- Author: Rose Marie Hayden-Smith
The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) 4-H Program is offering a free, virtual, after-school club for youth ages 9-12. The club – Sustainable You! – will focus on sustainability issues, including land, water, energy, food, and air. Youth do not need to be a member of 4-H to join, and again, there is no cost for participating.
A typical meeting will include:
- An introduction to a sustainability topic with an ice breaker;
- A discussion or video on the day's topic;
- A demonstrated activity;
- Games and art; and
- An activity that youth can do on their own.
The program consists of weekly meetings, which will be held on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30. It runs for 11 weeks, from September 29ththrough December 8th. The virtual after-school club is part of the online educational programs being organized by UCCE Ventura County. Learn more here.
While there is no cost, registration is required. Attendance is limited to no more than 50 youth.
The program is organized by UCCE educators, in partnership with the City of Ventura Environmental Sustainability Division and Ventura Water.
For more information, email Susana Bruzzone Miller.
The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) is part of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources division. UCCE advisors offer research-based information in support of agriculture and natural resources. We also offer community-based educational programs, such Master Gardener and 4-H.
4‑H provides experiences that enable young people to learn by doing. Since 1914, 4‑H has welcomed young people of all beliefs and backgrounds, giving them a voice to express who they are and how they make their lives and communities better.
Through life-changing 4‑H programs, nearly six million kids and teens across the US have taken on critical societal issues, such as addressing community health inequities, engaging in civil discourse and advocating for equity and inclusion for all.
Photo by Guillaume de Germain for Unsplash.
- Author: Ben Faber
Groundwater pumping may significantly affect growers' energy costs. As part of a California Energy Commission-funded research project, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory wants to hear directly from growers—via a short survey—about their experiences with the energy needed to pump groundwater. To learn more about the larger project, click here.
Your participation in this survey is greatly appreciated. We hope to understand more about the conditions you face on the ground so we can accurately convey your experiences with pumping groundwater to policymakers. We will be asking you some questions about your reliance on groundwater, past and planned well operation practices, and barriers to lowering the energy needed to pump groundwater. Results from this survey may inform future efforts to reduce energy use and costs for growers.
Your participation in this survey is completely anonymous. The survey software will not capture any personally identifiable information, including IP address. Individual anonymous responses will be stored in a secure location accessed only by a few authorized LBNL researchers, and will not be made public in any form. In publicly available reports, results will only be presented in aggregated form.
This survey should take around 20 minutes to complete. To preview the survey before taking it, a PDF version can be viewed here. If you are at least 18 years of age, own or operate a farm or ranch in California, and rely at least to some extent on groundwater for your farm or ranch operations, please click the link below to complete the questionnaire.
If you have questions about this survey or the larger project, or would prefer to respond to this survey over the phone, please contact us at gwenergy@lbl.gov, (510) 486-6839 [Heidi Fuchs, Survey Lead], or (510) 495-2865 [Helcio Blum, Project Lead]. For issues related to your rights as a research participant in this study (LBNL HSC 382H001-31AU19), please contact LBNL's Human Subjects Committee at (510) 486-5399.
Learn more and take the survey at
https://gwenergy.lbl.gov/growers
Questions? Contact us at gwenergy@lbl.gov or (510) 486-6839
Thank you very much for your time and participation!
- Author: Bryon J. Noel
UC ANR was a sponsor for the FOODIT: Fork to Farm meeting in June 2017: http://mixingbowlhub.com/events/food-fork-farm/. Many of us were there to learn about what was happening in the food-data-tech space and learn how UCANR can be of service. It was pretty cool. First, it was held in the Computer History Museum, which is rad. Second, the idea of the day was to link partners, industry, scientists, funders, and foodies, around sustainable food production, distribution, and delivery. Third, there were some rad snacks (pic below).
We had an initial talk from Mikiel Bakker from Google Food, who have broadened their thinking about food to include not just feeding Googlers, but also the overall food chain and food system sustainability. They have developed 5 "foodshots" (i.e. like "moonshot" thinking): 1) enable individuals to make better choices, 2) shift diets, 3) food system transparency, 4) reduce food losses, and 5) how to make a closed, circular food system.
We then had a series of moderated panels.
The Dean's List introduced a panel of University Deans, moderated by very own Glenda Humiston @UCANR, and included Helene Dillard (UCDavis), Andy Thulin (CalPoly), Wendy Wintersteen (Iowa State). Key discussion points included lack of food system transparency, science communication and literacy, making money with organics, education and training, farm sustainability and efficiency, market segmentation (e.g. organics), downstream processing, and consumer power to change food systems. Plus the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods.
The Tech-Enabled Consumer session featured 4 speakers from companies who feature tech around food. Katie Finnegan from Walmart, David McIntyre from Airbnb, Barbara Shpizner from Mattson, Michael Wolf from The Spoon. Pretty neat discussion around the way these diverse companies use tech to customize customer experience, provide cost savings, source food, contribute to a better food system. 40% of food waste is in homes, another 40% is in the consumer arena. So much to be done!
The session on Downstream Impacts for the Food Production System featured Chris Chochran from ReFed @refed_nowaste, Sabrina Mutukisna from The Town Kitchen @TheTownKitchen, Kevin Sanchez from the Yolo Food Bank @YoloFoodBank, and Justin Siegel from UC Davis International Innovation and Health. We talked about nutrition for all, schemes for minimizing food waste, waste streams, food banks, distribution of produce and protein to those who need them (@refed_nowaste and @YoloFoodBank), creating high quality jobs for young people of color in the food business (@TheTownKitchen), the amount of energy that is involved in the food system (David Lee from ARPA-E); this means 7% of our energy use in the US goes to CREATING FOOD WASTE. Yikes!
The session on Upstream Production Impacts from New Consumer Food Choices featured Ally DeArman from Food Craft Institute @FoodCraftInst, Micke Macrie from Land O' Lakes, Nolan Paul from Driscoll's @driscollsberry, and Kenneth Zuckerberg from Rabobank @Rabobank. This session got cut a bit short, but it was pretty interesting. Especially the Food Craft Institute, whose mission is to help "the small guys" succeed in the food space.
The afternoon sessions included some pitch competitions, deep dive breakouts and networking sessions. What a great day for ANR.
UC ANR was a sponsor for the FOODIT: Fork to Farm meeting in June 2017: http://mixingbowlhub.com/events/food-fork-farm/. Many of us were there to learn about what was happening in the food-data-tech space and learn how UCANR can be of service. It was pretty cool. First, it was held in the Computer History Museum, which is rad. Second, the idea of the day was to link partners, industry, scientists, funders, and foodies, around sustainable food production, distribution, and delivery. Third, there were some rad snacks (pic below).
We had an initial talk from Mikiel Bakker from Google Food, who have broadened their thinking about food to include not just feeding Googlers, but also the overall food chain and food system sustainability. They have developed 5 "foodshots" (i.e. like "moonshot" thinking): 1) enable individuals to make better choices, 2) shift diets, 3) food system transparency, 4) reduce food losses, and 5) how to make a closed, circular food system.
We then had a series of moderated panels.
The Dean's List introduced a panel of University Deans, moderated by very own Glenda Humiston @UCANR, and included Helene Dillard (UCDavis), Andy Thulin (CalPoly), Wendy Wintersteen (Iowa State). Key discussion points included lack of food system transparency, science communication and literacy, making money with organics, education and training, farm sustainability and efficiency, market segmentation (e.g. organics), downstream processing, and consumer power to change food systems. Plus the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods.
The Tech-Enabled Consumer session featured 4 speakers from companies who feature tech around food. Katie Finnegan from Walmart, David McIntyre from Airbnb, Barbara Shpizner from Mattson, Michael Wolf from The Spoon. Pretty neat discussion around the way these diverse companies use tech to customize customer experience, provide cost savings, source food, contribute to a better food system. 40% of food waste is in homes, another 40% is in the consumer arena. So much to be done!
The session on Downstream Impacts for the Food Production System featured Chris Chochran from ReFed @refed_nowaste, Sabrina Mutukisna from The Town Kitchen @TheTownKitchen, Kevin Sanchez from the Yolo Food Bank @YoloFoodBank, and Justin Siegel from UC Davis International Innovation and Health. We talked about nutrition for all, schemes for minimizing food waste, waste streams, food banks, distribution of produce and protein to those who need them (@refed_nowaste and @YoloFoodBank), creating high quality jobs for young people of color in the food business (@TheTownKitchen), the amount of energy that is involved in the food system (David Lee from ARPA-E); this means 7% of our energy use in the US goes to CREATING FOOD WASTE. Yikes!
The session on Upstream Production Impacts from New Consumer Food Choices featured Ally DeArman from Food Craft Institute @FoodCraftInst, Micke Macrie from Land O' Lakes, Nolan Paul from Driscoll's @driscollsberry, and Kenneth Zuckerberg from Rabobank @Rabobank. This session got cut a bit short, but it was pretty interesting. Especially the Food Craft Institute, whose mission is to help "the small guys" succeed in the food space.
The afternoon sessions included some pitch competitions, deep dive breakouts and networking sessions. What a great day for ANR.
- Author: Milton E McGiffen
Raymond Baltar of the Sonoma Ecology Center passed along a good article on biomass to energy conversion:
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article89666272.html