The fate of UC's Small Farm Program was the center of a nearly five-minute story on this morning's California Report radio news program. Central Valley bureau chief Sasha Khokha opened her story on the east Fresno farm of strawberry grower Chang Fong. He and his family have for years worked with Fresno County UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Richard Molinar and his assistant Michael Yang, cooperating on research and gleaning information on farm safety, plant diseases, pests and other ag production and marketing issues.
"Many of our farmers are classified as limited resource farmers," Molinar said. "Many farmers don’t have the resources or personnel to find this information out."
Khokha also interviewed Desmond Jolly, the former director of the Small Farm Program. If you love heirloom tomatoes, Asian greens and organic lettuce mixes, he said, you can thank the UC Small Farm Program.
"Immature tomatoes and iceburg lettuce, that was more or less representative of the kind of past we had in the produce department," Jolly said.
With a budget of less than $250,000, the Small Farm Program helped launch organic agriculture in California, Khokha reported.
"If you look at the returns on the small investments, it’s a huge benefit-cost ratio," Jolly said.
Khokha also spoke to UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley. He said closure of the Small Farm Program is part of a restructuring effort to trim administrative fat, Khokha reported. Small farm advisors won't lose their jobs.
"We’re committed to small farm programs, but it needs to be in the context of a broader agenda to support healthy food systems," Dooley said.