----- Hi Graduates - Looking for something more than a career?
The Practical Training/Farm and Garden Apprenticeship program is taking app's for 2009-2010 (until 10/1/09 for U.S. and Canadian students 9/1/09 for international students).
We wrote about this on our April Actions post, but it bears repeating:
Today, more than 1,200 apprentices have been trained in the organic fields, orchards and greenhouses at UC Santa Cruz, learning not only how to raise food and flowers, but how to make the food system itself more sustainable by addressing issues of social justice. They are today's organic farmers, market gardeners, urban agriculturalists, school garden teachers, and others working to promote local, healthy food in communities around the country.
Contact the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, UC Santa Cruz, 831-459-2321 email: apprenticeship@ucsc.edu

Recent graduates exemplify the program’s potential to create new farmers…

Kelsey Keener, Ryan Power, and Noah Bresler raise vegetables, fruit, and heritage livestock on historic Williams Island near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mike Nolan and Gabe Eggers coax crops from the sagebrush country of southern Colorado for local markets. Amy Rice-Jones manages the brand new Bounty Farm, where she coordinates a team of volunteers growing food for low-income residents of Petaluma, California.

Read more of the profiles of UC Santa Cruz apprentices here.

Photo above, left: The Farm to College Project at UC Santa Cruz - The Farm-to-College project at UC Santa Cruz links the Center’s Farm on the UCSC campus with other local organic farms and with UCSC campus organizations to bring organic produce to the campus dining halls and restaurants, while bringing students to the Farm for sustainable food systems education.

Supporting the "Grow a Farmer Campaign" an independent project that helps financially support the housing needs of the CAFS program, or taking part in this program are 2 ways to help. Click here for homepage of the CASFS program.

Check out the web page and YouTube video for the "Grow A Farmer Campaign".

AND...We can also learn from this program, and work to develop a training program for farmers right here. We're starting, with our L & S Youth Club Farm Garden and farmworker training; we know others on the island are thinking the same thing, and doing it, too.