UN FAO in Los Angeles. From left, Darren Haver, Beth Bechdol, me, QU Dongyu and Atef Swelam.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Vice President Glenda Humiston and I had the opportunity to meet with many scientists working on agricultural issues in a Mediterranean climate similar to California's. Because California farmers face many of the same challenges their counterparts in Europe and the Middle East are dealing with, joint research and collaborating on solutions will benefit all of us.

In October, Atef Swelam, who worked at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization before joining UC ANR as director of the Kearney and West Side Research and Extension Centers, arranged for us to meet with key leaders of the UN-FAO in Italy and Jordan, where we signed important research agreements.

On Nov. 8, on his return from the Pacific  SIDS (Small Island Developing States) Solutions Forum in Fiji, UN-FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu and Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol used a short layover in Los Angeles to visit us.

Valerie Borel, UCCE horticulture and Master Gardener Program coordinator, gave them a garden tour. We met with Florence Nishida and other local UC Master Gardener volunteers and members of Green Grounds, a volunteer organization working with UC Master Gardeners to help residents of South Los Angeles create their own edible gardens.

This week Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, Daniel Obrist and I have been visiting UCCE colleagues in Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern counties.

On Nov. 19, we visited Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park in Los Angeles where UCCE advisor emeritus Janet Hartin, UCCE specialist Edith de Guzman and a representative of the South Coast Air Quality Management District gave presentations on planting trees to cool urban heat islands in low-shade neighborhoods.

Here are some pictures from my recent travels.

UC ANR delegation meeting with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture for the Kingdom of Jordan.

Glenda and I visited the Jordan River.

Khaled Bali, Mohammad Yaghmour and I met with the president of the Jordanian University of Science and Technology.

We signed an MOU with University of Jordan President Nathir Obeidat.

UN Food Agriculture Organization’s Jordan office staff, Jordan's Ministry of Agriculture staff and university partners joined us for dinner.

Over the last few months, I have had the pleasure of traveling to numerous counties, programs, and field days. I thought that it would be fun to show some of the pictures from the trips. 

A recent Climate Stewards training in Tiburon, CA.

A school nutrition site in Yuba City, CA.

A visit to a vineyard in Sonoma County, CA. 

And finally, Bruce Linquist, presenting at the annual Rice Field Day. 

Thanks to everyone that made my recent visits to Sonoma County, Elkus Ranch, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Yuba/Sutter Counties, and the Rice Field Days. 

As we wrap up or have wrapped up some of the perennial activities of an academic year, it is always a good practice to reflect on the service of those who by their service on committees, keep ANR humming along. It is with a great deal of gratitude that I recognize the service of two particularly critical committees, the Peer Review Committee (PRC) and the Program Council (PC). 

Every year, academic personnel put together dossiers for review under the Merit and Promotion process. A group of peers meet to review these dossiers and assess the merits of the evidence presented. The committee then deliberates with the Vice Provost and makes recommendations to the Vice Provost, Associate Vice President, and Vice President. It is a challenging task to review so many dossiers and to carefully examine them. This is not a popularity contest. It is a rigorous review. I wish to thank the members of the PRC for their continued efforts to recognize the scholarly contributions of their peers. 

The members of the PRC include:

Karina Diaz-Rios, Greg Ira, Michael Jones, Shannon Klisch, Igor Lacan, Brooke Latack, Andy Lyons, Chris McDonald, Franz Niederholzer, Tapan Pathak, Niamh Quinn, Lorrene Ritchie, Yana Valachnovic, and Zheng Wang.  

Similarly, the Program Council (PC) meets monthly, throughout the year to provide guidance and feedback to the Vice President. I chair the PC and work with the PC members to conduct a series of shared governance efforts. Some of these efforts include the biannual position call and the annual budget call. The position call reviews specialist and adviser position proposals put forward by counties, Research Extension Centers (RECs), and campuses. Each proposal is reviewed for its merit, its impact on the system, and how the position will impact ANR and the people of California. This is not a simple process and requires careful examination of each proposal. The recommendations are used to determine which positions should be advertised. This work positions ANR to continue to lead in California's communities. 

The annual budget call requires unit leaders to put forward requests, with appropriate justifications for temporary monies to support positions, programs, and units. The PC reviews these requests and makes recommendations to the Vice President. This too is not a small task. Both of these efforts add a significant amount of service time for PC members. 

The members of the PC include:

Rob Atwill, Dennis, Baldocchi, Isgouhi Kaloshian, Anita Oberbauer, Stacy Philpott, Darren Haver, Daniel Obrist, Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, Helen Dahlke, Josh Davy, Jennifer Sowerwine, Tom Turini, Steven Worker, Dustin Blakey, and Marcel Horowitz. As ex-officio members, Joni Rippee and Tu Tran. As support staff: Kit Alviz and Katherine Webb-Martinez.

Again, I want to thank each member of these committees, along with the many, many service committees that you serve on. I realize and recognize that these are often jobs that occur behind the scenes. However, I want you to know that I am truly grateful for the service that goes into making ANR work. 

It has been a while since I posted and much has happened in that time. UC ANR has begun to wrap up the Vision 2040 process. We have successfully navigated a call for positions and will soon be announcing some of the approved positions. We have engaged in budget planning as an organization. The merit and performance cycle is drawing to a close. Spring is halfway through and summer is on the horizon. We have endured challenges and seen opportunities for growth emerge as a result. Change is ever present and so it is sometimes the greatest challenges that bring the greatest opportunities. 

Authors across the globe have for centuries posited on the notion that inherent in challenges lie the seeds of opportunity. Our challenge individually and organizationally is to see possibilities in our challenges and then turn those possibilities into reality. We are seeing this come to fruition with the reorganization of SAREP, with past and impending retirements of key personnel, and with the budget challenges that we face as Californians. 

We also experience personal challenges. Three weeks ago, I received word that my father who has terminal pancreatic cancer was going to need round the clock care as he prepares for his self-described, "graduation from mortality." My wife and I loaded our vehicle and immediate came to Utah to assist my mother and siblings in providing this care. I have spent the last three weeks taking shifts providing this care while simultaneously trying to navigate the challenges of remotely working. I have also experienced three weeks of unbridled gratitude for the home health and hospice workers that have worked with us to provide my father with his end of life care. 

To be honest, I didn't foresee me still being here in Southcentral Utah. My dad has suffered these last three weeks and multiple times we thought that we were at the end of the road. However, he has rallied each time. Each high he experiences is not quite as high and his inevitable lows continue to get lower. This is the natural progression that accompanies a diagnosis of this magnitude. He has indicated on numerous occasions that he is ready to make the inevitable transition. However, his body seems to be approaching this transition in the same stubborn way that my father has taken on life. As a farmer, coal miner, and one of the hardest working men I have ever met, he has taken challenges on like many of the bulls he raised. He simply drives forward and keeps his face to the wind. 

I have seen opportunities to learn throughout this journey. I have watched a humble man accept assistance that I could not have ever foreseen him take. I have watched his sincere gratitude well up and spill over into tears of gratitude and love for all of us. I have watched my siblings and my mother take on the day-to-day care with love and with grace. In all, I have been grateful to be part of this process. While not an opportunity that I have sought, it is one that I would never pass up. To be able to provide this care has brought me closer to my family and enabled me to share my love with my dad in nearly every interaction. 

I want to express my sincere gratitude to Glenda, to the entire ANR leadership team and to the Second Street staff that have worked with me to be able to provide this care for my father. I sincerely appreciate the flexibility that everyone has shown to accommodate my remote working arrangement. I look forward to being back in the office and getting back out on the road to the county offices, RECs and UC campuses. Until that time, I express my sincere gratitude to everyone in the ANR family for what you do and how you do it. You are the reason that we are able to take on challenges and turn them into opportunities. You are the reason that ANR is and will remain strong, in spite of the challenges that come our way.