public agencies, farm workers, consumers, and other food system stakeholders, can solve the serious challenges of environmental quality, loss of open space, economic viability, and quality of life facing California. The alternative to sustainable agriculture partnerships is increasingly costly, dubious, and difficult to enforce environmental regulations which will continue to have negative economic and social impacts on farm communities. The concept of sustainable agriculture has never been more important as a guide to action.
In 1986, The University of California established the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program to fund, demonstrate, and manage research-based models of sustainable agriculture in California. It was the first program of its kind at a land grant institution in the nation. Since that time, we have established the importance of the partnership approach in achieving the goals of sustainability. I am pleased to report the following major accomplishments during my first two years (1999-2001) as SAREP director:
- SAREP's research and education grants program awarded a total of nearly
$175,000 to research and education projects covering diverse themes ranging
from cover crops, hedgerow plantings, to farm-to-school lunch programs featuring
locally grown produce. These projects generated successful resource conservation
and community development models and demonstrations.
- SAREP's Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) grants program awarded
over $450,000 in new grants to apple and dairy waste management research and
demonstration partnerships, in addition to the continued funding of walnut,
prune, citrus, rice and strawberry projects. Nearly all these projects reported
significant elimination or reduction of risk in agricultural chemical use
and increased use of biological sources of pest control and soil fertility.
- SAREP's grants program for alternatives to methyl bromide continued to
fund six projects in the search for biologically-based alternatives to methyl
bromide use, scheduled to be phased out in 2005. The projects reveal that
a single substitution solution to methyl bromide use is elusive, and that
taking an integrated, multi-tactic approach will yield the best results in
a wide variety of production and postharvest contexts.
- SAREP-funded grants for educational events attracted more than 1,500 attendees
to 26 events on topics ranging from marketing locally grown produce, enhancing
local food security, intergenerational farm transfer, conservation tillage,
and sustainable agriculture to strawberry production for Spanish-speaking
farmers, and other unique topics of relevance to sustainable agriculture.
- SAREP co-sponsored major regional and multi-state sustainable agriculture
conferences, most notably the millennial sustainable agriculture conference
"Farming and Ranching for Profit, Stewardship, and Community"
in Portland, Ore. March 7-9, 2000, and the California-focused conference "Partnerships
for Sustaining California Agriculture: Profit, Environment, and Community"
in Woodland, Calif. March 27-28, 2001, which together attracted a total of
over 630 participants.
- SAREP-sponsored ratification and funding of UC-DANR BIFS and Organic Farming Research Workgroups has integrated the efforts of over 120 members including over 20 UC departmental academics from four campuses, specialists from 12 academic departments, farm advisors from over 20 counties, and nearly 40 external stakeholders in issue-oriented planning meetings and co-sponsored research, demonstration, and extension initiatives.
These activities and results continue to demonstrate the acceptance and strength of sustainable agriculture goals in our farm and food communities. We have recently estimated that the majority of California's farmers and ranchers will be using biologically integrated and organic production systems by 2025 [see Swezey and Broome, California Agriculture 54 (4) 26-35, 2000].
If these trends are to continue, new resources must be directed toward sustainable agriculture research and education in California. At this time, no new state or UC funds are in the pipeline to support new grant initiatives or to continue the BIFS, alternatives to methyl bromide, or organic farming research and education programs at SAREP. The continuation of successful extension and demonstration models with clear environmental and community benefits is at risk. Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis), author of the state's most recent sustainable agriculture bill (AB 2663 signed by Governor Davis, September 2000), said in requesting the Regents of the University of California to adequately fund sustainable agriculture programs:
UC SAREP has evolved into one of the nation's leading centers for on-farm research and assistance to growers who are seeking ways to make their agricultural operations more sustainable and improve their business long-term profitability.
California's citizens, especially farmers and ranchers under multiple economic, environmental, and social pressures, urgently need and deserve increased support from our public institutions to ensure the future sustainability of agriculture in California.
Sean L. Swezey, Director