Celebration Corner

Goodhue named Agricultural and Applied Economics Association fellow 

Rachael Goodhue

UC Davis agricultural economist Rachael Goodhue was named a 2024 fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association for her significant contributions, leadership and scholarship.

Her research focuses on agriculture and includes contracts, economics of pesticides and industrial organization.

“Goodhue has compiled an enviable record of accomplishment, combining excellence in teaching, research, and outreach with exemplary leadership in public and university service, very much in the land-grant tradition,” nominators wrote in a letter. “Both by being an outstanding role model and through her funding, advising, and mentoring of graduate students and post-docs, Professor Goodhue has done much to advance the status of women in the profession.”

Read more at https://caes.ucdavis.edu/news/rachael-goodhue-named-fellow-prestigious-agricultural-economics-association.

EcoFarm honors Jimenezes for social justice

Manuel Jimenez, right, shown talking with Pamela Byrnes, Environmental Stewards educator, during a tour of Woodlake Botanical Garden in April.

Manuel Jimenez, UCCE small farms advisor emeritus, and his wife Olga received the EcoFarm Justie award on Jan. 19. The award honors people who advocate for social justice as a critical aspect of ecologically sustainable agriculture and food systems. 

The couple grew up in migrant farmworker families in the little town of Woodlake, east of Visalia. They fell in love, married young and started a family. Manuel earned a bachelor's degree in plant science from Fresno State University while supporting his family picking fruit. 

In 1980, he joined UC Cooperative Extension as the small farms advisor for Tulare County. Over his 33-year UC career, Jimenez conducted pest management research, developed blueberry cultivars suited for growing by family farms in the San Joaquin Valley and shared farming information with listeners of Fresno-based KGST "La Mexicana."

While he was working for UC ANR, Olga and Manuel remained dedicated to their Woodlake farmworker community, developing a youth leadership program around beautification, funded by a large sweetcorn patch. Four decades strong, with hundreds of young hands and community support, their 14-acre Woodlake Botanical Garden remains the pride of Woodlake and Tulare County. The garden showcases nearly every crop grown in the valley and the farmers and farmworkers who developed them.

International Plant Propagator's Society meets in Temecula

The International Plant Propagator's Society annual conference was held in Temecula Jan. 23-26. The UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance co-hosted. The California Citrus Nursery Society joined the conference for special sessions and activities on Jan. 25 and 26.

Among the attendees were Emma Volk, UCCE production horticulture advisor for Ventura County; Grant Johnson, UCCE urban agriculture technology advisor for Los Angeles and Orange counties; Kosana Suvocarev, UCCE biometeorology specialist at UC Davis; Johanna del Castillo Munera, UCCE Plant Pathology specialist at UC Davis; Loren Oki, emeritus UCCE environmental horticulture specialist at UC Davis; Bruno Pitton, UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for Placer County; Gerry Spinelli, UCCE production horticulture advisor for San Diego County; and Don Merhaut, UCCE nursery and floriculture crops specialist at UC Riverside.

Back row, from left: Emma Volk, Grant Johnson, Kosana Suvocarev, Johanna del Castillo Munera, Loren Oki, Bruno Pitton. In front, from left, Gerry Spinelli and Don Merhaut.

Read more