UC Davis lecture series focuses on ag, food, community links

A public lecture series exploring the links among agriculture, food and community began in January at UC Davis and continues each Tuesday with nationally recognized speakers and local experts through March 14.

Mark Van Horn, director of the UC Davis Student Farm, opened the series with a talk entitled "Agriculture, Food and Community- the Connections."

"The links among agriculture, food and community have stimulated public debate about where food comes from, the well-being of the farmers and farmworkers who produce it, and access to food," said Van Horn. "We are very happy to have this group of farmers, garden organizers, students, educators and researchers address key issues relevant to food, community and agriculture."

The series will include the Feb. 28 special appearance by internationally known social worker Catherine Sneed, who initiated and continues to run one of the world's most comprehensive prison garden programs at the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno.

In addition to Sneed's talk on building communities and prison gardens, speakers will address the global context of the U.S. farm bill and the impact of agricultural subsidies on family farmers worldwide, food insecurity among California farmworkers, grassroots efforts by Native American communities, high school and university student groups' efforts to make their food systems more sustainable, and the importance of community and agriculture in sustaining farmers, farmland and food security.

Rick Roush, interim director of the UC Davis-based statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), which is co-sponsoring the series, said the discussions help make the connections among hunger, agriculture and communities.

"University research and education play a key role in assessing and increasing the sustainability of the food and agricultural systems," he said.

Lectures are scheduled for 4:10 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays on the UC Davis campus. All lectures except Sneed's will take place in Room 101 Bowley Science Center off Extension Center Drive. Sneed's Feb. 28 talk will be in Wyatt Pavilion Theatre.

In January, the seminar series included four lectures, including Van Horn's talk, a discussion of the 2007 U.S. farm bill in a global context by Dan Sumner of UCD's Agricultural Issues Center, a talk on U.S. ag subsidies and their impact on family farmers by Victoria Mesa of Oxfam America, and a discussion of student action for a sustainable campus food system at UCD by graduate students Navina Khanna, Jason Pentzer and Rainbow Vogt. In February, the first three seminars were on food insecurity among farmworkers by Cathy Wirth, a graduate student in International Agriculture and Development at UCD, California's immigrant farmworkers by Luis Magana, of the Stockton American Friends Service Committee's "Project Voice for Immigrants," and Native American health services, by Ed Mata and Eddie Tanner of Potawot Health Village in Arcata.

Contact Van Horn for more information at (530) 752-7645 or mxvanhorn@ucdavis.edu. Support for the lecture series is provided by the UCD plant sciences department, UC SAREP, UCD Student Farm, UCD Graduate Student Association, UCD International Agricultural Development Graduate Group, UC Small Farm Center, UCD Women's Resources and Research Center, UCD Domes (Baggin's End), UCD African and African American studies department, UCD human and community development department, UCD Community Development Graduate Group, UCD Students for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Davis Food Co-op.

The Winter 2006 seminar series continues with the following schedule:
February 28	Building Communities, Catherine Sneed, The Garden Project, San Francisco
March 7	Grant's Environmental Organization: Growing Minds, One Seed at a Time, Ann Marie Kennedy & students, Grant High School, Sacramento
March 14	Communities & Agriculture: Working Together to Sustain Farmers, Farmland & Food Security, Annie & Jeff Main, Good Humus Produce, Capay