Global Food Initiative

Last year’s drought cost the ag industry more than $1 billion, thousands of jobs, new analysis shows

UC Merced

March 3, 2022

Crops most affected by increased fallowing include rice, cotton, grain and field crops.

Sustainable Agriculture Education Association conference overview

UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, with support from the UC Global Food Initiative, hosted the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association national conference, highlighting hands-on educational efforts that bridge scientific and social issues.

List Grid

A new vaccine developed by veterinary immunologist Jeff Stott shows promise for preventing foothill abortion disease, which kills calves before or at birth.

Vaccine field trials for deadly 'foothill abortion' cattle disease expand

Thanks in part to researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, cattle ranchers are one step closer to having a vaccine available to treat a tick-borne bacterial disease that kills cow fetuses.

UC Santa Cruz updates instructor's manual for teaching small farm direct marketing

The new edition of Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors draws on nearly 50 years of experience teaching these skills to beginning organic farmers and gardeners at the UC Santa Cruz Farm & Garden Apprenticeship.

Scientists warn that humans have been depleting soil at rates that are orders of magnitude greater than our current ability to replenish it. They say that fixing this imbalance is critical to global food security over the next century.

Soil depletion threatens global food security

If trajectory does not change, soil erosion, combined with effects of climate change, will present huge risk to global food security over next century, soil scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Merced warn.