Cover crops at Full Belly Farm, Yolo County, CA. Photo by Paul Kirchner Studios

About the Center

Mission

The Center for Diversified Farming Systems at the University of California, Berkeley provides a venue to study the individual and societal costs and benefits of multi-functional agriculture, and to identify and help implement leading-edge scientific solutions to the technical, economic, and political challenges facing broad adoption of diversified farming systems.

Goals

  • To increase scientific understanding of multi-functional diversified farming systems through interdisciplinary research across ecology, economics, sociology, policy, and development studies.
  • To provide the public with informed perspectives on industrial and multi-functional agriculture.
  • To seek solutions to the pressing problems of social justice, human welfare, and the environment, as they relate to agriculture.
  • To train future scholars and leaders through an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.

Contributing Research Scientists

Patrick Baur, Carl Boettiger, Timothy Bowles, Adam Calo, Kathryn De Master, Mary Firestone, David Gonthier, Aidee Guzman, Alastair Iles, Daniel Karp, Claire Kremen, Marc Los Huertos, Adrian Lu, Milad Memarzadeh, Joanna Ory, Céline Pallud, Lauren Ponisio, Hillary Sardiñas, Amber Sciligo.

Collaborating Organizations

Regional Conservation Districts of Santa Cruz & Monterey Counties, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Driscoll Strawberry Associates, Inc., Wild Farm Alliance (WFA), Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), California Farm Bureau Federation, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and The Farmers Guild.

Funding Sources

  • USDA-NIFA-RENRE (CA-B-INS-0143-CG)
  • USDA-NIFA-BENRE (2017-67019-26293/1012253)
  • USDA-NIFA (CA-B-SOC-0183-CG3, 2012-51181-20105)
  • USDA-NIFA Pre-doctoral Fellowship Program
  • USDA-NRCS (CIG-69-3A75-12-253, CIG-69-3A75-9-142, CIG-68-9104-6-101, WLF-69-7482-6-277 with The Xerces Society) NSF (DEB-0919128, SES-1431490)
  • NSF Predoctoral Fellowship Programs
  • NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs
  • Army Research Office (W911NF-11-1-0361)
  • The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
  • The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
  • The University of California, Berkeley Chancellor’s Pre-doctoral Fellowship Program
  • CS Fund
  • Berkeley Food Institute