The fight to produce food

On one of my recent six-hour drives to Davis through Central California, I noticed two things at the center of this state’s environmental condition. One, that the entire state is dry and without water. Thousands of acres of grapevines, almond trees and all types of crops are struggling to stay alive under the plague of an ongoing drought. Despite some heavy rains this last winter, California still has a mandate to save water.

The second most noticeable part of my drive were the countless signs lining the side of the interstate, most of which read “No Water = Higher Food Cost!” The signs come from Families Protecting the Valley (FPV), an organized group of farmers and locals who have been voicing their concerns about the state’s ongoing water shortage. Farmers have been hit the hardest by the drought, losing natural water supplies, reservoirs and livelihoods. But farmers have been fighting an uphill battle even before the drought, and are constantly blamed for resource depletion.

People forget that without farmers, we would have no food. In areas like the one surrounding Fresno, which is considered one of the largest producers of agriculture in the United States, almost a quarter of the population is going hungry. California’s agriculture business is responsible for 400 different edible and inedible commodities through the entire nation. In 2014, there were 1.9 percent less farms operating than in 2013. Since many of these farms produce over $100,000 in sales, which is 20 percent greater than the national average, the decrease in farms is alarming. A lack of water and the constant adversity faced by farmers play no small role in this decrease. People are going hungry across the US and not because we aren’t producing enough food, but because we aren’t distributing our resources correctly. We have the means to feed everyone, but when retailers don’t sell imperfect foods, like bruised fruits, some figures suggest over 30 percent of produce goes to waste.

In order to fill the gap between food produced and actually consumed — which is created when Americans don’t buy and eat imperfect foods — farmers need even more water so they can produce more food. This would yield a greater percentage of foods that Americans would find palatable.

Yet in areas like California, which is responsible for two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the US, we are running low on usable water. Less than one half of one percent of fresh water on the entire planet is available for us to grow food with and only on the first three feet of soil on one thirty-second of the planet’s surface.

This limits our resources a lot. So why are we fighting against the people trying to make our food instead of seeking out means to aid them and our growing population?

This country and the world depends on the food coming out of California even if the state is in turmoil and trying to keep up production in the middle of a drought. Farmers, like those in the FPV, want to draw consumer attention to the many problems they’re facing. They need water and we need to be willing to make sacrifices for ourselves in order to give them the means to keep the rest of us alive. Personal gardens grown in backyards won’t sustain an entire country, or the nearly 800 million people on Earth who do not. The old models of food production, devised in the 1950’s won’t hold up anymore. Farmers are fighting the oldest and most controversial battle history has ever seen and they are losing. With that in mind, we have to ask ourselves: Do we want to live in a future where we don’t have food? Because that’s the way we’re heading.

Davis wouldn’t be Davis without a strong focus on agriculture. Alice Rocha, a third-year animal science major, will bring that focus to the Aggie with a column on sustainable animal agriculture and how it impacts the food system today. This paper ran a column last year on ethical consumption, which was partly concerned with the potential downsides of our eating habits. Rocha will expand upon those concerns, using her own experience working in a lab to inform her takes on some of the most pressing issues we need to start working through today, including how to feed nine billion people by 2050.

Written by: Alice Rocha — asrocha@ucdavis.edu

Nine weeks have passed since I began my working here in Sendai, Japan, through UC Davis’ Japanese Children’s Home Internship Program (JCHIP). The program has given me the opportunity to work, play, cook and learn with over 30 kids at Komatsushima Kodomo no Ie — a children’s home. I’ve spent over 290 hours with these kids so far, and I still have a week to go.

The entire time that I have been here, I’ve learned more about Japanese living, customs and the differences between these kids’ lifestyles and my own than I could have imagined. These children do not have the same opportunities as most of the other kids in Japan. Due to specific and unique circumstances, each of them has been placed in a children’s home, which is something similar to an orphanage, but it actually does not have an equivalent in America.

As a summer intern this year, my objective was to provide the children with a new friend and someone who could make their summer just as memorable — even if they don’t have access to the same resources that others may take for granted. I tried to provide this service the only way that I can: by letting them do what they wanted. They were given the freedom to make mistakes; I did what I could to entertain them.

There are things that I made sure I never did when I interacted with them: I never got mad at them, I always made sure to explain why something was wrong and I made sure they were having fun.

Something else that I learned that I didn’t necessarily expect was the amount of effort it takes to raise a child. I thought this retrospective look at child-rearing came up at a pretty pivotal time for me as a fourth-year who will graduate soon and head out into the “real world.” This made me consider my own experience and where I’ve come from in my almost 21 years of existence.

Raising a kid is hard. It takes a lot of resources, time and effort. Every time I go to work, I see the staff hard at work not only making food, but making sure that the kids are learning everything they need to do to survive in life outside of school. The staff makes sure they know how to make a few dishes, how to clean up after themselves and others and how to do their own laundry. All of this in addition to making sure the kids aren’t misbehaving and that they are getting along well enough.

They teach pretty much everything that I, as a kid who was determined to leave my hometown for college, was taught by my mother and grandmother and got me to UC Davis in the first place. It makes me appreciate everything that they’ve done for me up to this point that has allowed me to grow and flourish into the person I am today. My appreciation for my upbringing is also enhanced by the fact that I was even able to come to Japan for this internship and use these valuable life skills to go to Kyoto, London and, this coming fall, Sydney, Australia.

Though I’m sad to have to leave these kids soon, I’m sure that the memories I’ve made will be with me for a lifetime, not to mention the skills I’ve picked up here at this children’s home. Learning how to better interact with kids from so many different and unique situations, how to plan out meals and make food for over 30 people, and how to take the little victories as they come has been invaluable.

I will be going to Australia this Fall Quarter as part of the internship offered by the University Writing Program. I’ll be taking 18 units, six of which will be from an internship with Holman and Webb Lawyers, a firm with offices throughout Australia. I don’t expect this program to be easy. I have never expected any study abroad program to be easy. What I do expect though, is to be challenged both intellectually and as a person. To really make me think about the way I think and what I believe in — and maybe even change me in more ways than one. And I will certainly cherish the little memories and victories that come everyday, just like I’ve done here in Sendai, Japan.

Michael Clogston will be the Aggie’s foreign correspondent this quarter. Writing from Sydney, Australia, he plans on redefining the study abroad column as something that can be used a tool for both students interested in travel and not. An Aggie veteran, Clogston previously wrote a column on the role of the superhero in modern society. He’s going to parlay that experience to effectively communicate what it means to be an American student abroad today.

Written by: Michael Clogston — mlclogston@ucdavis.edu

Welcome back to school, everybody. It’s an exciting time to be alive and you’re in college to experience it. What luck! So get involved. Join a club, get politically active or — and this is the big one — pick up a (print!) copy of the Aggie. Particularly for the opinion section.

Entering my fourth year on the opinion desk, I can say with complete objectivity that this quarter has the deepest bench of opinion columnists in at least that many years. The Aggie hired seven writers with voices that are uniquely their own. With an eye for both national and local trends, they are informed on their unique subjects, which range from study abroad to the role of comedy in social and political discourse. It’s an exciting time to be alive and these writers exemplify why.

As a note: Columnists alone do not determine the quality of an opinion section. That depends on editorials, cartoons, humor and, most importantly, guest opinions. We want to hear from you, the community, on issues that are personal to you and that you find important. We want letters. If the press is to remain an essential part of democracy, it requires the active participation of readers.

To submit a guest opinion, email opinion@theaggie.org. For a letter to the editor, email editor@theaggie.org. We welcome any and all submissions for consideration.

Here are your Fall Quarter Columnists:

Alice Rocha

Davis wouldn’t be Davis without a strong focus on agriculture. Alice Rocha, a third-year animal science major, will bring that focus to the Aggie with a column on sustainable animal agriculture and how it impacts the food system today. This paper ran a column last year on ethical consumption, which was partly concerned with the potential downsides of our eating habits. Rocha will expand upon those concerns, using her own experience working in a lab to inform her takes on some of the most pressing issues we need to start working through today, including how to feed nine billion people by 2050.

Michael Clogston

Michael Clogston will be the Aggie’s foreign correspondent this quarter. Writing from Sydney, Australia, he plans on redefining the study abroad column as something that can be used a tool for both students interested in travel and not. An Aggie veteran, Clogston previously wrote a column on the role of the superhero in modern society. He’s going to parlay that experience to effectively communicate what it means to be an American student abroad today.

Stella Sappington

There are few genres of art that can strike a nerve as profoundly as comedy at its best. That’s what Stella Sappington, a first-year undeclared student, hopes to examine in her column on the role that comedy plays in the current political and social climate. Students have notably tried to disinvite guest speakers like the sharp-tongued Bill Maher from campus for what they perceive as threatening speech. How to reconcile words that may be offensive with principles of free speech is among many topics Sappington hopes to address head on.

Taryn DeOilers

Finding the intersection between the sciences and the humanities has long been an aim of academics and professionals alike. Taryn DeOilers, a second-year comparative literature and political science double major, plans to interrogate how these two fields have inspired, challenged and uplifted one another — using examples as unlikely as Iceland’s perennial singer-songwriter Björk. At a time when it’s not enough to consider an issue through the lens of just one discipline, DeOilers’ column carries a special weight.

Nick Irvin

UC Davis is just about as liberal as college campuses come. It’s hard to find a single student who doesn’t stake their political beliefs somewhere left of center. We found one in Nick Irvin, a second-year international relations major, who plans to go against the grain here at Davis and offer moderate to conservative opinions on the matters most pressing to the campus and the country at large. From the fallout of Linda Katehi’s resignation as Chancellor to the rise of Trump, no topic will be off the table for Irvin.

Tamanna Ahluwalia

Few contemporary problems strike a chord among college students like that of gun violence. Tamanna Ahluwalia, a second-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, wants to take a critical, nuanced approach to an issue which often sees flaming rhetoric dominating the conversation. She will consider the role this nation’s lack of gun control regulation plays in creating a culture of violence, misogyny and instant gratification. Her column is the latest to weigh in on a topic that requires more urgency since the gun-related tragedies in Sandy Hook, Dallas and Orlando.

Jeanette Yue
Understanding that when minority groups are put at a disadvantage, we are all affected, third-year communications and psychology double major Jeanette Yue will be taking a hard look at issues affecting minorities today. From privilege to poverty, Yue hopes to show that issues affecting disadvantaged communities are not as black and white as often portrayed in the news and even in everyday discussion. Look for her column, titled “The Minority Report,” to bring otherwise ignored problems to light.