A Summary History of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center

For a more complete history, click HERE

The University of California Agricultural Issues Center (AIC) originated from 1983 plans to form a Western agricultural policy center, with an annual budget of almost $600,000 per year, which would be a part of a national network funded largely by the Kellogg Foundation. Following the Kellogg’s decision not to proceed with a network of such centers, the University secured California State funding of $140,000 per year for an “issues” center, rather than a “policy” center. AIC was created in the fall of 1985 and housed on the Davis Campus because Professor Harold O. Carter, a U.C. Davis Professor of Agricultural Economics, was the founding director.

Given the small budget, AIC has had a very small staff that included the half-time director, one or two administrative staff members, a part-time communications specialist, and one or two analysts who helped gather information on projects and coordinate efforts. The Center relied primarily on permanent state funding in the early years. Outside grant funding often provided limited assistance for participants, but was not sufficient to support major research efforts. Over the first decade of AIC, most of the research on AIC projects was done by members of the University of California faculty (and occasionally others) who usually participated with little or no specific financial support.

Since the beginning, the AIC Advisory Board, comprised of California leaders from the agriculture, natural resource and rural non-farm communities, guided AIC in choice of study topics, participated in public events sponsored by AIC and generally supported the organization with advice and counsel. For most of its first two decades, the Board was chaired by William F. Allewelt, Jr. the retired CEO of Tri Valley Growers, a major fruit and tomato processing cooperative. Daniel M. Dooley, an attorney specializing in water issues, served on the Board for about 14 years and replaced Allewelt as Board chair in 2004. Dooley served as chair of the AIC Advisory Board until he became the University of California Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2008.

Throughout its life, AIC has focused on issues important to agriculture and agricultural issues important to natural resources, the environment and the economy, especially in California. AIC has categorized those issues in the following list:

International trade and globalization of agriculture; Advances in productivity and technology in agriculture; Linkages between natural resources, the environment and agriculture; Rural-urban interactions, particularly land use issues; Agricultural personnel and labor issues; Commodity market and agribusiness issues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This list was reorganized a few times and naturally the emphasis among and within the bulleted categories has varied from period to period, but the persistence of these topic areas indicates a large degree of continuity of the AIC effort.

Given the limited budget available from the University, in its early years AIC focused on a single major project each year or so, with some other smaller activities as occasions and topics arose. These projects often brought together University researchers (from several disciplines) and others to develop material for a major conference and a significant publication. For example, in 1985 and 1986, the first major AIC project dealt with was “Impacts of Farm Policy and Technological Change on U.S. and California Agriculture.” Output from that project included a conference, a book, a summary report and sector-specific excerpts. Similarly, the major project for 1992 and 1993 was a joint effort with the U.C. Water Resources Center: “California Water Transfers: Gainers and Losers in Two North California Counties.” The project brought together economists, hydrologists, lawyers and many stakeholders to assess this controversial topic in considerable depth. A conference, two videos, a proceeding and a book comprised the outcome of this effort.

In addition to these major projects, AIC produced and distributed a quarterly newsletter that highlighted important issues and offered guest commentaries. AIC also produced occasional specialized reports, such as those on the competitive position of several California agricultural commodity industries.

In 1992 AIC produced a compendium of useful facts drawn from a variety of sources under the title, the Measure of California Agriculture (MOCA). MOCA includes charts, tables and text summarizing many aspects of California agriculture and its market role in the nation and world. It also highlights the role of agriculture in the California economy. Multiplier analysis indicates the share of state and regional output and employment that can be linked directly and indirectly to California agriculture. In addition to the book itself, MOCA summary “pocket” cards have been widely distributed. The last complete update of MOCA was 2000, but parts of MOCA 2006 have been circulated on the AIC website and electronically to journalists, county extension offices and other interested parties. The summary cards have also been updated regularly and remain in high demand.

In 1997, UC Davis Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics Daniel A. Sumner became the second director of AIC. At that time, the Center also added to its regular participants a group of academic colleagues who agreed to serve as AIC Associate Directors. These faculty members (listed and described in an appendix) participate in AIC projects and other activities where their expertise is especially applicable. They also take the lead in helping shape the AIC agenda in specific areas of particular ongoing importance. The group includes experiment station faculty and extension specialists from the University of California and one member, Scott Rozelle, who recently moved to Stanford, but remains an adjunct professor at Davis. Three of the Associate Directors are in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Davis, with one member from the UC Davis Department of Community Development, one member from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley and one member from the UC Riverside Department of Environmental Sciences.

Also in 1997, AIC added to its list of regular publications by beginning a series of occasional “AIC Issues Briefs.” The first AIC Issues Brief, written by Hyunok Lee, Daniel Sumner and Richard Howitt addressed the effects of potential irrigation water shortfalls. Some of these Issues Briefs were developed as stand-alone reports on a relatively small research effort; others represent an accessible summary of research that is also available in longer more complete project reports or in more technical academic publications.

At the request of Ann Veneman, then the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), in 1997 AIC began preparing annual statistics on California agricultural exports. With funding from CDFA, AIC uses official federal data, import data from Canada, data from California ports, California and national production data and survey’s of industry sources to compile estimates of the annual international exports of agricultural products sourced from California farms and ranches. An annual AIC Issues Brief reports an interpretive summary of these data and they are co-published by CDFA as their official statistics. The AIC website provides detailed data and methods.

In 1997, the Center also undertook a one-time campaign to create an endowment to supplement AIC state allocations and funds from grants and contracts that support specific projects. With contributions and pledges from numerous individuals and agribusiness organizations, the Harold O. Carter AIC Endowment totals approximately $500,000.

In the past decade, AIC has continued to organize conferences and workshops, produce research reports and books, and provide results of its analysis in many formats. (These efforts are described in more detail in another section of this report.) Over this decade AIC has produced less of its material in printed form (which is expensive and complicated to deliver to those with the most interest). Much more of the information AIC produces is provided on the website, which is updated weekly or at times daily. In addition, AIC has tended to draw a higher share of its financial support from grants and contracts and pursue several projects and topics simultaneously. A significant proportion of recent AIC effort relates to continuing programs of research, such as those related to agricultural marketing, organic agriculture, wine market issues and the role of China. Finally, over the past decade, AIC has tended to involve more graduate students and post-docs in the research program and to contribute some of its output into publications of interest to academic peers.