After the release of the new Envision 2040 General Plan in 2011, the city moved quickly on changes to support urban agriculture. In January 2012, in an amendment to Title 20 of the San Jose Municipal Code, the Zoning Ordinance, a new ordinance was approved to allow Neighborhood Agriculture as a permitted use in residential…

The Williamson Act, also known as the 1965 California Land Conservation Act, allows local governments to assess rural lands at lower rates in exchange for ten year agreements to keep land in open space or agricultural land use. This legislation was based on the recognition that the property tax rates are one of many barriers…

As a political tool, food justice can help create alliances between the environmental justice and sustainable agriculture movements and open each movement’s frames of analysis to include institutional racism and power dynamics, cultural relevance to varying communities, and solution oriented approaches . Similar to how environmental justice activists have worked hard to bring critical engagement…

In the first wave of organized garden projects, social reformers and state institutions used gardening projects to support urban working populations in order to help maintain social cohesion, optimism, a good work ethic, and sustenance during an extended period of economic decline . During the economic depression of 1893-1897, Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree initiated the…

Process-based models remain the gold standard in crop modeling as one is able to study the relationship between weather and all phases of crop growth in a range of weather possibilities, even those lying outside the historical record . California field crops have been modeled using DAYCENT . Both studies highlight resilience of alfalfa yield…

Supplementary Fig. 6 also shows similar diurnal cycles of PBLH in polluted and less polluted areas. Therefore, despite local aerosol-PBL interactions, a shifted burning cycle on an hourly basis is not likely to significantly affect the broad patterns of PBLH and the timing effects of emissions. However, further investigation will be needed to evaluate how…

Econometric approaches illustrate that California agricultural land value may be particularly vulnerable to changes in surface water supply and nonlinear temperature effects . Deschenes and Kolstad also illustrate that farm profits may be more responsive to climate than annual fluctuations in temperature and precipitation. Several analyses illuminate our understanding of adaptive capacity. The overarching focus for many…

AGRA and Monsanto attempts at export-led solutions are not comprehensive. Post harvest technologies must be a part of the broader food security agenda. Production-driven initiatives display a disproportionate concern for yields and less concern for food as it travels through the food chain. These partially planned initiatives contribute to delayed success and continued hunger. Rather than investments…

ESEM micrographs of UW5-inoculated biochar depict many regions comprised of globular matrices with refraction indices that differed from biochar surfaces . These regions were typical of all inoculated biochar particles and were not on non-inoculated biochar surfaces . Additionally, igures 2.1 c-d show images indicating the presence of viable GFP expressing cells adhering to the biochar.…

However, there is no simple relationship between yields and amounts of land used for production—often, yield intensification leads to agricultural expansion and conversion of natural habitats in a phenomenon known as the Jevon’s paradox. Further, alternative systems are not always less productive or profitable. In fact, our results suggest that further investment in research into…