Leeks, chard and other regional foodshed produce are available every week at the Davis Farmers Market. (photo by Lyra Halprin)
Organic weed control, tillage, regional foodsheds featured at EcoFarm
January 2009
DAVIS- Two Davis researchers moderated workshops at one of the world's oldest and largest ecological farming conferences.
Robert L. Bugg, agricultural ecology analyst at the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) at UC Davis and its affiliate, the statewide UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), moderated workshops on "Innovations in Tillage" and "Weed Control for Organic Vegetable Growers" at the Ecological Farming Association's 29th Annual Conference in Pacific Grove, Calif. in January. ASI/SAREP food systems analyst Gail Feenstra moderated a panel on regional food sheds at the conference. More than 1,500 participants attended EcoFarm this year.
"Reducing on-farm tillage can cut down fuel costs, keep moisture and nutrients in the ground, and sequester carbon in the soil, which may have an influence on global health," Bugg said. He said the session featured discussions of no-till, strip-till, and other conservation tillage innovations with Jeff Mitchell of the University of California's Conservation Tillage Workgroup and Jeff Moyer of The Rodale Institute.
Bugg noted that weeds are a constant challenge for organic vegetable growers, costing time and money to control. He said the workshop on weed control for organic growers demonstrated how understanding weed biology can lead to more effective control. UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Richard Smith and farmer Martin Diffley of Garden of Eagan in Minnesota talked about cultural practices that can remove weeds from the seedline.
Feenstra moderated and presented at the workshop "Regional Foodsheds," which brought together Robyn Seydel of the La Montanita Co-op Regional Foodshed Project in Albuquerque, N.M., and Ed Thompson, from the American Farmland Trust in Sutter, Calif.
"Food sheds are the agricultural equivalent of watersheds," said Feenstra. "They're the 'agro-ecological' boundaries that feed a community or a region. Through foodshed mapping of growers and consumers, communities can adjust their local ecology to make it healthier, stronger economically stronger, less wasteful and more able to survive in bad times. It was wonderful to share the different successful approaches various communities have developed."
Feenstra shared information from SAREP's recently completed series of case studies of California farm-to-institution projects that use regional foodsheds in their procurement practices. The studies are helping to answer the question of how buyers, farmers and distributors define their foodsheds.
The La Montanita Food Co-op defined a local foodshed for its 8,000 members, and developed a cooperative trucking and warehousing enterprise. The American Farmland Trust completed a foodshed assessment showing five times as much food is produced within 100 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area than is consumed in the region.
Media contacts:
- Robert L. Bugg, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, (530) 754-8549,
- Gail Feenstra, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, (530) 752-8408,
- Lyra Halprin, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, (530) 752-8664,