- Author: Mike Hsu
The Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation Initiative (F3) – of which UC ANR is an anchor institution – took a big step forward during the UC Regents meeting May 18.
The Regents unanimously approved the formation of F3 Innovate – a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit that will raise funds for the partnership initiative that also includes the Central Valley Community Foundation (CVCF), California Department of Food and Agriculture, UC Merced and CSU Fresno.
Largely funded by a $65 million Build Back Better grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, F3 aims to advance innovation and entrepreneurship in agrifood technology, strengthen food systems, bolster local and regional economies, and bring greater prosperity to the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.
The new F3 Innovate nonprofit will focus on agrifood systems research and commercialization, services for micro-enterprises and small businesses in under-resourced communities, ag-tech innovation seed funding, and building a talent pipeline to sustain these efforts.
“This 501(c)(3) is critical to all of that, because it really lets us bring together the public and private partners, and ensures that broader stakeholder participation and benefit,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, during her presentation to the Regents (view recording of the meeting).
UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz and CVCF President and CEO Ashley Swearengin also spoke passionately during the meeting about the need to form the nonprofit as a key connector and catalyst for the F3 initiative.
F3 – and the new F3 Innovate – will continue to take shape through the work of Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR chief innovation officer; Josh Viers, associate dean for research of UC Merced's School of Engineering; and many other academics and staff across UC ANR and UC.
"Establishing F3 Innovate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is a strategic move designed to unlock and accelerate agriculture technology from lab to market. It will pave the way for a wider range of collaboration opportunities between the UC and industry, and ensure the inclusion and representation of all our stakeholders, from small and socially disadvantaged farmers to startups and corporates," said Youtsey, who is also founder of The VINE, UC ANR's Innovation & Entrepreneurship program that is co-leading F3.
"The UC Regents were enthusiastic about this partnership as it aligns perfectly with our mission of transforming cutting-edge agricultural research into practical, market-ready solutions while doing the hard work of engaging our local workers, communities and farmers to adopt these new technologies," Youtsey added. "It enables us to foster deep and meaningful collaborative relationships with industry partners, advancing technology commercialization that is inclusive and truly beneficial to all involved."
- Author: Mike Hsu
In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, two of our colleagues generously shared their stories and cultures with the UC ANR community during lunchtime webinars.
On May 25, Saoimanu “Saoi” Sope, UC ANR digital communications specialist, introduced us to her family's village in American Samoa, talked about her “island-born but mainland-raised” upbringing, and shared what she loves most about her culture. Watch Saoi's presentation.
On May 30, Hardeep Singh, local food systems advisor at UCCE Central Sierra, discussed the history and culture of the people of Punjab, India, where he grew up. He also shared the brief history and ideology of his religion, Sikhism. Watch Hardeep's presentation.
Thank you to all who attended and participated in the webinars – and special thanks to Hardeep and Saoi!
- Author: Jodi Azulai
UC ANR is working to bring you statistics resources, informed by internal needs assessments and by identifying statistics experts who are open to opportunities for consulting and collaboration within the UC ANR network. If this is you, please sign-up in this Google sheet.
Statistics Software Programs
Statistics Training & Educational Resources
Statistics Technical Support and Consulting
On the training webpage, you can find recordings, presentations and exercises from our spring 2022 stats workshop series Applied Statistics for Farm Advisors, which provided a refresh and update on statistical skills for UCCE advisors and other UC ANR researchers. Topics include:
- The theory and application of basic statistical tests, including ANOVA, GLMs, mixed models and regression
- What to do when the normal assumptions for statistical tests have not been met
- Newer methods like mixed models and bootstrapping that take advantage of modern computing power (which may not have been available if you took undergraduate statistics class 25 years ago)
- What you need to know when designing experiments and planning data collection
- How to use the extremely popular and powerful statistical programming language R
Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay
