The UC Davis Children's Garden is collaborating with Life Lab, the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego and the California School Garden Network to host the California School Garden Training Program. 

The California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply released a set of proposed strategic actions to increase water security for California agriculture while maintaining or improving other beneficial uses.

How will we manage nitrogen in California agriculture over the next 20 years?

This afternoon and all day Thursday, 30 leaders in agriculture from around the state will gather in conjunction with staff from the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis to discuss this question in a scenarios exercise.

The workshop participants, who come from diverse backgrounds as scientists, farmers, dairymen, organic advocates and community activists, all represent groups and individuals who have a stake in how nitrogen is managed today and in the future.

Come see ASI director Tom Tomich speak on Weds., September 29, about "Linking Science with Action: Insights from Sustainability Science," as part of the UC Davis Graduate Group in Geography fall quarter speaker series.

Date: September 29, 2010
Time: 4:10 - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Wellman 00115
UC Davis Campus

This talk is part of the UC Davis Graduate Group in Geography's Fall Quarter speaker series titled "Geography of Sustainability: Science and Practice."

When: Saturday, October 2, 2010, from 4-5 pm
Where: Hoes Down Harvest Festival at Full Belly Farm, in Capay Valley  (about 45 miles from Davis); meet by the river bank

As the new school year begins we would like to take the opportunity for faculty, students and others associated with sustainable agriculture to meet and get to know each other. Many of us will be attending the Hoes Down Harvest Festival at Full Belly Farm on October 2nd, and this setting will be a great place for such a gathering.

Steven Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, will speak at the King Lounge at Memorial Union on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The talk, "A National Nitrogen Imperative: An Advocacy Perspective," will be from 12:10-1 p.m.

The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is collaborating with Verliant Energy Partners to launch a new approach, called solutions centers, to showcase the latest sustainable solutions to critical issues in agricultural and food systems.

The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) has awarded $150,000 in grants to 14 projects that focus on sustainable food systems research and outreach. 

While all of the projects explore and support sustainable food production and marketing, this year's grant recipients' projects range in subject from health food access issues to rangeland stewardship. 

ASI director Tom Tomich and Food Systems Coordinator Gail Feenstra will be facilitating a course on food systems analysis for the winter 2010 quarter. Here is some information about the course.

Food Systems Analysis
Winter Quarter 2011
Mondays 2-5pm in 27 Wellman Hall

We recently contributed to the UC Food Blog and wrote about nitrogen. Check out a sample here, and read the rest over at the blog:

What makes food grow - and why that matters

There’s a lot of attention paid to where food comes from nowadays. Less attention has been paid to what helps that food grow, but that’s an important part of the equation. Whether organic or conventionally grown, the tomatoes, lettuce, plums and other food we eat rely on nutrients in order to grow. One of the most important nutrients for plant productivity is nitrogen.