AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY

Extension Education, Applied Research, and Events

Agricultural Production and Policy

David Zilberman is working to identify under what conditions adoption of precision farming is profitable in California agriculture, especially in cotton. Jeff Perloff is working with the USDA to study milk marketing laws and the possiblity of taxing fats and sugars to affect consumption behavior.

Agriculture Biotechnology

David Zilberman and Greg Graff are part of the Rockefeller Foundation team to establish a clearinghouse for agricultural biotechnology. The clearinghouse will provide opportunities to transfer the rights to use this technology from companies and universities to groups that develop biotechnology and other technologies to minor and subsistence crops in developing countries.  The clearinghouse will have its own portfolio of technology rights, mechanisms for education and negotiation, and transfer of technology.  Some of the theory behind the idea is in "An Intellectual Property Clearinghouse for Agricultural Biotechnology." David Zilberman is also one of the founders of the International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research that meets every year in Ravello, Italy.  This is a forum where Americans, Europeans, and other researchers in developing countries can meet to discuss and exchange ideas on agricultural biotechnology research. Participants have held discussions on the merits of biotechnology and how to explain problems of acceptance, and have had representatives from the EU and biotechnology companies present their perspectives.  When German universities held their first conference on the economics of agricultural biotechnology, they asked the consortium to co-sponsor it, as it had gained a reputation as an important global forum for issues related to agricultural biotechnology. Brian Wright is actively involved in the policy debate surrounding biotechnology and intellectual property rights.  Recently he has participated in conferences at the molecular Sciences Institute, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Berkeley Innovation Group, discussing access to biotechnology for researchers and nanotechnology initiatives.

Agricultural labor issues

Howard Rosenberg provides technical information and advice in response to wide-ranging inquiries from legislative and public agency staff, growers and workers, association representatives, farm service providers, students, and journalists throughout the nation.  Among topics addressed recently are hand-work restrictions, ergonomics and safety, farm labor contracting, profit-sharing plans, aggregate demand for and supply of agricultural labor, wage and hour standards, employee handbooks, the H-2A work visa program, regulation of labor organizing and collective bargaining, foreman training, and conflict resolution. Howard keeps under continuous development the Agricultural Personnel Management Program website, a rich source of educational material, legal and government references, research findings, practical advice, and structured links to other resources on labor management in production agriculture, with emphasis on the industry in California. Howard collaborates with the AgSafe Coalition, the Center for Agricultural Business at CSU Fresno, the CA Farm Bureau, and Western Growers Association on continuing development and presentation of the Farm Labor Contractor Education Institute curriculum. In cooperation with these groups and Cal/OSHA, he is incorporating instruction on heat stress in seminars for licensed labor contractors and other agricultural managers.  Part of this project is to develop Spanish-language reference material that managers and foremen will use in explaining to field workers the physiology and control of heat stress. With support from the USDA and Farm Foundation, Howard Rosenberg works with a team of western states colleagues building education in human resource management into extension programs.  He is principal author of Ag Help Wanted: Guidelines for Managing Agricultural Labor, a book with companion website that are already in use by practicing managers, university students, and extension educators across the country. Under a grant from the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment, Jeff Romm is investigating with Christy Getz (an Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management) the formation of labor-environment coalitions in North Coast counties.

Climate change

Several faculty members, (Michael Hanneman, Tony Fisher, David Sunding, David Zilberman, and Alix Peterson Zwane), are working on various aspects of climate change in agriculture and continue to present findings on these results in various forms.

Endangered species and critical habitat

Dave Sunding and Alix Zwane are working with the California Department of Fish and Game to estimate the cost of recovery of the Coho salmon in California.

Forestry

Photo by G. Donald Bain

Jeff Romm works on a continuing basis with forestry extension advisors who are involved with forest-dependent communities. Keith Gilless serves on a panel of experts convened by the Brookings Institute to give feedback to the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs on their proposals for implementing neew federal fire management policies promoting the use of prescribed and naturally occurring fires for ecosystem management. Jeff Perloff is working with the USDA to study milk marketing.

International Trade and Agriculture

Alix Zwane is advising KVIE television in Sacramento as they develop material for a National Issue Forum on agriculture. Together with Colin Carter at UC Davis, Alix Zwane is analyzing the 2002 Farm Bill's effects on California's international agricultural trade. Results will be published in Giannini Foundation publications.

Pest Management

Dave Sunding was recently appointed to a National Academy of Sciences panel charged with reviewing the adequacy and effectiveness of government measures to combat Pierce's Disease, a serious challenge confronting California agriculture. Working with the EPA, Dave Sunding's research on interval regulation (rules that prohibit entry into a field for a certain amount of time after pesticide spraying) has been adopted by the Agency as part of its rulemaking under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

California Natural Resources

Dave Sunding advises the California Department of Water Resources on the creation of a statewide water trading system for use during drought as well as related questions such as compensation for third party impacts caused by water transfers. Jeff Romm has been working with UC and Oregon State University extension on instiutional aspects of water allocation problems in the Klamath Basin. He is also working with specialists and advisors in the North Coast in developing a new system of organizing water management and development in Mendocino County. Jeff Romm is working with Adina Merenlender on planning and analysis of the relationship between biodiversity and secure water supply in rivers throughout California. Peter Berck and George Goldman recently completed a study on California beverage container recycling. Peter Berck has completed work on a report to the California Air Resources Board on the benefits of reducing gasoline and diesel demand.

Other

• Jeff Perloff is serving on a National Academy committee on supercomputers and is also advising the California Attorney General on energy antitrust issues.  He has a large body of research that has influenced legislation and policy on such topics as labor relations, measuring national output, tax policy and antitrust litigation.