NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS! Applications to our Small Grants in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems program are due February 15, 2021. Learn more and apply.
As part of its mission of sustainability in agriculture, UC SAREP is interested in crops that hold environmental and economic promise—such as moringa, the drought-tolerant “superfood” grown by Central Valley farmers, or elderberry, offering carbon sequestration and pollinator benefits when planted in hedgerows.
As the sustainability of agriculture continues to be threatened by changes in climate, pests and loss of biodiversity, the ancient practice of planting hedgerows with edible and medicinal species such as elderberry can help growers generate additional revenue while fostering beneficial insects and improving soil health.
In memoriam: Bill Liebhardt, former UC SAREP director
Bill Liebhardt, who led the University of California’s sustainable agriculture programs, died May 5 of complications of Q fever at his home in Davis. He was 84.
UC SAREP's Agritourism Program is collecting resources to help consumers purchase directly from local farms and ranches. Click for more...
COVID-19 Resources for Agricultural Employers, Growers, & Farmworkers
The UC Davis Western Center for Agricultural Health & Safety has collected a number of resources in English and Spanish for California's agricultural community. Click for more...
Pavlo Ardanov, a research fellow at ASI and the co-founder and leader of Permaculture in Ukraine, an environmental NGO, is a recent recipient of the Fulbright* Scholarship. During his stay, Ardonov is collaborating with Sonja Brodt, Agricultural Sustainability Institute; Robert Hijmans, Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Native California elderberries can be found at the intersection of sustainable farming, super nutrition and economic viability. Naturally drought tolerant, flavorful and packed with nutrients, they are capturing the interest of farmers, health-conscious consumers and scientists.
Sustainable agriculture extension is only as effective as the number of people reached and the quality of those interactions. In California, almost a third of farms and ranches are operated by persons of color, and many are recent immigrants, primarily from Latin America and Asia. Are we effectively engaging with those producers so that their communities, too, can benefit from the latest developments in environmentally sound and economically viable farming practices?
A project funded by the Global Food Initiative and led by UC SAREP Deputy Director Gail Feenstra, Food Supply Chain Analyst Gwenaël Engelskirchen, and Graduate Student Researcher Li Schmidt is examining local food sourcing at ten UC and CSU campuses to help campuses reach sustainable sourcing goals.
Sonja Brodt (Coordinator of Agriculture, Resources, and Environment at UC SAREP) and Sara Riegler (UC SAREP Graduate Student Researcher) recently had the opportunity to visit and record field demonstration videos at ALBA in Salinas. The videos, all recorded in Spanish and focused on ALBA farmers\u2019 organic farming practices, will be part of a comprehensive online curriculum geared towards beginner organic farmers in California, a project in collaboration with the Organic Farming Research Foundation.
A number of cities in California have recently updated municipal policies to facilitate urban agriculture, due to strong community interest. A team of UC Cooperative Extension farm advisers, specialists and others, including UC SAREP, are working with local partners in four California urban regions, offering a series of workshops to help urban farmers address challenges they face in zoning, soil, water access, and profitability.
Can plants typically grown for hedgerows also be a source of income? That's the question guiding a new UC study on the potential for farmers to grow elderberries as a commercial crop.
Read about our work in student experiential learning, helping build market opportunities for small farmers, and long term agricultural research in the current issue of California Agriculture
In 2014, UC President Janet Nopalitano launched the UC Global Food Initiative with a goal we believe in strongly. Nopalitano describes her goal of the GFI to "harness the university's vast resources and expertise to find...innovative, scalable solutions to food-related problems in the world."
