Pioneering a movement
The Center for Agroecology’s history dates back to 1967, when English gardening expert Alan Chadwick was hired to create a Student Garden Project on the fledgling University of California, Santa Cruz campus.
Working only with hand tools and organic amendments, Chadwick and his student assistants transformed a steep, chaparral-covered hillside into a prolific garden bursting with flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees.
The informal “apprenticeships” that students served with Chadwick would eventually lead to the development of the Center’s Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, an intensive organic farming and gardening training program.
Expanding the vision
Building on Chadwick’s success and the popularity of the Garden project, UCSC administrators set aside 17 acres of rolling land on the campus’s lower meadows for a student farm.
The UCSC Farm, founded in 1971, has since expanded to include 30 acres of hand-dug garden beds, tractor-tilled row crop fields, research fields, orchards, greenhouses, a laboratory, and classroom and offices.
Introducing agroecology
In 1980, in response to growing interest in alternative agriculture, UCSC’s Environmental Studies Board hired Dr. Stephen Gliessman to start the Agroecology Program, headquartered at the UCSC Farm.
Dr. Gliessman served as the program’s director for nearly two decades, expanding the program’s research and teaching activities as well as initiating a range of collaborations with researchers and students in the international arena.
In 1983, Alfred E. Heller funded an endowed chair in agroecology (the first endowed chair at UC Santa Cruz).
Addressing social issues
In 1993, the Agroecology Program’s name was changed to the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems to reflect the center’s dual interests in the environmental and social aspects of sustainable agriculture.
In 1997, Dr. Carol Shennan was appointed director of the center, and served as director for 10 years. Dr. Patricia Allen, a leading scholar on social aspects of sustainable food systems, served as director from 2007–2012 followed by Dr. Daniel Press, a long-time member of the UCSC Environmental Studies faculty, who served as director from 2012-2019.
Since 2017, the Center for Agroecology has grown and distributed food to UCSC Basic Needs outlets to address student food insecurity. The center also established a twice weekly Produce Pop-Up farm stand for students to purchase organic produce at affordable prices, as well as the Cowell Coffee Shop, a cafe on campus where students receive free meals.
Branching out
Dr. Stacy Philpott, Environmental Studies Professor and Alfred and Ruth Heller Chair in Agroecology, was appointed director in October 2019. In 2022, Dr. Philpott became the center’s faculty director and Darryl Wong, PhD was appointed executive director.
In 2021, the center’s name was changed to the Center for Agroecology after staff defined “agroecology” as integrative of the entire food system, encompassing both ecological and social aspects.
Today, what began as a student- and volunteer-driven effort to create a garden on campus has evolved into a multifaceted research center supported by divisional, campus-wide, and UC-systemwide leadership. The Center for Agroecology engages with more students than ever before through a new agroecology major, internships, and paid opportunities.
Through partnerships with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and other entities, the center continues to support a diverse workforce of farmers, gardeners, and food system professionals through many interrelated research, education, and public service programs.
