From The Director:
SAREP’s future linked to environmental impact of California agriculture, lack of funding

[Note: This column is excerpted from the “Letter from the Director” in SAREP’s new Biennial Report covering July 2001-June 2003, soon to be available on SAREP’s Web site]

The future of SAREP is inextricably linked to the fact that agriculture is California’s most fundamental environmental resource. The future sustainability of California agriculture is one of the most important environmental issues of the 21st century. Privately owned working agricultural lands, forests and open space are the key elements of the entrepreneurial stewardship of California’s natural resources. While nearly 40 percent of the state is publicly managed in the form of national and state parks, forest, and rangeland (California has more public forest and national park land than any state except Alaska), a similar land area (38 %) of the state is privately owned agricultural and forest land managed for production. Agroecosystems managed for food and fiber crops cover 27.8 million acres, or 28 percent of the nearly 100 million acres of land in the state, compared with 4.5 million acres (4 %) in urban land. While over 30 million Californians crowd nearly 480 cities on this urban land base across the state, a mere handful of the population, 74,000 farmers and ranchers (over 10,000 of them women), manage California farmland on an area nearly seven times as large. Much of California’s 9.5 million-acre irrigated agriculture is the highest value farmland in the world. On that valuable acreage, California farmers and ranchers use 80 percent of the developed water resources of the state. Often, managed agroecosystems are familiar to the public as much desired “open space” and “greenbelts” at the edge of many major coastal and valley urban areas.

Ag helps ecosystems
The vast ecosystems services provided to urban residents by this agricultural land (carbon sequestration and climate moderation; infiltration and retention of water; formation, building and retention of soil; cycling of nutrients and organic materials; pollinator and wildlife refuges; open space and view sheds; agri-education and tourism), cannot be appraised in value as easily as the $27 billion of annual agricultural food and fiber produced and sold. However, ecosystems services in California agriculture alone could be estimated at one hundred billion dollars or more. As California’s population increases to 50 million inhabitants by mid-century, these ecosystem services will become increasingly valuable. While much environmental conservation has been successfully advocated and funded on public wild lands, the vast stewardship potential and positive environmental impact to be gained on largely privately held California agroecosystems is unrealized.

The human dimension and economic contribution of California’s farmlands to the state’s economy are no less important. The state’s farmers, only a tiny fraction of a percent of the population, create over 1 million jobs for farmworkers, machinery and input sales personnel, and other local processing employees directly associated with farm production. Eight percent of the total state jobs and seven percent of California’s GNP are created initially by just over 74,000 farmers and ranchers. However, many of California’s highest agricultural and timber production counties are also associated with the highest rates of poverty. Sustainability solutions necessarily include human needs in California.

Farm communities suffer
Despite this remarkable geographic and economic impact, the sustainability of California agriculture is uncertain. California farmers and ranchers confront historically flat and lower real prices for their production in an increasingly globalized and costly operational environment. The cost-price squeeze on the small and mid-size growers (the majority of California farmers) has been particularly pronounced over the past decade, and has led to increased average farm size and net losses in the number of small to medium sized farms and their contribution to sales, according to the National Agricultural Statistical Service of the USDA. At the same time as their economic position erodes, California farmers continue to face expanded demands for land and water by a growing urban population, and increased regulations to improve water and air quality, protect wetlands, and conserve other endanger habitats and species. Can these same farmers and ranchers maintain high levels of productivity and efficiency? Or will agriculture be abandoned in California’s economic future, because we continue to ask our farmers to produce bulk commodities as cheaply as possible without regard for environmental and social impacts?

It is clear that increasingly unified but diverse partnerships will be required to shape a sustainable future for California’s agricultural communities. I believe that farmers and ranchers, in proactive part- nership with sustainable agriculture researchers, consultants, industry representatives, public agencies, farmworkers, consumers, and other food system stakeholders, can solve the most serious challenges of environmental quality, loss of open space, economic viability, and quality of life facing our state. That is, these partnerships are “civic” in nature, entailing public objectives of interest to broad groups of citizens. And this civic partnership is growing every day to advance sustainable agriculture in California. Never before have California’s consumers been more motivated to act, through market choices, on the issues of sustainability. Increasingly, the public is asking if their food choices are not only healthy, but are the production practices that produce them sustainable? Is the food grown and harvested in ways that do not harm the environment or farmers and workers that produce it? Major market trends suggest sustained growth in organic and direct market fresh food consumption. The number of farmers markets in California increased by nearly 80 percent over the last ten years. More and more, people want to know where and how their food is produced. The promulgation of the Federal Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, and USDA enforcement provisions beginning in late 2002, are emblematic of increasing consumer engagement in farm production practices. Now, more than ever, California consumers are becoming aware of what they eat.

SAREP budget cuts
On October 8, 2003, UC ANR Vice President W. R. “Reg” Gomes assigned a 33 percent permanent budget cut to SAREP, reducing SAREP’s state general fund-supported budget by more than $210,000. Listening sessions took place in January and February to discuss these cuts and other more severe possibilities for our program. We urge you to comment on the ANR Web site at http://groups.ucanr.org/directions/. This cut is being absorbed through a combination of reduced operating expenses, work time reductions, closure of the competitive grants program for 2003/2004, and increased reliance on extramural funding. I am fortunate to have a dedicated staff working to retain the program while reducing costs.

Despite this uncertain fiscal situation, it is important to all Californians that SAREP continue to deliver research based information and educational programs to support its Biologically Integrated Farming Systems, Organic Initiative, and Community Development and Public Policy programs. In the face of possible additional cuts in state general funds in the future, and as ANR moves forward on its plans, I will be working to keep SAREP intact as a special program assisting the critical public work toward the development of sustainable agriculture and food systems in the state. 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. Sustainable agriculture has never been more important as a guide to action. Future generations will commend us for our commitment now. No less than the environmental future of the state is at stake.—Sean L. Swezey, director, University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program