- Author: Trina Kleist and Heather Hayashi
Elizabeth Mitcham, UC Cooperative Extension pomology specialist, retired July 1 after 31 years of serving in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
Growers know Mitcham for her work in tree fruits and nuts, berries, tomatoes, grapes and pest management. She specialized in produce after harvest, researching new ways to maintain flavor quality and reduce food loss. From storage to processing, marketing, policy and trade, she has striven to secure better returns for farmers and more nutritious food for consumers – at home and around the world. She has been active in the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources workgroups to share her knowledge.
Mitcham served as director of the UC Davis Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture since 2009. Under her visionary leadership, the lab has achieved significant milestones. Her contributions include work in emerging economies to make horticulture a profitable business for smallholder farmers. From 2009 to 2016, she was director of the UC Postharvest Technology Center, also on the Davis campus.
Mitcham's academic work has been recognized with the Outstanding International Horticulturist award from the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2015; and the UC Davis Chancellor's International Engagement Achievement Award in 2018. She served as ASHS vice president for the international division from 2017 to 2019.
Mitcham started out studying Christmas trees and eventually came to focus on fruit ripening and nutrition. All of her degrees are in horticulture: She earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Maryland in 1984; a master's from North Carolina State University in 1986; and a doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1990.
In developed countries, an estimated 20% of food is wasted on the farm or from improper or inadequate drying, storage, packaging and transportation. Nearly one-third of all the food produced in the world is never eaten.
Mitcham linked complex mechanisms including marketing, large-scale retailers and consumer behavior to shocking levels of food waste: An estimated 40% of all the food produced in the United States gets thrown out, according to the food rescue organization Feeding America. Much of that waste occurs after consumers buy their food.
“Unfortunately, the costs are so low that sometimes it's cheaper to buy way more than you need than it is to buy a reasonable quantity, so it tends to drive consumer behavior in that direction,” Mitcham explained in a 2020 interview.
Mitcham announced her retirement plans in May during a Feed the Future Innovation Lab meeting with regional partners in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted by the United States Agency for International Development. “We're so grateful to all of you for the leadership of your lab,” said Rob Bertram, chief scientist in USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
Succeeding Mitcham at the Feed the Future Innovation Lab are Director Erin J. McGuire and Associate Director Archie Jarman. Both have worked with the lab for several years.
“Beth has those unique qualities that have made her an amazing leader – she was completely committed to achieving the goals of the Innovation Lab; passionate about horticulture, has expertise in a broad set of critical areas, and was engaged in making sure that her staff and the Horticulture Innovation Lab network operates as a supportive team that achieves both professional and programmatic goals," Jarman said.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
For contributions that range from working to boost agritourism in Sonoma County to training young “agropreneurs” to expand food production, Stephanie Larson will be honored for her service to Sonoma County's $3 billion agriculture industry. The Sonoma County Harvest Fair has named Larson, the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Sonoma County and UC ANR farm advisor, to receive its 2015 Friend of Sonoma County Agriculture award.
“The support that Dr. Stephanie Larson has provided for over two decades to agriculture is immense,” said Katie Fonsen Young, interim director for the Sonoma County Events Center at the fairgrounds. “She's provided valuable research to integrate dairy and livestock production with rangeland management in the county, helped local producers to improve production and marketing, and developed economic models to document the benefits of local agriculture to our region. She's also a big supporter of our Sonoma County 4-H Foundation and a promoter of the Range to Table program that provides quality meat to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, as well as tax incentives to those who donate livestock.”
Larson is the principle investigator for the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher program, which is training “agropreneurs” to increase food production throughout a five-county region. She is working to develop an “incubator farm” that will provide opportunities for these beginners to learn their skills and increase local food access.
“Programs like this are important to combat the shrinking acreage available for growing crops and the climbing prices of farmland, particularly in Sonoma County,” says Larson.
The Sonoma County Harvest Fair will recognize Larson during a ceremony on Sept. 27 at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The celebration is open to the public. For more information, visit HarvestFair.org.
Elizabeth Mitcham, a UC ANR Cooperative Extension specialist based in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, was honored by the American Society for Horticultural Sciences (ASHS) as its Outstanding International Horticulturist.
Mitcham accepted the award Aug. 4 at the ASHS annual conference in New Orleans. The award recognizes distinguished contributions to horticultural sciences for 10 years or more, with emphasis on international activities and impacts.
Mitcham directs both the Postharvest Technology Center and Horticulture Innovation Lab programs. She has helped train professionals from more than 40 countries in how best to care for fruits and vegetables after harvest, to reduce food waste and improve food quality. She has also hosted numerous foreign scientists and students in her UC Davis lab, where her research focuses on the regulation of fruit ripening, understanding calcium deficiency disorders, and maintaining fruit quality after harvest.
The Horticulture Innovation Lab, a collaborative program with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, targets the needs of small-scale fruit and vegetable farmers in developing countries to reduce poverty and improve food security. – Brenda Dawson
Louise Ferguson, UC ANR Cooperative Extension pomology specialist, won the American Society for Horticultural Sciences Extension Publication Award.
“Transformation of an Ancient Crop: Preparing California ‘Manzanillo' Table Olives for Mechanical Harvesting,” was co-authored by Ferguson, who is based in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and Sergio Castro Garcia of the University of Cordoba in Spain.
The article was published in the June 2014 edition of HortTechnology.
The award for the publication was presented Aug. 4 at the ASHS annual conference in New Orleans.
