USDA Issues Grant to Aid UCSC's Organic Farming Apprenticeship Program

Congressman Sam Farr stood in a thick coastal fog on Tuesday morning to announce a new grant awarded to the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UC Santa Cruz by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The $665,000 USDA grant for "Building a Foundation for New Farmers: Training, Resources, and Networks" comes from a competitive grant program and accounts for 20% of its total awards given nationally.

Farr, who authored the 1990 California Organic Foods Act calls the 45-year-old 25-acre organic farm and research facility of CASFS the "top place in the country to train in organics."

Dispersed over the next three years, the grant money will be used to aid in scholarships for the CASFS apprentice program, improving technology and a revision and expansion of farmer training manuals developed by CASFS. The cutting edge training manuals will then be made available for free online for anybody, and "at-cost" in print.

“It is in our best economic interest that we be able to build a new generation and pass that torch of passion for the Natural Sciences that this University has into the agricultural movement and into sustainable organics,” said Farr.

Farr noted that although people may not think of farming as a business, it's still our leading economic producer in California.

"In this region, we produce four billion dollars from agriculture. I don’t think you can find a manufacturer to come up with a sales output like that," said Farr. "...if we’re going to to provide more joes then this is the industry that has an incredible opportunity for growth.”

Daniel Press, the newly appointed Executive Director of CASFS was thankful for the recognition from the state, which he says helps legitimize their work for future donors and grants. 

"Recruiting our next generation into sustainable agriculture, into innovative agriculture, including a diverse population that represents the whole country, that now has the stamp of approval by the federal government," said Press. 

The CASFS has a national and international reputation for excellence and apprentices are attracted from Europe, South America, Africa, and the United States, from family farms and from cities. Apprenticeship alumni go on to start successful farms both on a local level and across the globe. This new army of young farmers is vital to the future of agriculture, according to Press. 

"Anybody who looks even briefly at agriculture will notice that the population of farmers is aging, they’re getting old and gray, and they’re working very hard, but we are losing a lot of people from agriculture. We have had in recent years a little bit of growth in the population of growth of farmers but not in young farmers,” said Press. 

Chancellor George Blumenthal commended the program for its research, hands-on training and collaboration with Central Coast growers. The program, known as the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture since 1975, has graduated more than 1,400 apprentices since it began.

“We have a unique commitment and history and involvement in this. It was built by special people; people like Alan Chadwick and Dr. Stephen Gliessman, and has been carried on by the next generation of scholars and students with a real commitment," said Chancellor Blumenthal.

"It isn’t just a job, it isn’t just some training program, this is something they really believe in, I think that spirit is so very important,” said Chancellor Blumenthal.

Tuesday morning also happened to be a "harvest morning" at the farm, and dozens of apprentices worked harvesting beets and carrots, ciopolini onions and cabbage to sell at the farm stand at the base of campus. 

"We have two harvest mornings a week, usually over twenty different crops. It's a pretty diverse array," said Andy Webster, a staffmember at the CASFS. 

Peter Harrington, 28, was pulling carrots in the fog and told Patch that he heard about the program while working at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, where some of the farmers were graduates of the apprenticeship program.

"I'm hoping to go back east and start a farm on some property I have in upstate New York," said Harrington.