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Posts Tagged: Education
CDFA funds UC SAREP agritourism project to connect farmers, consumers
To promote specialty crops and strengthen the industry through agritourism, California Department of Food and Agriculture has awarded nearly $450,000 from its Specialty Crop Block Grant Program for the California Open Farm Passport project. Rachael Callahan, statewide agritourism coordinator for the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, is leading the project, working with regional partners throughout the state to promote farmers through Open Farm events.
The California Open Farm Passport will invite the public to explore the bounty of local farms during regionally coordinated events throughout the year. Farm guests will have opportunities to learn about, taste and buy a diversity of crops from participating specialty crop farmers around the state.
California produces more than 400 commodities.
Starting in 2025, project partners will host 20 Open Farm events, featuring over 130 farms in nine counties, anticipated to reach over 10,000 consumers. Through these events, the public can visit farms to participate in activities such as farm tours, demonstrations and workshops that will increase their awareness of the diversity of California agricultural products and producers. Events will be posted athttps://calagtour.org/California_Open_Farm_Passport.
Locally based groups throughout the state that support agritourism in their region have come together to collaborate on this project. Partners include Community Alliance with Family Farmers, FARMstead ED/SLO County Farm Trails, Open Farm Tours, Pleasants Valley Agricultural Association, Sierra Oro Farm Trail, Sonoma County Farm Trail, and UC Cooperative Extension advisors in Lassen, Modoc and Siskiyou counties.
“Partners on this project have been supporting agriculture in their regions through promoting agritourism and hosting Open Farm events for years, if not decades,” said Callahan. “This project provides the opportunity to enhance their work, create a space for them to learn from each other, and expand their reach by collaboratively marketing events as the California Open Farm Passport.”
This project will also build capacity by fostering a statewide network of agritourism groups to support local farmers and bolster the agritourism industry. Agritourism groups will receive trainings and learn from one another as they share best practices for hosting Open Farm events and other marketing strategies to promote agricultural producers to the public.
Importantly, the project will also document the benefits of Open Farm events for producers and visitors. The project will track product sales during and after the events to assess the impact of visiting a farm on purchasing behavior as well as measure any increase in visitor knowledge about California specialty crops.
“This project holds the potential to provide great benefits to specialty crop producers and the California agritourism industry,” Callahan said. “Producers will have opportunities for direct product sales and increased name recognition through marketing activities. At the same time, project partners will develop a statewide network to support their work and build towards a strong agritourism industry in California.”
For more information about the 2024 Specialty Block Grant Program funding, read the CDFA press release: California agriculture leads the nation in funding for specialty crops.
To learn more about agritourism in California, visit UC SAREP's California Agritourism website.
Moving the needle on racial equity in Extension
A recently published series of blog posts on the Connect Extension website shares insights on developing authentic, meaningful relationships with racially and culturally diverse groups.
Written by Sonja Brodt, associate director of the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and Gail Feenstra, emeritus SAREP director, the posts are based on what they learned during UC SAREP's "Racial Equity in Extension" webinar series.
The series, comprising six 90-minute webinars held in 2021, covered topics ranging from building relationships with agricultural communities of color, to respecting different knowledge systems, to rectifying racial inequities in land access.
“As extension professionals, especially for those of us in the public sector, it is incumbent upon us to work with all segments of our state's agricultural and natural resources clientele,” said Brodt. “And to do so effectively, we need to understand their worldviews and what's the knowledge base that shapes their decisions. This is especially important when those people are from cultures or segments of society that have a history of being marginalized or oppressed by our larger society, and whose significant knowledge has often been made invisible.”
UC SAREP calls for small grants proposals
UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is now accepting grant proposals for its 2024-25 Small Grants Program.
The program funds research projects, education and demonstration programs of research-based technologies and systems, and projects that support the development of sustainable community food systems. Proposals are due Jan. 9, 2024, at noon PST
UC SAREP will fund projects that fall within two priority areas:
Priority Area 1: Support California's farmers, ranchers and land stewards of all scales in piloting and transitioning to:
- environmentally regenerative approaches to producing crops and livestock (including but not limited to soil health, organic and agroecological practices, integrated pest management and crop diversification);
- pathways for realizing economic return from ecologically-sound crop management practices and fair labor practices;
- marketing and distribution strategies that support diversified, decentralized and locally based supply chains;
- strategies that promote producer-to-producer networking and/or producer-to-supply chain networking.
Priority Area 2: Support California's rural, urban and tribal communities in identifying and implementing strategies to:
- expand access to healthy, sustainably produced, culturally appropriate foods;
- ensure worker well-being across the food chain;
- minimize the community and environmental costs of food production and distribution;
- strengthen connections between consumers and producers;
- establish and strengthen producer-to-producer connections and producer-to-supply chain connections.
Eligible applicants include:
- farm or food system businesses operating in California;
- nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations operating in California;
- state and local government agencies, tribal governments;
- California public and private institutions of higher education.
Individual grants will be limited to a maximum of $10,000, with one applied research grant awarded up to $20,000. Proposals are requested for three types of projects:
- Planning grants
- Education and outreach grants
- Applied research grants
For more information and to apply, visit https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/grantsFY24-25.
Kathleen Patrocinio retires after 32 years of UC service
Patrocinio started her university career in 1990 as assistant to the director and manager of administrative support services in hospital administration at the UC Davis Health System. In this role, she managed the chief executive officer's correspondence and a team responsible for writing and maintaining hospital policies and procedures. She later held business administration positions in the UC Davis Health System's Design & Construction department and the Cancer Center.
At UC Davis, Patrocinio managed proposals and grants at the Office of Research and worked as assistant director and business manager in University Relations. Continuing to provide high-level financial administration, she served as budget and finance director at the School of Education and Financial Services Unit head at the UC Davis Library. In her work in the Physics and Astronomy Department, she managed multimillion-dollar research proposals, grants and special projects.
“I've had the unique and fulfilling experience of serving in acting assistant dean and executive director positions on several occasions,” Patrocinio said.
Patrocinio also served on campus committees to develop and implement financial system transitions from historical systems to the Kuali Financial System. She was also involved with personnel and payroll system transitions as well as creating and presenting user training.
Working for the university, she has enjoyed “the opportunity to meet and work with such a diverse group of many talented people over 32 years at UC and getting to know the organization from so many different perspectives. You might say that this vantage point was from a 360-degree perspective, having worked in academic, professional degree, administrative and centralized support departments on both executive and departmental staffs.”
“Most significantly fulfilling has been the privilege of mentoring others, seeing them grow professionally and achieve some amazing career successes,” Patrocinio said.
As UC SAREP finance and business manager, Patrocinio was recently awarded a Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) Award for her sustained, exceptional performance and organizational success. “Kathleen has been the glue that has held our program together for the last three years as we have experienced disruptions in our operations due to the pandemic, an administrative and physical move, and multiple personnel changes,” said Sonja Brodt, UC SAREP associate director. “Her utmost professionalism, extensive UC network and knowledge base from over 30 years of working at the university and her own very high standards for her work have all made a big difference in helping SAREP navigate through numerous uncertainties.”
In retirement, Patrocinio is looking forward to traveling to a large three-day family reunion in Hawaii later this year, volunteering and spending time on some long-overdue home and garden projects.
Gail Feenstra retires after 33 years of championing sustainable food systems
Gail Feenstra, director of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, retired July 1 after 33 years of serving Californians through UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Her research and outreach have focused on strengthening food systems, encompassing farmers, consumers and communities.
“I have been proud to help build the concepts and practices of sustainable farming and food systems in California,” she said, defining sustainable as including environmental resilience and stewardship, economic viability and social justice and equity for all. “Long-term health for individuals, for communities, for our natural resources and the planet requires this broad approach.”
After earning a bachelor's degree in dietetics from UC Davis in 1978, “I soon discovered, dietetics was not quite for me,” Feenstra said. “I transitioned to community nutrition, worked as a WIC nutritionist for a few years and discovered that the nutrition issues that frustrated me were systems related. A few years later, when I went to Teachers College, Columbia University, to study with Dr. Joan Gussow, one of the leaders of the local food systems movement, I discovered a whole new perspective—food as part of a larger system!”
Feenstra joined UC ANR in 1989 as a writer for the newly formed SAREP and managed the competitive grants offered by the program.
“It was an exhilarating time in the late 1980s to be a part of creating and communicating about the first sustainable agriculture program to be established at a land-grant university anywhere in the nation,” she said. SAREP became a model for sustainable agriculture programs formed at other land-grant universities around the country.
As SAREP developed, Feenstra took on the role of coordinator to lead the community food system projects. Sales for local farms and food businesses, increased community awareness about where their food comes from and a willingness to seek out sources of locally grown food are critical to sustainable community food systems. To achieve those three goals, SAREP provided a grant to launch the PlacerGrown marketing campaign in 1994, which inspired farmers and consumers in other counties to create locally grown programs to strengthen their communities.
In the late 1990s, Feenstra, who has a doctorate in nutrition education from Columbia University with an emphasis in public health, introduced the concept of community food security to build an understanding of the links between hunger and agriculture. She began research on direct marketing and educating small and midscale farmers on how to sell crops at farmers markets and to restaurants and retailers. Over 80% of farmers landed new buyer contacts after attending her marketing workshops.
She also promoted farm-to-school programs and nutrition education.
“For me, the concept was a perfect way to bring together local agriculture and nutrition education to boost farm income and provide healthful food to children using the National School Lunch Program as a subsidy to help make it all happen,”Feenstra said.SAREP funded cooking classes to teach school cooks – who were accustomed to serving packaged foods – to prepare nutritious school meals with fresh produce.
“Gail's accomplishments as a leader both statewide and nationally in the farm to school movement, as well as in community engaged food system assessments, have resulted in policy, systems and environmental changes benefitting some of the most vulnerable members of our communities including youth, small-scale socially disadvantaged farmers, and the food insecure,” said Jennifer Sowerwine, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at UC Berkeley.
To help small and midsized farmers coordinate to sell to institutional and retail buyers that need large quantities, Feenstra and her colleagues organized a California Food Hub Network.
“Not only have the food hubs contributed to strengthening regional food markets and improving the economic prosperity of their member farmers, they were also instrumental in helping communities pivot during the early days of COVID in 2020,” Feenstra said. “Many of them helped identify local producers who could bring food to the food hubs, where it could be distributed to food banks, retailers and even individuals who needed food.”
In recent years, SAREP has added agritourism as another means for farmers to remain economically sustainable. To enhance local food production and food security, Feenstra and her colleagues have begun offering advice for urban farmers and she led a special project for youth leaders in urban farming.
“Gail has been instrumental to our UC ANR efforts to provide support for California's urban farmers,” said Rachel Surls, UCCE sustainable food systems advisor in Los Angeles County. “From conducting a statewide needs assessment of urban farms, to developing workshops on the business of urban farming, Gail has been integral to our UC ANR Urban Agriculture Working Group for the past decade.”
With colleagues from a national research project, Feenstra pioneered county-based food system evaluations. One of the greatest benefits of these reports, she said, is they promote communication between farmers and low-income communities, including farmworkers, whose health and work are affected by farming practices.
While continuing her research and extension, Feenstra took on administrative duties, serving as SAREP's deputy director from 2008 to 2018, then interim director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute, which contained SAREP at the time, from 2019 to 2020. When SAREP became independent of the institute in 2020, she was appointed director.
In May, the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society honored Feenstra as the 2022 recipient of its Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food and Human Values.
“Much of her work has centered on the unique circumstances, challenges and opportunities of California food and agricultural systems, but the impact of her work is in no way confined to California alone,” Clare Hinrichs, professor of rural sociology at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in her letter nominating Feenstra for the award. “The fruitful insights and applications of Gail's work have traveled well beyond her home state. Her cogent thinking and practical frameworks have inspired and guided others from across the U.S. and other countries engaged in research and practice to enhance community and regional food systems.”
In addition to her academic work, Feenstra served as AFHVS president in 2000-2001 and has served on the board twice.
“As I have reviewed my career, two sentiments come to the fore – gratitude and humility,” Feenstra said. “I have had the good fortune to work for 33 years with wonderful, committed people who share strong values about a fair and equitable society, coupled with a passion for environmental, economic and personal health for all people and the planet.”
Acknowledging Feenstra's extensive career contributions, UC ANR has awarded her emeritus status. As an emeritus academic, she plans to help evaluate the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Farm to School Incubator Grant Program in addition to spending more time with her grandchildren, gardening, quilting, traveling and, eventually, volunteering for local food systems activities.
