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."
A new network of food hubs looks past competition to help each other succeed
In today's food system, large scale food distribution has become the standard way food moves from farm to market. The system works well to feed a lot of people, and has allowed us to eat tomatoes in December and send produce far distances while keeping it fresh. But the system is not without its sacrifices.
For many youth in California, agriculture is becoming part of their urban experience.
Steven Palomares is one of those youth. As an intern at WOW Farm in 2016, Steven grew and harvested produce, delivered it to local restaurants, and participated in a weekly business management class.
For many years, a key international strategy to ending hunger has been to grow more food: push for higher yields, develop ways for farmers to intensify their farming, focus on technologies that drive both. But that focus may be shifting towards another strategy that better accounts for the environment and human well-being – agroecology.
