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SAREP's Gail Feenstra and Julia Van Soelen Kim are contributing authors on a new article "Value Chains for Sustainable Procurement in Large School Districts: Fostering Partnerships"  The article chronicles two separate pilot efforts to create value chains for mid-scale farms to supply large school districts' food-service operations with more healthful, local, and sustainably produced foods, using a modified fa

SAREP compiled an extensive annotated bibliography of literature relating to values-based supply chains for Know Your Farmer/Know Your Food: A California Project.   The bibliography can serve as a valuable resource for anyone involved in creating or researching supply chains, food hubs, and farm to institution programs. 

ASI and SAREP staff and affiliated UC Davis faculty have recently published two new articles in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 

NETWORK COORDINATOR (PROGRAM REPRESENTATIVE II)

We're hiring for a new Executive Assistant. Visit our ASI jobs page for more.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to review the full position description including a description of the essential job responsibilities and qualifications.

To apply, review directions for “How to Apply” on the UC Davis Career Opportunities Web Page: https://www.employment.ucdavis.edu.  Refer to Requisition # 03005018, Payroll Title: “__” Assistant III.

In collaboration with the Information Center on the Environment at UC Davis (ICE), ASI's initiative on sustainable sourcing seeks to enhance the sustainability of how we source raw materials from around the world.  The project seeks to create a scientifically-validated framework that food companies and other stakeholders can use when making decisions about agricultural sourcing. 

There's a problem with our current use of nitrogen in agricultural systems: we're inefficient. That's the message Ken Cassman, Heuermann professor of agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, gave to a crowd of UC Davis professors and students last week.

Ken Cassman's research aims to answer a fundamental question for the future of agricultural sustainability: How can we meet increasing global demand for food while protecting environmental quality and natural resources for future generations?

The College of Agriculture and Environmental Science is hosting its first Outlook Speaker Series on Saturday, November 5. The topic of the program is “Feeding a Hungry Planet.”  Faculty members will address their research and how each topic is helping to feed people locally and globally.

Rusell Ranch Director and ASI Deputy Director, Kate Scow, will speak at the event, alongside Dr. Beth Mitcham of Plant Sciences and Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam of Animal Sciences.

Several sessions at this weekend's EcoFarm conference in Pacific Grove, Calif., will feature UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program- and program-funded research.

We are looking forward to celebrating the program's 25th anniversary with our EcoFarm friends and UC Davis colleagues, including 10 UC Davis students in attendance with the help of Agricultural Sustainability Institute travel scholarships.

ASI affiliate faculty member Johan Six has been named as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.

Six is an agroecology professor in the department of plant sciences at UC Davis, and a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow.

We've got a job opening here at ASI for a full-time Budget & Finance Officer. The position is based out of our office in the ANR building on Hopkins Road in Davis.

More information about the opening is available here:

http://www.asi.ucdavis.edu/about/jobs

"In Organic We Trust" is a new documentary film that looks beyond 'organic' for other practical solution like farmer's markets, school gardens and urban farms that are revolutionizing the way we eat. 

The film features Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis Director Tom Tomich, Sierra Orchards and the Center for Land-Based Learning President Craig McNamara, and many other important voices in agriculture.

Watch the "In Organic We Trust" Teaser.

How does fertilizer move around California?

Much of it starts out as anhydrous ammonia shipped into Stockton, Sacramento and other ports from countries like Trinidad and Venezuela, and is then transported around the state for use as fertilizer by truck or rail car.

Drip irrigation was the topic of conversation at this year’s Russell Ranch Field Day growers panel – and opinions were mixed.