The World Food Day Video Challenge is being sponsored by the UC Davis World Food Center, UCANR's Nutrition Policy Institute and the UC Global Food Initiative to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of food-related research across the UC system to reduce hunger and improve health.
The contest is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students in the UC system.
In three minutes or less, the videos should show how UC research relates to:
- food security
- food sustainability
- food science
- nutrition
- agriculture
...or other targets within the UN's Sustainable Development Goal #2.
UC academics are encouraged to invite UC students to turn the cameras on their research and outreach. If you're on Twitter, please tweet: Calling @UofCalifornia students! Produce a video on #UCFood research http://foodvideos.ucdavis.edu
First place prize is $1,000 and a trip for up to three team members to attend the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium, which is held in conjunction with the award ceremony for the World Food Prize, in Des Moines, Iowa, in October.
The deadline for submitting videos is 11:59 p.m. PT, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016. See contest details at foodvideos.ucdavis.edu.
If you have questions, contact: Amy Beaudreault, World Food Center director of nutrition and health, at abeaudreault@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-7319.
ANR's GFI fellow Jay Gelvezon was among the UC students who participated in the April field trip.
“It's nice to come out here and see face to face how a farm works,” said the UC Davis undergraduate student, who is supporting the division's outreach efforts through communications.
Read more in this story in UC Newsroom: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/organic-farm-serves-life-lessons-uc-students.
- Author: Alec Rosenberg
The Global Food Initiative's Experiential Learning Subcommittee seeks to increase, improve and make more accessible experiential learning opportunities for students at all levels (undergraduate, graduate and professional students) throughout the University of California.
Working toward this overall aim, the Experiential Learning Subcommittee has undertaken a project to identify successful experiential learning programs, practices and approaches in food and sustainable agriculture systems on UC campuses. This webpage shares the results of the first stage of this project, through the following documents:
- A ‘living' online directory of experiential learning courses and programs that have experiential components in food and agriculture systems at the UC campuses as of spring 2015. More than 200 experiential learning courses and 150 programs have been identified.
- A report titled “Learning from the Ground Up: Experiential Learning in Food and Agriculture Systems Education at the University of California,” (pdf) summarizing lessons learned, best practices and case studies in experiential learning.
The subcommittee also has released several student-produced videos that document successful experiential learning opportunities on UC campuses.
The subcommittee members hope that these materials are useful to students, educators, researchers, administrators and others interested in learning about the importance of experiential learning opportunities in food systems, and will contribute to the goals of expanding more experiential learning opportunities of this kind.
Lead collaborators:
- Kate Kaplan, Berkeley Food Institute, UC Berkeley, and Global Food Initiative student fellow
- Damian Parr, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, UC Santa Cruz
- Jennifer Sowerwine, UC Cooperative Extension and UC Berkeley
- Lori Ann Thrupp, Berkeley Food Institute, UC Berkeley
- Mark Van Horn, Agricultural Sustainability Institute and Student Farm, UC Davis
Three University of California students will be working with scientists in the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources to study food security, nutrition education and agricultural research and extension.
UC Berkeley graduate students Erika Brown and Matthew Shapero and UC Davis senior Jay Gelvezon will each receive a $4,000 fellowship through the university's Global Food Initiative.
“It is imperative to get students involved in UC ANR's activities to move the world toward food security for all and a more sustainable future,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources. “The fresh ideas that the UC Global Food Initiative fellows contribute will help us extend what we learn through research to improve the health of Californians.”
Brown, a native of San Diego, will work closely with Lorrene Ritchie, director of the UC ANR Nutrition Policy Institute, on a student food-security research project. In the spring of 2015, nearly 9,000 students from all 10 UC campuses participated in a survey, which was designed to document the prevalence of food insecurity among students and to identify characteristics of students who experience food insecurity. Brown, a public health graduate student at UC Berkeley, will help analyze the survey results to better understand factors contributing to food insecurity and the consequences on students. Since arriving at UC Berkeley, she has worked with several organizations in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Food Security Taskforce, to identify and eliminate barriers to achieving food security.
Shapero, a native of Santa Barbara, will lead a group of graduate students to organize seminars and workshops for students who are interested in pursuing careers in research and extension in nutrition, youth development, agriculture and natural resources with Cooperative Extension. Shapero's fellowship will also support the UC Berkeley graduate student-led Cooperative Extension Showcase, which brings UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists to the Berkeley campus to discuss their work and to network with graduate students. At the showcase this fall, students will have an opportunity to meet potential academic mentors and discuss future collaborative research. Shapero, a range management graduate student, has worked on farms in the Sierra foothills and served two years on the Nevada County Agricultural Advisory Commission and two years on the board of directors for Nevada County Grown.
Gelvezon, a native of Torrance, will work with UC ANR's Strategic Communications team on projects that convey the benefits of UC ANR's food-related research and outreach in communities throughout California. Gelvezon, who is pursuing degrees in both nutrition science and communication, will engage in social media research, photography, video and media outreach projects. The UC Davis senior has served for the past year as a photographer and photo editor for the school's newspaper the California Aggie. He has also worked as a sports nutrition social media intern, creating daily Twitter content, flyers and Instagram posts, and working with UC Davis Athletics to film and edit videos that provide nutrition information for UC Davis athletes.
The University of California aims to put the world on a path to sustainably and nutritiously feed itself. Through its Global Food Initiative, UC is building on existing efforts and creating new collaborations among its 10 campuses, affiliated national laboratories and UC ANR to improve food security, health and sustainability.
To get UC students involved in the Global Food Initiative effort, the UC Office of the President is providing fellowship funds to each UC campus, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC ANR. All of the UC Global Food Initiative fellows systemwide are listed at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-students-awarded-global-food-initiative-fellowships.
UC ANR academics are invited to attend a workshop on Leveraging Research for Food and Agriculture Policy Change, which will be held at UC Office of the President in Oakland on July 20. The workshop is hosted by the UC Global Food Initiative Policy Subcommittee.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning (D-Carmel) will be the keynote speaker. The UC Berkeley alumnus will talk about “Why Policymakers Need Research.”
This workshop will bring together academics and others from the University of California System who are interested in leveraging research to inform policymakers and policies affecting food and agriculture.
The workshop will include training from experienced facilitators on effective tools and ways that acdemics can interact with policy issues and policymakers, as well as guidelines and advice on legal issues and university protocol about policy and government interactions. The workshop will enable “safe” and open discussion about needs, challenges and opportunities for UC researchers to be involved in policy-related research and interaction with policymakers.
Objectives of the workshop:
- Facilitate exchange of information between UC academics/staff about practices and ways in which research is used to effectively influence or inform policy in food and agriculture systems (from food production to consumption).
- Provide training and guidance about approaches, capacities and tools to connect and communicate research to policymakers in food.
- Identify opportunities and resources for UC researchers' involvement in policy, and collaboration in these efforts.
The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the UCOP lobby conference room at 1111 Franklin Street in Oakland, followed by a reception.
For details, visit http://healthpolicy.ucsf.edu/content/leveraging-research-food-and-agriculture-policy-change-workshop. To register go to https://ucsf.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dh8vAOf732Y4o9D.
If you have questions, please contact Lena Libatique at lena.libatique@ucsf.edu or Nina Ichikawa, Berkeley Food Institute policy director, at nichikawa@berkeley.edu.