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. 

These Orange County 4H'ers are amazing.

Saturday was truly a great night at the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry. The Steak Fry was held on Nov. 4 at Tanaka Farms in Irvine to raise funds for 4-H, FFA and various local colleges' ag education programs. That includes South Coast REC's GROW program, which is designed to make agricultural experiences accessible to more young people across the region and introduce them to careers opportunities in agriculture. Orange County Farm Bureau also provided a small donation to the UCCE Master Food Preserver program in Orange County. 

At the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry, from left, Rita Jakel, Colleen Clemens, Darren Haver, Brent Hales and Araceli Hernandez.

It was great to spend an evening with my UC ANR colleagues. I saw Research & Extension Center director Darren Haver, Rita Jakel, 4-H community education specialist; Colleen Clemens, UC Master Food Preserver Program coordinator; and Araceli Hernandez, 4-H region 11 program supervisor.

The four 4-H members tell the audience tell the audience how participating in 4-H has improved their lives.

I felt so proud sitting with the other people attending the Orange County Farm Bureau Steak Fry listening to the four young women from Orange County share examples of how they improved their lives by participating in 4-H club activities, public speaking, leadership events, etc. They were amazing.

From left, clockwise, Sam Farr, Chavonda Jacobs-Young and Leon Panetta.

The following day, I had the pleasure of attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new USDA Research Center in Salinas.

It was an honor to participate in the ribbon cutting for the Sam Farr United States Crop Improvement and Protection Research Center. The research center is dedicated to retired Congressman Sam Farr, who represented California's Central Coast in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017.

USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Chavonda Jacobs-Young, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as well as Farr spoke. 

"This new center is going to ensure that our farmers, our ag workers, our ag leaders, that they benefit from the latest knowledge in cutting edge technology in agriculture," said Robert Rivas, California Assembly speaker.

The newly constructed Sam Farr U.S. Crop Improvement and Protection Research Center is located in Salinas. Photo by Bill Wintermantel ARS

The new research center features state-of-the-art laboratories, greenhouses and the capacity to accommodate additional scientists. It expands on the current ARS Crop Improvement and Protection Research Laboratory, which houses many of our USDA-Agricultural Research Station partners such as Daniel Hasegawa, who has worked closely with Richard Smith, emeritus UCCE vegetable crops advisor, on impatiens necrotic spot virus, a disease that infects lettuce. Our own UC Cooperative Extension weed specialist Steve Fennimore, who is affiliated with UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, has an office in the ARS building.

As a congressman, Farr served on the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies and has been an advocate for agriculture. He is also a longtime supporter of UC Cooperative Extension.