Author and activist Anna Lappé facilitated the panel, entitled: “Take a Bite Out of Climate Change: Your Plate, the Planet, and the Climate Crisis.” By addressing this challenge at many levels—from freshmen harvesting their first carrots to national policy changes—CASFS will continue to play a key role in efforts to improve the sustainability of campus food systems.This summer’s “Back 40: Breaking New Ground” event brought hundreds of people to UCSC July 27–29 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Garden Project’s founding and the campus’s pioneering role in organic farming and sustainable agriculture. The celebration kicked off with a garden reception at University House on Friday afternoon, followed by a gathering in the Chadwick Garden Saturday morning, a symposium on CASFS and apprentice graduates’ work, and a Farm dinner under a nearly full moon on Saturday. Sunday featured networking sessions and a tour of local farms started by Apprenticeship graduates. More than 500 people attended the weekend’s events, including many graduates of the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, the roots of which were planted 40 years ago on a slope below Merrill College. The creation in 1967 of what is now the Alan Chadwick Garden opened the door to today’s array of sustainable agriculture-related research, educational, and public service activities offered by UCSC . In comments during Friday’s reception, Chancellor George Blumenthal acknowledged how widely organic farming has been embraced since those early days. “When Safeway and Wal-Mart get involved, you know something’s up,” he said. The anniversary showcased the accomplishments of some of the 1,200 graduates of the apprenticeship training program, square pots as well as the work of the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems .

During the Friday reception, Social Sciences Dean Sheldon Kamieniecki read from a proclamation authored by state Assemblyman John Laird and approved by the California Assembly that heralded the campus’s leadership in sustainable agriculture. He also introduced Patricia Allen, the new director of CASFS, who acknowledged the role of environmental studies professor Carol Shennan in advancing the development of the Center during her 10 years as director. Also at the reception, Chadwick Garden Manager Orin Martin shared a moving personal history of the garden, acknowledging the key roles played by many former UCSC faculty, staff, students, and members of the Friends of the Farm & Garden, including Dean McHenry, Page Smith, Donald Nichols, Hal Hyde, Phyllis Norris, Louise Cain, Paul Lee, Steve Kaffka, and Jim Nelson. The weekend also marked Martin’s 30th year with the garden, and he received an enthusiastic ovation from the crowd, which included families with young children, former and current apprentices, staff and faculty affiliates of CASFS, campus officials, and members of the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden. The reception also kicked off a major fundraising effort for apprenticeship housing. Spearheaded by apprenticeship graduate and Friends’ member Olivia Boyce-Abel, the effort has already raised more than $80,000, thanks in large part to donations from Boyce-Abel and apprenticeship graduate Meg Cadoux Hirshberg. Saturday morning brought together more than 200 participants on the slopes of the Chadwick garden where it all began forty years ago. Kurt Christiansen and Michael Hannon opened the morning with poems, Forrest Cook recounted the chain of events that brought Chadwick to UCSC, and Beth Benjamin shared memories of her work with Chadwick during the early years of the Garden Project. Current apprentice Joy Moore shared insights into what it’s like to be an apprentice today, and spoke of the work she and her classmates hope to accomplish. Christof Bernau offered a remembrance of longtime friend, artist, and mentor Graydon Livingston, and some of the many others who helped found and support the garden through the years. Orin closed the gathering with his thoughts on the Garden and its role today. Following the stories in the Garden, Saturday’s Breaking New Ground symposium convened across the street at the new Humanities Lecture Hall.

CASFS members Patricia Allen, Martha Brown, Sean Swezey, Tim Galarneau, Jim Leap and Diane Nichols gave a dynamic, photo-filled presentation on the trend-setting history of the Farm & Garden, describ-ing how the projects had evolved into the Agroecology Program, and now the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, and the many ways that CASFS continues to stay on the cutting edge of sustainable agriculture and food systems research, education, and public service. Graduates of the Apprenticeship then took center stage to discuss some of the myriad ways they’ve put their training to work. Ann Lindsey, CASFS grant writer, introduced the session, explaining, “We called the symposium ‘Breaking New Ground’ and decided we wanted to focus on innovative programs and farms; we wanted to hear from people who were combining organic growing with education, with job training, with new markets, with community food projects—bringing urban youth to rural farms, bringing fresh organic produce to inner-city low-income neighborhoods, teaching community gardeners to really grow their own food, training new organic farmers.” Speaking on the theme of Farms as Agents of Social Change, Cathrine Sneed, Shawn Harrison, Ursula Chanse, Edwin Marty, Jered Lawson, and Nancy Vail described the way that the farming and gardening programs they’ve created in California, New York, and Alabama have affected the lives of inner city at-risk youth, prisoners, urban gardeners, the elderly, and so many others. In introducing the speakers, Lindsey noted that “Over the decades, many apprentices have come to the Center with an intense desire to learn organic farming and gardening coupled with a desire to better communities, the environment, the food system, and the lives of those in need through their work.” The presenters drew both tears and cheers as they related the powerful results of connecting people to plants, nutritious food, and the land.After lunch, apprenticeship graduates presented their efforts to help bring organics and sustainable agriculture into uncharted or less-traveled territory in the Breaking New Ground panel. Brian McElroy spoke about his work to expand the organic division of Driscoll’s Berries, the largest berry producer in California. Melanie Okamoto described the School Lunch Initiative she heads as part of her work managing the garden and cooking nutrition education program at over a dozen schools in the Berkeley Unified School District—a program that is out front as a national model for not just sourcing school lunch food from local organic farms, but also linking the nutrition and food systems education with hands-on gardening. Amanda Rieux’s presentation of music and images conveyed her amazing work to bring an organic garden and cooking program to school children in Hawaii. Godfrey Kosozi spoke about the organic farmer training program he started in his home country of Uganda as part of his organization’s larger mission to address the environmental and health problems in his country. Leroy Musgrave, who came to the apprenticeship with a background in nutrition training, closed the panel with a description of his work to grow healthy food and provide nutrition education to the people who live in the inner city neighborhood of west Oakland, where liquor stores outnumber grocery stores 70 to 1. Said Lindsey, “Leroy is what I call a food hero, square plant pot bring-ing his organic vegetables and fruits to people without the easy access a lot of us take for granted.” The day’s final panel offered a Focus on Women Farmers—one of the strengths of the Apprenticeship, which has trained more than 600 women in organic gardening and farming skills through the years. Claire Strader discussed the unique 5-acre farm she manages in Madison, Wisconsin, part of a 31-acre urban resource park that incorporates community gardens, prairie restoration, co-housing, children’s garden programs, and research. Vernay Pilar Reber described the Sunnyside Organic Seedlings business that she founded in Richmond, California—one of the few fully organic nursery and greenhouse operations in the country. And Rebecca Slattery shared images of Persephone Farm in Indianola, Washington: like the dream of many apprentices, her small farm features a CSA program, farmers’ markets, youth education, and an internship program. The final symposium speaker was 1972 apprentice Oran Hesterman, Program Director for the Kellogg Foundation’s Food Systems and Rural Development Program and incoming President of the Fair Food Foundation. Oran’s inspiring talk laid out a historical framework for the current agriculture and food system, weaving in his personal journey and presenting a context for the powerful work of apprenticeship graduates around the country. He spoke of the Apprenticeship’s ripple effect in this way: “In many ways, this is where I received my inoculation—my understanding of my own purpose and role in helping us collectively learn how to feed ourselves while nurturing the earth for future generations.

Everywhere I travel in this country—and with my work at Kellogg Foundation supporting sustainable agriculture and food systems projects over the past 15 years I have traveled a lot!—I find others who received a similar inoculation here at UCSC as apprentices.” Buoyed by Hesterman’s words and the other inspiring talks, the crowd made its way down the hill to the Farm for the Midsummer Night’s Culinary Celebration with some diverting for a tour of the Garden. With the tunes of the Harmony Grits ringing out across the Farm’s fields, guests enjoyed a steady stream of delicious appetizers prepared by Britt Galler and Jozseph Shultz, and many toured the Farm to catch up on the latest work taking place. Dinner brought a parade of wonderful courses from chefs Forrest Cook, David Jackman, Rebecca King, Rob Morris, Jamie Smith, Julie Mitravich, Justin Severino, Susan Peterson, Convergence Catering, the UCSC Bake Shop, and a small army of helping hands, featuring produce from more than a dozen local organic farms—many of them started by apprenticeship graduates. It was an incredible sight to see: a sit-down dinner for more than 500 guests in the Farm’s apple orchard, with fresh flower bouquets from the Farm & Garden gracing each table. As the nearly full moon rose and marimba band Kuzanga added their music to the mix, it was truly amazing to look around at the hundreds of people gathered whose lives had been touched by their time spent on this land. Sunday morning saw the apple orchard transformed into an informal, al fresco conference center. Following breakfast, the sun burned away the fog as participants split into networking groups to discuss a variety of topics: women farmers, children’s and youth gardens; social justice issues in agriculture; ecological landscaping; farm-to-institution programs; community supported agriculture, and other shared interests. Hundreds of clasped hands formed a human chain around the garden beds as Garden Manager Christof Bernau led the group in a series of appreciations—for the people, the land, the passion, and the work that has blossomed for 40 years, sparked by the energy of those both present and remembered. As we threw our hands in the air to the ringing cheers of “grow!” it was easy to envision this same scene taking place 10, 20, or 30 years from now, with an ever-growing circle of people committed to nurturing the land and their communities. After lunch, many took advantage of the opportunity to tour local farms started by graduates of the Apprenticeship program. Our thanks to the busy farmers who hosted tours, and to the countless others who helped make this event a success. As has been true over our 40-year history, the work involved many hands and many efforts and the result was truly remarkable and the inspiration lasting.As part of our 40th Anniversary celebration, the Center honored Congressman Sam Farr for his early and visionary support of UCSC’s agroecology and sustainable food systems programs in a ceremony at the UCSC Farm in October. Long before the concept of agroecology was recognized in Sacramento, then-Assemblyman Farr “consistently and forcefully supported agroecology, small-scale family farming and the need to protect California’s environment with ecologically sound farming practices,” said Chancellor George R. Blumenthal. Despite “skepticism and even criticism” from the powerful voices representing traditional agriculture, Farr secured the “seed money” that helped establish permanent state funding for UCSC’s Agroecology Program in the mid 1980s and has been a champion of sustainable agriculture research and education ever since, said Blumenthal. “Without Sam’s support, we would not have this exemplary and renowned program.” Blumenthal presented Farr with a certificate recognizing his decades-long support of the campus.