Announcements and Reminders
May 29th is the official date for the Capitola Aptos Rotary annual fund raiser. We will roast the man and woman of the year and have a live and silent auction. It will benefit Meals on Wheels, as well as a scholarship at Cabrillo College and Grey Bears. Make your reservations soon!
Meals on Wheels will be having a Ride Along so you can see how meals are delivered (or you can assist on site at Live Oak Senior Center). Michelle has sent around a sign-up sheet to participate in this event.
Hariharan Ramesh, our district governor visited us today and spoke about the mission of Rotary, emphasizing role of the Foundation. Capitola Aptos Rotary is part of district 5170 and Mr. Ramesh said our district is the highest contributor of any district in the country to the Rotary Foundation (over 7 million dollars!)
He also awarded three Paul Harris Fellowships to Kate Sutherland, Thomasjohn Wells Miller and Burt Lemke. Congratulations to all of you!
Our speaker today was Dr. Stacy Philpott who is the Director of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UCSC. She spoke to us about the farm and the organic farming revolution.
She began by defining agroecology: a research field, a social movement and a farming practice. It’s mission is to protect soil health and biodiversity and support real livelihoods throughout the world. It is about the whole system of food delivery e.g farm to fork.
How is UCSC working to meet these goals? (1) For 52 years of organic farming in our community (2) With 32 acres of organic vegetables fruit and flower production (3) market carts and supply food for the dining falls and CSA for 100 families.
UCSC also offers a six month apprenticeship as well as a new bachelor’s degree in acroecology. 200 students per year participate in these efforts. They also support two nonprofit orgs that do youth education. The farm also does workshops and offers grower guides on a variety of topics.
Dr. Philpott then spoke about their research. She highlighted a couple of examples on controlling on the light brown apple moth and strawberry vacuum cleaners that vacuum up lygus bugs. They also developed a technique to get replace methyl bromide called ASD or anaerobic soil disinfestation.
UCSC has led the way to 30% of the farms in the area being organic. On April 25 and 26th they will hold their annual sale of plants and seedlings at the farm (behind the barn on the lower campus.)
To participate you can join the friends of the farm or they always accept donations.