PUBLICATIONS :: Agricultural Research and Sustainable Agriculture in California

A report prepared on behalf of The Community Alliance with Family Farmers, for Richard Rominger, former California Secretary of Agriculture, and Deputy Secretary, USDA, evaluating agricultural research at the University of California Davis, University of California Riverside, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and California State University, Fresno, from a sustainable agriculture perspective.

By Claire Hope Cummings

Download complete study here (pdf 129).

Executive Summary:

This report takes into consideration the views of over 150 of some of the most dedicated supporters of sustainable agriculture in California, including CAFF’s Sustainable Agriculture Research Task Force, members of the CAFF Board of Directors and staff, and 135 respondents to CAFF’s 2003 agricultural research survey.

Without question, all the participants in this inquiry want to see more public funding for agricultural research and more sustainable agriculture research in California. What makes this particular investigation most interesting is the depth of insight, concern, and interest, as well as the breadth of recommendations, regarding how best the institutions involved can serve the needs of both farmers and the public.

Are these institutions meeting the needs of California’s sustainable agriculture community? In part, yes, the programs that are designed to provide direct services, such as UC Davis Small Farm Center and UCCE, are viewed quite positively. On the other hand, over all, agricultural research in California comes in for heavy criticism from both farmers and the general public for being hidebound and too beholden to private interests.

“The power of agriculture to strengthen our communities, improve our quality of life, and restore various damaged ecosystems is enormous. This is both a vision and a reality. It is happening on many farms around the state, and it could happen on more if only we had the leadership to take us there. It is sad that even our educational institutions are failing us in this regard since this is the place where big thinking should be taking place.” Judith Redmond, CAFF President.

The highly dedicated and thoughtful participants in this investigation provide both vital insights and creative suggestions for the future of public agricultural research in California. What emerges is a new partnership between active and informed consumer-citizens and innovative environmentally sensitive producers and farmers.

Our entire food system is undergoing profound changes. The old tensions and divisions between urban/rural and farmer/consumer, even organic/conventional, are no longer useful distinctions. Instead, new relationships are being forged and creative solutions to the critical lack of public sources of funding are being found. In the context of severe budget cuts for the institutions involved, the rapidly declining natural resource base and fragility of California’s conventional agricultural economy (expressed as a sense of hopelessness by some) CAFF’s contribution to this effort is a beacon of hope.

This hope is founded in CAFF’s long history of providing leadership in solving the root problems that undermine public support for agriculture and in the promising view, held by these participants, that sustainable agriculture holds the solutions for nourishing California’s natural environment, its communities, and its agricultural economy.