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Posts Tagged: Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program
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.
Racial Equity in Extension webinar recordings available
If you missed the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program's webinar series “Racial Equity in Extension,” you can watch the recordings. All six of the webinars are now available on UC ANR's YouTube channel in a playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLjlfxpbNglZnj700E62ZB4Gn4UoKAsYv.
In response to participants' questions, UC SAREP is providing additional reading recommendations on conducting research with Indigenous people, and guidelines for working at the interface between western science and Indigenous knowledge.
Follow-up reading:
- Exploring the Interface Between Science and Indigenous Knowledge – Mason Durie, Massey University, New Zealand
- A New Era of Indigenous Research: Community-based Indigenous Research Ethics Protocols in Canada – J. of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
- Protocols and Principles for Conducting Research in an Indigenous Context – University of Victoria, Faculty of Human and Social Development
For employees who are interested in collaborating with colleagues to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, UC ANR has two groups you can join:
- The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alliance – An opportunity to work with peers to spearhead DEI efforts organization-wide, within UC ANR. For more information, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/deialliance/DEI_Alliance_Home/
- The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Program Team – Gain opportunities to learn and collaborate with like-minded colleagues to improve our capacity to serve diverse external clientele across California. Contact Clare Gupta or Christy Getz for more information on how to join.
New SAREP logos are in the communications toolkit
In the toolkit, you will find SAREP's new logo with and without text, in English and Spanish:
Brand consistency is important
UC ANR logos visually communicate our brands, and our brand promotion efforts seek to positively influence people's perceptions and awareness of UC ANR's value throughout the state. We do this by presenting consistent, credible and authentic messages and visuals about how we benefit California. Consistency is key to building awareness and understanding, because communicating a fragmented or overly complicated brand confuses audiences and makes it hard for them to understand both what we do and the value we bring. Simply stated, that means every type of communication we craft – presentations, web pages, publications, social media posts, etc. – is an opportunity to grow brand awareness and positive sentiment for UC ANR.
To that end, please be sure you are using the current version of the UC ANR logo and/or sub-brand logos on your materials – presentations, email signatures, flyers, posters, social media profiles, etc. We recognize that physical signage is costly to update, but if you are creating new signage or replacing old signage, please be sure to use the proper logos. For specific branding or logo questions, contact Linda Forbes.
Learn more about UC ANR branding and messaging in the communications toolkit.
UC SAREP receives USDA grant to strengthen local food networks
With the emergence of “shelter-in-place” directives at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, California's small-scale direct-marketing farms and agritourism operations faced drastic and immediate disruptions to operations causing major losses in revenue and layoffs for staff.
Particularly hard-hit were agritourism operators who had to cancel visitor activities, often reducing staff or not hiring for seasonal employment. On the positive side, the disruptions in food supply and mobility brought the existence and importance of local farms and ranches to the public's attention.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service recently awarded the Farmers' Market Promotion Program 2020 grants. The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) received $283,644 for its project "Strengthening California local food networks with agritourism and direct sales."
UC SAREP Director Gail Feenstra and Penny Leff, UC SAREP agritourism coordinator, are leading this three-year project in collaboration with a team of Cooperative Extension advisors and staff to provide education, technical assistance, promotion and networking support for farmers and ranchers throughout California who are engaged in direct marketing and agritourism activities.
The UC ANR team includes Laura Snell, UCCE Modoc County director; Luis Espino, UCCE Butte County director; Margaret Gullette Lloyd, UCCE small farms advisor in Solano County; Karen Giovannini, UCCE agriculture ombudsman in Sonoma County; and Laura Crothers, UC SAREP communication specialist. They plan to partner with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and established producer-based agriculture associations Modoc Harvest, Sonoma County Farm Trails, Sierra Oro Farm Trail in Butte County and Pleasants Valley Agriculture Association in Solano County.
Read more about the project at https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=43987.
UC SAREP opens its doors on campus
The UC ANR Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is officially open for business on the UC Davis campus. The statewide program, which renovated and moved into the Robbins Hall Annex in September 2014, recently hosted an open house and ribbon cutting to warm its new space.
UC ANR Associate Vice President Bill Frost and UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Dean Helene Dillard cut the ribbon together, and welcomed the 29-year-old program onto campus.
“Now more than ever, it is important that we maintain strong integration of our research and extension efforts,” said Dean Dillard. “Having the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program located on campus is a great opportunity to model a collaborative approach and show a tangible bridge between campus-based activities and statewide extension.”
The UC SAREP program is co-housed at UC ANR and the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis. UC SAREP's campus location provides opportunity for campus faculty and students to actively engage with ANR activities and continue to improve the links between researchers and community stakeholders.
