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 We support the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, a California non-profit organization that was established in 1997 to preserve and operate Fairview Gardens, the historic farm where our products are grown. Founded in 1895, Fairview Gardens is considered by some to be the oldest organic farm in southern California, and is now preserved in perpetuity through an agricultural conservation easement.
Fairview Gardens is situated in the midst of a growing suburban community in coastal southern California, surrounded on all sides by tract homes, shopping malls, and suburban thoroughfares. As a highly visible agricultural parcel in a dense suburban environment, Fairview Gardens plays a unique role in the community, providing its neighbors with food, educational and cultural events, open space and a connection to the land. The farm also demonstrates the economic viability of small farm operations, and the potential of small, regional farms to feed their communities. Fairview Gardens' community programs include workshops, tours, lectures, cooking and gardening classes, apprenticeships, and outreach and consultation to schools and communities nationwide.
"Fairview Gardens is a landmark, a source of comfort to all of us who love good farming and good food." --Wendell Berry
 We support the Organic Farming Research Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to sponsor research related to organic farming practices, to disseminate research results to organic farmers and to growers interested in adopting organic production systems, and to educate the public and decision-makers about organic farming issues.
 We
support the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. The CAFF
is building a movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale
agriculture that cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes
social justice.
We also support the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. The CASFS is a research, education, and public service program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system.
On the UCSC campus, the Center operates the 2-acre Alan Chadwick Garden and the 25-acre Farm. Both sites are managed using organic production methods and serve as research, teaching, and training facilities for students, staff, and faculty.
Visit zzyx.ucsc.edu/casfs to learn more.
The Asilomar Declaration for Sustainable Agriculture
The present system of American agriculture cannot long endure. Our farms have succeeded in producing abundant food and fiber. But the costs and fragility of that success are becoming each day more evident.
Sustainable alternatives already prove their value. Not only are they more efficient in their use of energy, biological sources of fertility and pest management, they also enhance rural communities and encourage families to remain on the land. We commit ourselves to hastening the broad adoption of an agriculture that is environmentally sound, economically viable, fair, and humane.
A sustainable agriculture will require and support a sustainable society. Our challenge is to meet human needs without denying our descendents’ birthright to the natural inheritance of this planet. We must revere the earth, sustaining and regenerating both nature and our communities. People are a part of nature, not separate from it. Sustainable agriculture is as attainable as it is necessary. Though we recognize difficulties in this transformation, we can state with confidence that in every region there are farm families profitably growing healthy food through a practical partnership with nature.
A sustainable agriculture that provides nourishing food, protects those who work the land, helps stabilize the earth’s climate, and safeguards soil and water depends on our ability to meet a number of challenges. We must address these challenges without delay.
Seven Challenges
1. Promote and sustain healthy rural communities.
2. Expand opportunities for new and existing farmers to prosper using sustainable systems.
3. Inspire the public to value safe and healthful food.
4. Foster an ethic of land stewardship and humaneness in the treatment of farm animals.
5. Expand knowledge and access to information about sustainable agriculture.
6. Reform the relationship among government, industry, and agriculture.
7. Redefine the role of U.S. agriculture in the global community.
Can We Have an Organic Food System?
Despite the agronomic and commercial successes of organic farming, policy
shapers and makers still dismiss the potential for wholesale conversion to
organic methods. The arguments against conversion are clothed as sober, scientific
assessments when, in fact, they are flagrantly unscientific. Can the organic
farming model match the productivity and reliability of today's chemical-intensive
model? It's impossible to say, because the scientific effort to understand
and optimize organic farming has never been seriously applied. Out of roughly
$1.8 billion in federal funding for agricultural research in 1995, less than
1/10th of 1% was spent investigating organic farming!
-Mark Lipson, Policy
Program Director, Organic Farming Research Foundation, www.ofrf.org
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