USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education director Jill Auburn reports that it is a struggle to maintain emphasis on the social “third leg of the sustainability stool” and to talk about social issues in a way that resonates with rather than alienates farmers . Still, the Center’s position is that we need to be able to work with both radical and mainstream groups to effect change. Currently, different groups have varying abilities to claim and provide resources in university programs, which has implications for who are considered legitimate audiences of these programs and which kinds of research agendas are likely to be funded. This creates a cycle of declining emphasis in certain areas. Since universities increasingly base decisions on the value of a person or program’s work on their ability to attract funding, this results in increased power and legitimacy for those able to do so. One consequence is that researchers are drawn to court those with money, who by definition are not marginalized people. University research agendas are shaped to a large extent by extramural funding. Traditionally, public funds are used to cover the base costs of the public research system, with private funding often covering discretionary research costs. For example, large round plant pots biotechnology companies now exert significant influence on the type of research that takes place through agreements with major campuses such as UC Berkeley.
Private or profit-driven funders are unlikely to fund research on the environmental or social justice issues that comprise the Center’s research agenda. Yet, precisely because groups such as farmworkers, the hungry, and capital-limited farmers are as members of a public university, with our salaries paid all or in part by the citizens of California, what is our role in the University of California system? What issues should we be addressing in our research? What audiences should we be serving in our teaching and outreach efforts? These are questions we continually ask ourselves as we plan our research and education programs. In the cover article, associate director Patricia Allen addresses these issues as we discuss the way that the Center’s work has taken on the challenges inherent in trying to meet the needs of those who have often been overlooked by traditional agricultural programs. This article is based on a paper that Allen and I prepared for a seminar I presented at Yale University’s colloquium series. In a related topic, social issues researcher Phil Howard addresses the idea of community-based research , in which community members identify problems for study. This type of research provides a way for academics to address pressing social and environmental issues, and to make their work more relevant to the broader community. Howard discusses some of the ways that the Center has worked with local growers and community groups to address their questions and concerns. Our work in developing resources for those teaching sustainable agriculture topics continues to grow.
This spring, curriculum specialist Albie Miles completed an online resource that links educators to a comprehensive course outline, catalogue description, and annotated resource lists for post-secondary instructors . This project grew out of Miles’s work developing our two popular teaching manuals, Teaching Organic Farming & Gardening: Resources for Instructors, and Teaching Direct Marketing & Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors. Another outgrowth of the curriculum development work is an upcoming conference focusing on sustainable agriculture education at two- and four-year colleges and universities . Convened by the Center and by UC Davis’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and Student Farm, the conference will address the status of sustainable agriculture education, course and program content, teaching methods, and much more. Our efforts to reach the gardening audience with the message of sustainable techniques also continue to evolve, thanks this time to a grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust. A portion of this grant funded a booklet on organic rose care for home gardeners, written by garden manager Orin Martin and excerpted here .Community-based research is “research that is conducted by, with, or for communities” . It stands in contrast to most research, which primarily addresses the needs of private businesses or focuses on esoteric scholarly subjects. Community-based research, on the other hand, is intended to benefit non-profit organizations or local governments that will use the results for practical and positive change .
One example of a community-based research process is the Dutch science shop system. In the Netherlands, every public university has a center that accepts research questions from community groups, and involves faculty or students in answering these questions . The first science shops were established in the late 1970s by Dutch faculty and student volunteers. They were active in social movements, such as opposition to nuclear power, and wanted to make the production of knowledge more democratic. These early science shops gained popular political support, which led to their expansion, as well as a small amount of government funding. There are currently 50 science shops in the Netherlands and they answer approximately 2,000 questions a year . The types of projects have ranged from requests from environmental groups to estimate the risks from pollutants to the exploration of social concerns such as understanding the causes of teenage disaffection. For a question to be addressed it must come from a group that can demonstrate it lacks the resources to conduct the research, and that it will make good use of the results. While early research was conducted primarily by faculty members, much of the work is now conducted by students who receive academic credit for their efforts. Because academic requirements typically require research and writing papers anyway, addressing community research questions has not increased the workload for students or professors. Unlike many student papers that end up in the recycle bin or on the shelf to gather dust, students’ research papers are used by the community organizations and government agencies that have commissioned them. This benefits these organizations, which often lack the resources of large corporations and governments, and students gain valuable real-world experiences .The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems has been involved in a number of community based research efforts. For example, Center researchers have worked with growers to conduct field trials of organic production techniques and pest control strategies, and graduate students have been awarded grants by the Center to conduct surveys with the close participation of the farmers involved. In 2004, researchers at the Center worked with other UC researchers and nongovernmental organizations to establish the Activist Researcher Consortium . The purpose of ARC is to build an ongoing forum for discussion, research, and education among California academics and community organizations with an interest in working together toward a socially just food system. Research questions that were prioritized at the initial ARC workshop included – What are the barriers, or perceived barriers, to socially just businesses? Are businesses that try to incorporate social justice into their practices more likely to fail? How do socially just businesses that are economically successful internalize their ethical commitments? How does access to food differ by ethnicity and socioeconomic status? How does farmworker access to food compare with that of other groups of people? Efforts are currently underway for activists and researchers to begin addressing these important questions collaboratively. Center researchers are also working with community groups on the Central Coast of California to identify areas where large populations have limited access to food resources that are healthy, plant pots round culturally appropriate, affordable and sustainable. The results will help organizations target programs to increase food security in the region and may also identify promising markets for small-scale growers who have limited marketing opportunities. Center staff members are also participating in a studentled coalition at UCSC that is building support for a more ecologically sustainable and socially just campus food system. Finally, representatives of the Center worked with other organizations in Santa Cruz County to organize a community forum on the food system in February 2005.
This day-long meeting had an agenda that was determined entirely by the participants, and they raised a number of questions that they continue to investigate. Some of these inquiries included – What food policies from other areas would work well in our county? How can we help local farms while also getting healthy food to low-income people? How can we increase support for school gardens? The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems plans to remain involved in community-based research as funding allows . However, as mentioned, there are very limited funds available for this type of research and for research on sustainable food systems in the United States. Currently, the community-based research conducted by the Center is funded primarily through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to examine Central Coast food and agricultural systems. Expanding this work will require additional support. With tax increases unlikely, this would mean a reallocation of existing public research funds and an increase in support for community-based research on the part of private donors and foundations.The Center’s social issues research was well represented at the annual joint meetings of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society in Portland, Oregon this spring. Social issues specialist Patricia Allen, and researchers Phil Howard and Jan Perez presented results from a variety of Center projects. Allen and Perez discussed their study of consumers’ and food-system activists’ concepts of social justice in the food system—how these groups define social justice, their vision for it, how they think about it, and what aspects of social justice are important to them. This information will help organizations that are developing criteria for defining social justice within the food system, particularly those working to develop social justice-based criteria as part of certification labels. Howard and Allen presented results from a mail survey administered to consumers in the Central Coast region. In part, the survey measured whether consumers felt they had more power in a locally-based food system. Their findings showed that consumers who obtain foods at least once a week from direct, local sources scored higher on an index measuring “empowerment” as it relates to the food system. Those respondents who frequently purchased organic food did not score higher on the empowerment index. The index included such factors as the consumers’ perceived knowledge about their food, availability of information about their food, availability of food they wanted, satisfaction with choices available, and ability to change the food system. Allen, along with Carolyn Sachs of Penn State University, gave a paper that explores the conflict and ambivalence women experience in providing food for their families, their households, and themselves. They argue that food processors, supermarkets, and restaurants are profiting from the time squeeze that many women experience as they come to rely on convenience foods and pre-cooked meals. At the same time, the food industry and the fashion industry send conflicting messages to women, who are encouraged to indulge in junk food but expected to have “perfect” bodies. The conference also included a session focusing on Allen’s latest book, Together at the Table: Sustainability and Sustenance in the American Agrifood System, published last winter by Penn State University Press. The book distills more than ten years of Allen’s research on the discourses, agendas, and strategies of U.S. alternative food movements and institutions. Panelists highlighted the theoretical, substantive, and practical contributions of Allen’s book. “This workshop showed that both academics and activists find this research to be accessible and important to the future of alternative agrifood movements and institutions. It is extremely gratiflying to know that Together at the Table is considered both an important scholarly contribution and relevant for those working to create change in the American agrifood system,” says Allen.In the agricultural fields above Elkhorn Slough in northern Monterey County, a checkerboard of strawberry, vegetable, and cover cropped plots is yielding clues as to how best to grow strawberries organically while maintaining the health of the agroecosystem. UC Santa Cruz researcher Joji Muramoto oversees the complex study, which involves rotating strawberries with vegetable crops and cover crops in various intervals , and comparing strawberry yield and soil health with plots where strawberries are grown in consecutive years .