Posts Tagged: Sustainable Food Systems
Apply to become HFC or SFS Strategic Initiative leader
ANR is seeking leaders for two strategic initiatives: Healthy Families and Communities and Sustainable Food Systems. The new Healthy Families and Communities leader will start on Nov. 1, and the new Sustainable Food Systems leader will start on Jan. 1, 2024.
SI leaders work with their panels to help people connect while unifying, communicating and advocating for UC ANR's work internally and across the state. SI leaders seek information from their panel members to help inform discussions related to programmatic resources within ANR.
Panels vary in their frequency and duration of meetings (1 to 2 hours per month on average). The SI leaders meet monthly (2 hours) and represent their panels on Program Council (up to 8 hours/month), which provides input for programmatic policy and direction for the organization. Program Council meets the first Tuesday and subsequent Wednesday of each month (except August).
These meetings may be via Zoom, in person at the UC ANR building in Davis or at a research and extension center. These are mandatory meetings and SI leaders receive a stipend.
To apply for an SI leader position, visit https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=40584 and fill out the brief form. The deadline for applications is Sept. 29.
To learn more about the SI leader role, feel free to reach out to Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty forHealthy Families and Communities or Rachel Surls for Sustainable Food Systems.
[Updated 9/14/23 to revise Program Council meetings from 6 hours to up to 8 hours]
Youth-run garden provides 10,000 pounds of produce for San Diego families
UC SAREP's Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems grant helps support Second Chance garden
Fifteen-year-old Xavier knows the anger within him will never leave. “I can't ever get rid of it,” he said.
“I've always wanted to just fight for no reason; I just had an anger issue, losing my temper quick with people,” added Xavier, a ninth-grader in San Diego County. “I have high expectations of myself.”
Xavier is working to keep his emotions under control, and he has found a sense of calm through his volunteer work. He was an intern – and then a peer supervisor – in the youth-run garden of Second Chance, a San Diego-based organization that works to break the cycles of poverty and incarceration by providing housing and job training to adults and young people.
Operating their garden as a small farm business, youth in the program, ages 14 to 21, offer produce to the community through their farm stand and a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model.
“The project incorporates a ‘farm to fork' approach in which youth not only experience how to grow food, but how to cook and eat healthfully,” said Gail Feenstra, director of the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, which has a grant program that funds research and education projects – such as the youth garden – supporting sustainable food systems.
“Second Chance works primarily with youth in communities of color, providing them with training and also helping them develop confidence in themselves,” Feenstra said.
Filling a critical need for fresh produce
Caelli Wright, program manager of the Second Chance youth garden, said that grant funds from SAREP – a program of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources – have been used to purchase the supplies needed to sustain the program. The garden has filled a critical need for produce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the pandemic hit, we recognized the increased need for fresh food in our neighborhoods,” Wright said. “That need was already there – southeast San Diego is considered a ‘food swamp' or ‘food apartheid', if you will – and with the onset of COVID, that need just escalated with unemployment and complications in our food production systems.”
Through a partnership with UC San Diego Center for Community Health and Encanto Elementary School (located down the block from the garden), donations enabled the program to give its CSA shares to about 25 families at Encanto. Over the course of the pandemic, the youth have grown 10,000 pounds of produce to donate.
At the same time, the program helps the young participants grow. For Xavier, being outdoors with peers empowered him to develop positive relationships. Previously, as a student in a charter school program, he was not accustomed to interacting with people and groups. Volunteering in the youth garden has given him a fresh perspective and understanding of others.
“Learning to be patient with people and [to] accept sometimes that if I don't know something, I need to ask about it, because I used to be so in my ego that I thought I knew everything,” Xavier explained. “But I don't know everything – I just learned to accept some things…that's just being part of life. And that's something that the garden has helped me with, personally.”
Opportunities for personal, social growth
Developing – and redeveloping – social skills are especially important for students, as they return from the disconnections associated with remote learning.
“Right now, with a lot of students facing the aftermath of COVID and being restricted to learning at home and not getting as much social interaction in their daily lives, it's led to a lot of challenges, mental health-wise, and social and emotional learning-wise,” Wright said. “The garden program provides that opportunity that some youth have been missing out on.”
In southeast San Diego, such crucial opportunities for personal growth and career exploration are harder to come by, and Second Chance started the garden in 2012 to give youth a unique work experience and valuable skills. About 400 young people have participated in the program.
“The youth that we serve are coming from low-income neighborhoods that are underserved with resources,” Wright said. “They just are not exposed to the same opportunities [as those in higher-income areas] to build skills or be ready for the workforce or to reach higher education – so that's where our program comes in and helps deliver those needed services.”
Xavier, who originally came to the garden because he heard that landscaping could be a lucrative career, recently finished his second stint as a peer supervisor in the youth garden. With his new skills, he and his cousin are looking to start a business of their own, cutting grass and doing yardwork in their community.
And, late last month, Xavier transferred to a more traditional high school environment.
“Being in a charter school after two, three years,” he said, “I've realized I miss being around more people.”
/h3>/h3>/h2>Farmers of color share their contributions, concerns in UC SAREP webinar series
When agricultural advisors came to the Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico during the 1940s, they lined the irrigation ditches with concrete, in the name of boosting efficiency and productivity. But in single-mindedly focusing on water delivery, they neglected to consider how the previously inefficient seepage sustained nearby fruit trees.
Their actions, as well-intentioned as they might have been, disrupted the local ecosystem and killed the trees that had fed many generations, according to A-dae Romero-Briones, who identifies as Cochiti and as a member of the Kiowa Tribe.
“In my language, we call the extension agents ‘the people who kill the fruit trees,'” said Romero-Briones, director of the Food and Agriculture Program for the First Nations Development Institute, a nonprofit that serves Tribal communities across the mainland, Alaska and Hawaii.
The historically tense relationship between Indigenous peoples and government-affiliated programs is one of the many complex dynamics discussed in a six-part webinar series, “Racial Equity in Extension,” facilitated by UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
Making communities of color in the agricultural sector more visible is a priority for Victor Hernandez, a sociologist and outreach coordinator for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Hernandez, who has organized “Growing Together” conferences for Latino and Black farmers, is trying to get more farmers of color to participate in the upcoming 2022 Agricultural Census.
“If we cannot quantify the demographic, we cannot justify the need,” emphasized Hernandez, explaining that his office uses the data to direct resources that advance equity in service, program delivery and distribution of funds.
A legacy of mistrust
At the same time, however, Hernandez also acknowledged the challenges in registering growers of color for the census, conducted by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. (According to Brodt, USDA's most recent agricultural census, dating to 2017, counts approximately 25,000 producers of color among 128,535 total producers in California.)
“Many of us that are considered socially disadvantaged or historically underserved…a lot of times our peoples come from [nations with] oppressive governments,” Hernandez said. “And so when you come to the United States and you begin to build your life here, to go and engage with the federal government is not the first knee-jerk reaction.”
On top of government mistrust and fears of deportation or detention, other immigrant groups have seen mainstream agriculture – borne by the “Green Revolution” wave across the globe – replace deep-rooted cultural practices, said Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm in Winters.
“It just makes these small farmers distrust our own knowledge, the knowledge that's existed for centuries – before the kind of current iteration of agriculture that we're situated within right now,” said Leach, who works to preserve the agricultural heritage of her Korean ancestors, and facilitates a farmers' collaborative called Second Generation that adapts Asian crop varieties to climate change.
According to Romero-Briones, a collective memory of supplanted culture also lingers in Indigenous communities. In the Cochiti Pueblo, “primarily a subsistence agriculture community” with a long history of corn cultivation, their practices are distinct from those in the mainstream – including regenerative and sustainable agriculture.
Building relationships takes commitment
Given that legacy of cultural displacement and appropriation, how do extension professionals and other agricultural advisors slowly rebuild trust with communities of color? For Romero-Briones, it begins with a genuine respect for Indigenous practices, and she urges interested people to contact their local tribal historic preservation officer to begin strengthening those connections and understanding – beyond a couple of phone calls.
“As someone who works with Indigenous people all day, even I need to recognize sometimes I have to meet with people up to 12 times before we actually start talking about the work that I initially wanted to talk to them about,” Romero-Briones said.
In a similar vein, Chanowk Yisrael, chief seed starter of Yisrael Family Farms, encouraged listeners to reach out to members of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative – an organization striving for a fair food system while challenging racism and centering farmers of color.
“To use a farm analogy: we've got this ground, which is the farmers of color who have been neglected for a long period of time,” said Yisrael, who has grown his farm in a historically Black neighborhood of Sacramento into a catalyst for social change. “It's not just going to be as simple as just throwing some seeds and things are going to come up; you're going to have to do more – that means you got to get out and do much more than you would do for any other community.”
Investing time in a community is one thing – and backing it up with tangible resources is another. Technical expertise is only the “tip of the iceberg,” Leach said, as historically marginalized groups are also seeking land access and tenure, more affordable cost of living, and access to capital.
“All of those things are actually much bigger burdens to bear for most communities of color than not having the knowledge of how to grow the crops that we want to grow, and not knowing how to be adaptive and nimble in the face of climate change," Leach explained, highlighting California FarmLink as an essential resource. (The “Understanding Disparities in Farmland Ownership” webinar includes a relevant discussion on this subject.)
Bringing diverse voices to the table
Another key is ensuring that farmers and farm workers of color are represented in management and decision-making processes. Samuel Sandoval, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and UC Cooperative Extension specialist in water management, develops outreach programs in English and Spanish for everyone from farm workers to the “boss of the boss of the boss.”
“It has to be changed,” he said, “because at the end, the person who is going to operate the irrigation system and turn on or off the valves, the person who is looking if there's a leak or not – that's the person who's not being informed, or has not been informed on purpose.”
That exclusion of certain groups can lead to a loss of invaluable knowledge. Leach said there is a real danger in ignoring the wisdom of communities that have contributed so much to the foundation of food systems in California and around the globe.
“These really kind of amazing, sophisticated and elegant agroecological systems that we don't often legitimize through the scientific language and perspectives aren't seen as being really technically proficient – but, in many ways, they're more dynamic and more resilient than the things that we're perpetuating right now,” she said.
As a concrete example, Sandoval said that while extension advisors and specialists conduct studies to remedy a plant disease, farm workers might be developing – separately and in parallel – their own solutions by asking for advice from their social networks via WhatsApp, a phone application.
A reimagining of collaboration, Sandoval said, would include (and compensate) people working in the field for sharing their perspectives – bringing together academics and farmers, integrated pest management experts and pesticide applicators, irrigation specialists and those who do the irrigation.
A need to look within
Concerns about inclusion and validating alternate sources of knowledge apply also to the recruitment process in extension. Leach said that she has seen listings for advisor jobs that would require, at a minimum, a master's degree – which would automatically disqualify her, despite her extensive knowledge of Asian heirloom vegetables.
“When you look at a job description and you see ‘Asian crop specialist,' only required qualification is a master's degree, and then somewhere down the long list of sort of secondary desired, recommended things is some knowledge of Asian crops or communities…you know that just says a lot in terms of what has weight,” Leach explained.
Before organizations can authentically connect with communities of color, they should prioritize diversity in their own ranks, said Romero-Briones. First Nations Development Institute had to ensure that they had adequate representation across the many Tribes that they serve.
“Before we start looking out, we have to start looking in,” she explained, “and that means we have to hire Indigenous people who know these communities.”
For extension professionals and other members of the agricultural community in California, the UC SAREP webinar series has helped spark that introspection and a meaningful reevaluation of institutional processes and assumptions.
“These discussions have been tremendously illuminating and eye-opening,” Brodt said. “But hearing and learning is just the start – it's incumbent on us, as an organization and as individuals, to take action to ensure that farmers of color and their foodways are truly respected and valued.”
The “Racial Equity in Extension” series is made possible by professional development funds from Western Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education.
/h2>/h2>/h2>/h2>Reducing Plastic in Local Gardens
Recently gardeners have become more aware of the importance of gardening sustainably, but while...
A sustainable way of producing strawberries using the new IPM model
The traditional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) model is focused on maintaining ecological balance in the cropping system with some attention to the economics of pest management related to the yield losses. The new model, recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management, is more comprehensive covering the management, business, and sustainability aspects of pest management and discusses various components within (Dara, 2019). IPM, according to the new model, can be defined as an approach to managing pests in an economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally safe manner.
New IPM model from Dara, 2019
Based on the information generated by several studies in California and other reports, here is how the new IPM model can be adapted for producing strawberries sustainably.
1. MANAGEMENT ASPECT
A. Pest Management: The term “pest” includes arthropod pests, diseases, and weeds and the management includes the various practices used to suppress them.
- Select varieties that produce good yields while resisting biotic and abiotic stresses.
- Choosing the right mulch and good irrigation and nutrient management contribute to good plant growth and health. Micro-sprinklers save water and hold pest management benefits.
- Explore the potential of beneficial microbes and biostimulants to improve nutrient and water absorption and to maintain crop health. Inoculate the transplants with biostimulants to induce systemic resistance and periodically apply, especially after fumigation, to improve the beneficial microbial activity in the soil.
- Healthy plants resist pest problems and reduce the need for control options. Plant health can be maintained through good cultural practices (biostimulants, nutrients, irrigation, soil conditioning, etc.).
- Predatory mites effectively control twospotted and Lewis mites, but natural enemy populations may not be sufficient to control the western tarnished plant bug.
- Light traps can be useful for managing lepidopteran pests.
- Tractor-mounted vacuums can be a part of the IPM program for managing the western tarnished plant bug, but their pest control efficiency is not necessarily superior to other strategies and are not without some associated risks. For example, operation of vacuums requires fossil fuels and they are used at a much higher frequency than pesticide applications.
- Use botanical, microbial, and chemical pesticides in combination. Combinations can improve pest control efficacy and rotations reduce the risk of resistance development.
- Rotating strawberries with crops such as broccoli can reduce the severity of certain soilborne diseases.
B. Knowledge and Resources:
- Understand pest biology, vulnerable stages of the pest, and appropriate strategies for each pest, different life stages, season, and budget. For example, relying on natural enemies for the western tarnished plant bug control is not effective and can lead to higher pest damage.
- Accurately identify the issue through visual observation or laboratory diagnosis for proper corrective action.
- Try to explore modern technology to monitor crop health.
C. Planning and Organization:
- Regularly monitor crop health for early detection and prevention of potential pest problems. For example, thorough scouting to determine the level of western tarnished plant bug infestation is very important for making the treatment decision. Deformed fruit is not always an indicator for the treatment threshold as nearly 1/3 of the fruit deformity occurs from environmental and other causes not related to the western tarnished plant bug.
- Look for signs of pesticide resistance and use appropriate strategies to reduce the risk.
- Maintain records of pest occurrence, seasonal trends, strategies that worked, and all relevant information, to build institutional knowledge for future use.
- Take the right action at the right time.
D. Communication:
- Regularly attend extension events and read research updates. Choose or design practices that are ideal for your farm based on the research updates.
- Periodically provide training to all individuals on the farm who directly or indirectly contribute to good agriculture practices.
- Share good management practices with each other for area-wide improvement of crop production and pest management.
- Try to educate the public so that they make better choices when purchasing produce. For example, good IPM practices can be more sustainable than organically approved practices and well-informed consumers can make a choice among conventional, organic, or sustainably produced grains, fruits, and vegetables. Public education can also help to eliminate otherwise good produce that is discarded because of minor imperfections. In strawberry, fruit deformity is caused due to the feeding of the western tarnished plant bug, genetic factors, poor pollination, or very low temperatures. Although most of the deformed strawberries, especially those from insect damage, have equal quality as marketable strawberries, they are discarded because of their shape. If the consumer market can accept deformed strawberries that still have good taste and nutritional quality, it can significantly reduce the wastage and the amount of pesticides sprayed to control the western tarnished plant bug.
2. BUSINESS ASPECT
- A strong IPM program can help growers produce sustainably while ensuring profitability.
- Consumer choices depend on their knowledge of sustainable agriculture. When they understand that produce with an IPM or Sustainably Produced label is safe for human and environmental health, it will have a major impact on food production systems.
3. SUSTAINABILITY ASPECT
- The current interpretation or perception of sustainability does not reflect true sustainability in terms of environmental health, profitability, food security, social equality, and other elements. A good IPM model can address all these issues to ensure farm productivity, food affordability, and environmental safety.
RESEARCH and OUTREACH
- Research and outreach component is the foundation of IPM to identify pest issues, develop appropriate knowledge for their management, and effectively disseminate the related information. Supporting research and outreach efforts of universities and other entities is essential for continuing IPM.
References
In addition to the below references, there are several articles in this eJournal on crop production and protection topics related to strawberry.
- Download “Biology and management of spider mites in strawberry” in English and Spanish at http://ucanr.edu/spidermiteguide or scan the QR code. Information about different species of spider mites and predatory mites is available in this guide.
- Efficacy of botanical, chemical, and microbial pesticides on twospotted spider mite and their impact on predatory mites //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=18553
- Entomopathogenic fungi can endophytically colonize strawberry plants when applied to the soil and negatively impact twospotted spider mite infestations //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=16821
- How to detect resistance to miticides in twospotted spider mite populations and strategies to reduce the resistance development //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22097
- Comparison between the twospotted spider mite and the Lewis mite //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=5771
- An overview of lygus bug biology, damage, and management in strawberries http://cesantabarbara.ucanr.edu/files/75473.pdf
- Lygus biology, monitoring, and management videos http://ucanr.edu/SDYouTube
- Fruit deformity in strawberry from lygus bug and other factors //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=19630
- Potential of a solar-powered UV light trap as a pest management option in strawberry //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25307
- IPM tools for controlling western tarnished plant bug in strawberry https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=19641
- Entomopathogens (pathogens of insects, mites, and ticks), their modes of infection, and how they can be used as a powerful tool in IPM //ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=24119
- Biopesticides and IPM https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25912
- Lygus bug and natural enemy populations in organic and conventional strawberries https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=14030
- Microbial and bioactive soil amendments for improving strawberry health and yields (2017-2018 study) https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=27891
- Beneficial microbe-based products for strawberry health and yield (2016-2017 study)
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=25122
- Beneficial microbes and entomopathogenic fungi for strawberry health and yield (2015-2016 study) https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22709
- Entomopathogenic fungi antagonizing Macrophomina phaseolina https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28274
- Entomopathogenic fungi and other biologicals against Fusarium oxysporum
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=22199
- Micro-sprinklers in strawberry https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=19699