News

USDA administrator to visit Davis school-lunch programs

Rayne Pegg, from the USDA will visit the Davis Joint Unified School District on March 8 to observe one of the nation’s most-promising public school-lunch models.

District officials are honored to host the visit and showcase Davis’ pairing of commodity foods with local produce as well as community partnerships with Davis Farm to School, the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis, Sutter Davis Hospital and the Davis Farmers’ Market. 

UC SAREP collaborators help us celebrate our 25th year

At the request of the California State Legislature, the University of California established the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) in 1986 both to help Californians understand the significance of participating in a sustainable food system and to assist farmers and ranchers in developing and implementing sustainable production and marketing systems.

In celebration of  SAREP's 25th anniversary, we asked present and past collaborators to reflect on their work with SAREP, and on SAREP's history with California agriculture.

Top 100 questions for global agriculture, now in Spanish

 The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture / Las cien preguntas mas importantes para el futuro de la agricultura global

A recent paper co-authored by ASI Director Tom Tomich has been translated into Spanish.

Dozens of scholars from around the world contributed to "The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture." The author list includes ag and food experts from major agricultural organizations, scientific societies and academic institutions.

The California Nitrogen Assessment team visits dairies

Turlock, CA dairies share knowledge, experience.

California dairies have a lot of cows. Therefore, they also have a lot of cow urine and feces to deal with. How this nitrogen-rich waste is managed can have a lot of impacts on how nitrogen moves around and through the dairy. 

There are general principles to manure management, but on-dairy specifics may vary. Members of the California Nitrogen Assessment team visited two large dairies in Turlock, Calif., to learn more about how those dairies, and dairymen generally, are managing their manure. 

Seminar on Alternatives in Agriculture

UC Davis students: A group of students from several undergraduate majors and graduate programs are working with Student Farm Director Mark Van Horn to coordinate the annual seminar on alternatives in agriculture for the Winter 2011 quarter.

Round-table discussion: Harnessing Soil Biology in Agriculture

Please join us on Tuesday, October 4 for a round-table discussion with Nuffield Farming Scholar, Michael Inwood. 

Michael Inwood

Nuffield Farming Scholar

Sheep and rangeland farmer, Toulon

When: 2-3pm, Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Where: 140 Robbins Hall, UC Davis

Free and open to the public

 

Organic vegetable production manual wins design award

We are always excited when we get the chance to share the work of our staff and faculty.  What excites us even more is when that work is more formally recognized for its quality. 

UC SAREP Program Coordinator, Jeri Ohmart and former SAREP employee David Chaney served as the publication coordinators for the recently released Organic Vegetable Production Manual published by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). 

Nitrogen Speaker Series: Prof. Alan Townsend

Dr. Alan Townsend from the University of Colorado will present a talk entitled "Is it limiting or not? Revisiting the tropical forest nitrogen cycle and its implications for human-driven environmental change."

WHEN: noon, Wednesday, November 17, 2010

WHERE: 2005 PES, on the UC Davis campus

New UCTV web series featuring the work of ASI

UCTV Prime, the YouTube channel for the University of California, is now airing a series of short videos in a series called The Future of Farming. The series was produced by UC Davis Director of campus communications Mitchel Benson with the help of several faculty and staff affiliated with ASI.

This four-part series examines the challenges of reforming our food production to meet the needs of a growing population, and demonstrates how UC Davis is leading the way in developing sustainable, high-tech agriculture practices and training the next generation of farmers.