From the Field
Cross-UC Campus Agroecology Field Quarter Launched: Growing Food System Leaders
Thirteen agroecology students spend a summer quarter traveling across California’s agricultural sector to study sustainable food systems.

As a student pursuing a degree and a career in the food system, I am always looking out for opportunities where I can learn more about food production and expand my knowledge and experience in the field. The Agroecology Field Quarter came to me as a way to further my studies in a way that was hands-on, experiential, and very relevant to the California food production atmosphere.
The Agroecology Field Quarter is a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical concepts, physical methods, and social implications of agroecology as a discipline and livelihood, where agroecology students from across the UC campuses spend 7 weeks in a traveling cohort, touring the California agricultural sector and learning the ideologies and practices of ethical food pathways. In its primary year, the field quarter came about as a result of contributions from the agroecology centers and food institutes across three UC Campuses — Santa Cruz (Center for Agroecology), Davis (Agricultural Sustainability Institute), and Berkeley (Berkeley Food Institute), in hopes of expanding opportunities for students in the field and building inter-school connections.
We began our program living in tent cabins on the periphery of the UCSC Farm and working with the farm staff to help production on the farm. We spent our mornings building compost piles, harvesting flowers and produce, planting cover crops, and putting together irrigation pipes. In the afternoons, we alternated between two different classes, “Field Experiences in Agroecology and Sustainable Food” which looked into the social implications of agroecology and what it meant to build an equitable food system, and “Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture” which looked into the science behind growing food.

The cohort looks at irrigation management practices on the UCSC Farm. Photo by Zola Nesbitt.

The cohort sows starter plants in the greenhouse with Farm Garden Manager Christof Bernau. Photo by Zola Nesbitt.
After the first three and a half weeks in Santa Cruz, the cohort was off to Fresno to study farming in the Central Valley and visit the Kearney Agricultural and Research Extension Center. For the week that we were in Fresno, we visited a wide range of farms, spoke with researchers studying organic pest management, visited the American Pistachio Growers Association, and learned about community based efforts to protect small farmers.
After spending a week in Fresno, we headed to Davis. The core theme of our time in Davis was creating pathways for access to land for farmers and developing community food production efforts in urban areas. Many of our trips were to community-centered farms located on just one or two acres in suburban or urban neighborhoods. Most of these places came about from an attempt to try and reconnect people back with the land and the food that they eat, with the knowledge that giving people access to land meant giving people sovereignty over their diets. We also got to connect with the students and faculty at UC Davis who were working on the student farm and in agricultural research at the Davis campus.

The cohort learns about tea plant research at the Kearney Ag Research Extension Center. Photo by Zola Nesbitt.

Tossing Melons at Sherman Farms in Fresno. Photo by Zola Nesbitt.
Coming back to Berkeley, after traveling throughout the State for the month, felt very comforting. We began our time here at the Basic Needs Center, first meeting up with Jezra Thompson, BFI’s Educational Programs Coordinator, and ab banks, BFI’s Agroecology and Wellness Coordinator. We spent a lot of time in our week at Berkeley with BFI — at the Oxford Tract with ab, learning about the Farm Bill and Food Systems Policy with BFI’s Executive Director Jeanne Merrill, and hearing about agricultural research and the UC-Mexico Farm Labor Research cluster from BFI Project Scientist Federico Castillo. The core of our time here at Berkeley was centered around looking at how policy and research shapes and alters the food system.

BFI Executive Director Jeanne Merrill lectures on the Farm Bill and Food Policy. Photo by Olivia Rounsaville.
Throughout my time in this course, I found that the most rewarding thing was the people I met and the relationships I built. It was such a special gift to spend so much time with a group of people who care about the food system as much as these people do.
One of the greatest and most lasting impacts of this program is that, as a traveling immersive course, we as students and future food systems advocates were able to build and create community across campuses and in the real world, learning about career opportunities and developing a network of people who are doing food systems work.