UC Blog
Dire consequences of Sacramento budget cuts feared
More crime and fewer prosecutions, more unchecked abuse, more untreated disease, more mentally ill people in jail and the virtual elimination of UC Cooperative Extension in Sacramento are the consequences presented to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors of current budget scenarios, according to an article in today's Sacramento Bee.
"Tearful mothers, elderly veterans, disabled residents and others pleaded for the programs and services on which they rely," wrote reporter Robert Lewis of the scene at the Board's second of three budget workshops.
Susan Gallagher, executive director of Mental Health America Northern California, called the cuts "inhumane."
"We're really cutting services to the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable," she was quoted.
San Diego community garden in limbo
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran an article today about the uncertain future of a popular community garden. The Santee community garden is on the grounds of the community's county-owned Edgemoor Hospital. Patients are being moved from the facility and most of the buildings are slated for demolition.
Two UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners are quoted in the story, 85-year-old Joyce Gemmell, and Judy Jacoby, the co-chair of the San Diego County Master Gardener Association's community gardening committee.
Gemmell, who lives in a mobile home, tends one of the community garden's 30 plots, producing corn, squash and other produce for herself and the Santee Food Bank.
"I've always been a gardener," she was quoted in the article. "I'm the old generation – growing food is important to me."
Jacoby commented on the popularity of community gardens in San Diego County. She said some gardens have stopped adding names to their wait lists because of high demand.
“There is a huge, huge interest,” she told reporter Michelle Clock.
UC event documented in photos, but not in spirit
The beautiful strawberry stand photos that graced a New York Times story yesterday about the locavore movement were shot at a UC event last Friday designed to remind Sacramento residents about the beginning of their local strawberry season and promote two UC initiatives to help local growers.
It was great that Time's photographer Max Whitaker showed up, but it would've been nice to have credited UC for the purpose of the gathering. UC researchers received a half-million-dollar grant from USDA to work closely with Southeast Asian farmers in Sacramento and Fresno counties on improving production practices, ensuring food safety and expanding their markets.
Not that the Times story wasn't interesting. It focused on a new advertising campaign for Lays Potato Chips that extols their connection to farmers and local communities. The story, written by Kim Severson, said food producers and large-scale farming concerns are embracing a broad interpretation of what eating locally means.
"This mission creep has the original locavores choking on their yerba mate," Severson wrote.
In fairness, the article did touch on the second program promoted at last week's strawberry stand event, but without mentioning UC. The "Grow Local and Buy Local" initiative - a collaborative effort with UC and the Sacramento Farm Bureau that is funded with a $50,000 grant from the Sacramento Board of Supervisors - is designed to take advantage of the close proximity of Sacramento's farms and consumers.
Part of the money is being used to encourage 3,000 area farmers to grow acres of what the Severson calls "grocery store crops," like strawberries and artichokes instead of "commodity crops," like safflower and alfalfa, or to sell more fruit fresh, rather than sending it to canners.
The fresh produce can then be marketed as "local" and sold to nearby hospitals, schools, jails and other institutions that want to buy food grown nearby, and sold direct to consumers at local farmers markets, flea markets and road side stands.
The New York Times wasn't the only media outlet to come to the strawberry stand. Sacramento County UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Jenny Broome said representatives from the ag publication Capital Press, KCRA Channel 3 News, and the Elk Grove Citizen covered the event.
Sacramento strawberry stand.
Thinking inside the blog
At the recent ANR Statewide Conference, historian James McWilliams gave UC Ag and Natural Resources staff and academics a new mantra to consider. For years we've been trying to "think outside the box." McWilliams shared the revelation, "There is no box." That gave UCCE Ventura County director Rose Hayden-Smith something to ponder in her blog, posted today on the Web site Civil Eats.
McWilliams probably jarred most of the people in the ANR audience with his comments.
- He said it is simplistic to think of food in terms of chemicals vs. no chemicals.
- He asserted that meat should be eaten in small amounts and not very often, if at all.
- He believes the "genie is out of the bottle" on genetically modified organisms, which he said have the potential to feed more people with less land using less pesticides.
- He said the the Locavore movement seeks to “banish to the dustbin” other food system models
- He suggests any new food system framework will be formed by evolution, not revolution.
In her online post, Hayden-Smith said she sometimes agrees with McWilliams, but made her own points about the future of American food systems:
- She is a strong believer in the value of strong local and regional food systems, and actively promotes them.
- She believes that multiple food systems exist – and probably always will – and that most people participate in several kinds of food systems simultaneously.
- She said there is room and opportunity to develop alternatives for the places and situations in our country where the predominant, or meta, food system is not working effectively.
Hayden-Smith commented in the blog on another presenter she had heard speak recently, MacArthur genius grant recipient Will Allen.
Allen advocates for the creation of a public-private institution called the Centers for Urban Agriculture that would combine all of the elements of a functioning community food system scaled to the needs of a large city. The elements would include a training and outreach center, a large working urban farmstead, a research and development center, a policy institute and a state-of-the-future urban agriculture demonstration center.
Hayden-Smith points out that Allen's vision is not only a new food system model, but suggests a new kind of extension model. In conclusion, she wrote, "McWilliams’ ideas actually retain the box - or framework - of the existing national and largely industrialized food system. Allen’s work assumes no box."
UC researchers discuss Sudden Oak Death on Quest
The continuing efforts of UC scientists to battle Sudden Oak Death were featured today on Quest, KQED's radio program about Northern California science and environment.
The story opens with UC Davis plant pathologist David Rizzo describing why the term "Sudden Oak Death" is a misnomer.
The disease, he said, "is not particularly sudden, it doesn’t just infect oaks and it doesn’t result in death of all plants."
The six-minute radio story includes interviews with Matteo Garbelotto, an extension specialist in forest pathology at UC Berkeley. He told reporter David Garn that bay laurel trees are harboring the pathogen in oak woodlands.