March 2016: Contests and Funding

Right Livelihood Award Nominations: Deadline March 1
Do you know any exceptional individual or organisation who deserves the recognition and support of the Right Livelihood Award? Then send us your proposal by 1 March 2016! Through the open nomination process, the Foundation gets a sense of what people around the world perceive as the most urgent problems - and who is developing the creative and effective solutions we need. Click on this link to learn more about the nomination process and procedures.

Energy Department Solar Funding Opportunity: Deadline March 8
The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative released a new funding opportunity designed to increase foundational knowledge of solar technology evolution, reduce solar deployment barriers and improve state energy planning practices. A brief, mandatory concept paper is due March 8.

Ride with Zimride and Win! Deadline March 12
Headed out of town for Spring Break? Let Zimride help you find others traveling to the same destination. Already have a car on campus; why not share the seats with other UCSC Zimride members who don't have a car? Post a ride as a driver and split the costs of the trip. If you don't have a car, find a ride and make a new friend along the way. Simply click the Post a Ride button and share your ride today.
UCSC Zimride users who post a ride or a commute between February 12 and March 12 will have a chance to win one of two $25 prepaid MasterCard gift cards from Zimride by Enterprise.

Plate of the Union: A Call for Action on Food & Farms: Deadline March 21
Plate of the Union is a campus challenge for young people to leverage their political power. Through the challenge, Plate of the Union is seeking student groups to develop and execute organizing plans that drive engagement in the 2016 election cycle. Groups can win up to $5,000. Applications are due by March 21.

UCSC Welcomes Pacific Cookie Company as “Real Food” Vendor

In a strategic move to achieve their Real Food Challenge commitment by 2020, the University of California, Santa Cruz Dining Services (UCSC Dining) has partnered with the Pacific Cookie Company to bring local and sustainable cookies to the campus.

Pacific Cookie Company cookies have long been a favorite of Santa Cruz locals who frequent their downtown bakery, as well as cookie lovers nationwide who receive beautifully packaged cookies delivered right to their door. Now, the Banana Slugs at UCSC can enjoy these famous cookies at the dining halls, cafes, and coffee bars operated by UCSC Dining.

Josh Martin, UCSC Dining’s Executive Chef, shared, “We’re excited to welcome Pacific Cookie and we thank the Pearson family (owner/operators of Pacific Cookie Company) for their generous efforts in forming this partnership. We’re pleased to bring a Real Food-qualifying cookie to campus and get closer to achieving our Real Food Challenge goals.”

In 2012, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal signed the Real Food Challenge, committing to meet or exceed 40% Real Food purchases by UCSC Dining by the year 2020. The Real Food Challenge states that Real Food is “produced in a fair, humane, and sustainable manner,” and includes foods that are produced by local farmers, growers, and manufacturers within a 250-mile radius. Pacific Cookie Company cookies are made with locally-sourced, sustainably-farmed Giusto's Flour, and qualify as a step in the right direction for UCSC Dining.

Notes from Indigethanx

Introduction and Welcome

Dr. Rosser introduced the first guest, who cleansed the air with smoke and honored the Four Directions and the ancestors who lived on this Ohlone land. I did not catch her name. 

“My mother said, ‘When ceremony ends, so does the Earth.’ I too believe this.”

A student performed a Chumash song honoring our grandmothers and their grandmothers in turn.

Dr. Rosser explained the Mutsun word noson, as breath as it is in spirit, and introduced Professor Melissa Nelson, an activist for Native American rights who works with the Cultural Conservancy.

Professor Melissa Nelson

Revitalizing Native Foodways/Renewing America’s Food Traditions

• Thanksgiving is a complex holiday both protested and celebrated
• “There’s really a global renaissance going on” regarding the revitalization of Native foodways
• Mentioned ceremonies regarding food and religious and cultural importance of strawberries- one of the first foods to be grown on Turtle Island in First Nations’ creation stories.
• A Chippewa prophecy made about 500 years before Columbus’s arrival foretold that danger would come from the east; it foretold “we will know where our new home is when we find the food that grows upon the water,” referring to the staple food of wild rice.
• Food sources are affected by pesticides, damming, climate change, and diseases such as Sudden Oak Death.
• Climate change and damming lead to lower numbers of salmon and less access to them, affecting culture, nutrition, and ceremony.
• Identifying foodsheds and the “first foods” of American lands is a way to reclaim identity.
• Seven key foods eaten globally as staples originate from North America
• Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, squash, chocolate (cacao), sunflowers
• Many more important foods come from North America, but these are considered the 7 most important

Food Sovereignty

• Regarding food sovereignty, “you have the right to be self-defining.”
• Food sovereignty as “the production of traditional and sacred foods by Tribal Nations with the objective of feeding the local community, and only after the community is sustained, to provide these foods to the larger community.”
• Workers are highly involved; sovereignty includes protection from dangers such as pesticides.
• Native foodways are cultural, spiritual, physical, and ecological, a web of life.

Columbian Devastation

• “What happened to the Native world . . . was a total apocalypse” regarding colonial settlement.
• Fried bread became a survival food, a creation of “Indigenuity,” but lead in part to the Type II Diabetes epidemic in Native communities.
• Over half of tribal community members in the United States live with Type II Diabetes, hypertension, obesity, or heart disease.
• “100%” of the community is affected; family and community is affected through healthcare and transporting those who need healthcare.
• Sacred buffalo were overkilled to remove the primary food source of tribes of the Northern Plains; damming cut off access to salmon and other fish.
• "The value of food is weighed in dollars . . . not in its ability to nourish." —John Mohawk.
• The slow food movement focuses on slowing down to take time to cook and eat our food.

Current Food Movements and Actions

• Tsyunhehkwa
• Muskoke
• Taos Food Center
• Traditional North American Farmers Association
• Slow Food Terra Madre
• Parque de la Papa (Potato Park)
• Protects heirloom seeds; relates to food sovereignty and social connections
• Biocultural Heritage Territories
• Bay Area intertribal urban youth education programs
• Tribal intergenerational CSA pilot programs partner with local communities and create food distribution systems
• Youth interns glean and distribute crops not up to market standards
• Some use traditional three-sisters planting or mound-style cultivation
• The Tohono O'odham Nation grows easy to grow, extremely drought resistant beans
• “There’s an incredible culinary revolution happening.”
• e.g. the Native American Culinary Association

Misc. Quotes

• “Food is good for the body, but also good for the soul.”
• “We’re all kernels of the same cob.”
• “Seed to seed, soul to soul”; regarding to the restoration of international treaties

Resources/References

• Seeds of our Ancestors film
• The Cultural Conservancy
• Linda Hogan’s Ceremony for the Seeds poem
• Activist Patricia Gualinga

Enrique Salmón

• “Environmentalists and [people involved in sustainability] want to keep us in one place.”
• Before 1492, over 400 bean species existed in North America.
• “Stop using ‘how it used to be’ and ‘was’[ . . .]” there are and always will be maintaining cultural practices
• “A lot of my students don’t realize that corn was created by human beings…”; “We are children of the corn”
• Biodiversity is linked to cultural diversity
• “Native people are a keystone species”
• “Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge,” unique to each area
• Formed over vast amounts of time, much longer than Western scientists have studied North America
• “Small ancestral fields are the refugia of resilience”
• Small fields are microhabitats
• The Hopi Tribe of the Colorado Plateau has followed the same planting method for over a thousand years: 5 to 6 seeds are planted 18 inches underground. The deep earth provides the plants with moisture and the multiple stalks protect each other from topping in the wind. Nitrogen is fixed in the soil by beans that grow there.

Resilience and Connections to Food

• “One has to find the time to [learn about] long term memory”
• Long term memory is cultural history
• Short term history is a driving force of new ideas guided by advice from elders
• Resilience relates to cultural capital, primarily elders and farmers
• On his family asking for farming help from neighbors: “It was a way of creating community”
• “Every now and then you need to revolt… without forgetting the traditions.”
• “We don’t spend enough time directly connected to the environment”
• [As Native people,] “We’ve had a very direct relationship with our food”
• There is a loss of ancestral diets; pre-Columbian diets had relatively lower fat content and more fiber, insoluble fibers, amylose, and chromium. Ancestral diets slowed down the digestive systems.
• “We are that landscape… we’ve been eating our landscape.”
• “Choosing to eat our Ancestral foods in a political/decolonizing act”
• Quote from PowerPoint

• “We need to decolonize our food as much as possible.”
• “When we eat our Ancestral foods… we reject [harmful] agricultural practices.”
• “This is more than being political, this is embracing our identity.”
• “Our identity is only as strong as our actions.”

What’s Being Done

• Natwani Coalition works with Native CSAs
• Navajo farmers have identified and have revitalized ancient Puebloan fields that had lain dormant

Wrap-Up/End

• Enrique Salmon: “[Native people] are the juniper tree… with the next big gust that comes along, we’re still going to be standing.”
• Dr. Rosser: “We have always been here and we will always be here.”
• Survivance: survival and resilience
• “Remember, it’s not just about survival, it’s about resistance too,” -Professor Nelson
• “Food is more than just something we eat… You relearn the ceremonies… before long you revitalize your entire culture.”

Q&A

• GMOs:
• Both agreed that GMOs are a spiritual question
• Enrique: “We rely on the High Priest of Western science”
• We need to relate more to the world and our food
• Prof. Nelson: “Water is our first food;” water sovereignty is a part of food sovereignty.
• Regarding to the drought and purification of water, “we can use nature to heal nature.”

Favorite Recipes

• Prof. Nelson: an Ojibwe meal of wild rice with pecans and cranberries and braised buffalo
• Enrique: a Hopi bean sprout stew with herbs and mutton, a favorite food of the kachina- rain spirits, but more; “when we pass we become the rain.”
• Dr. Rosser: green chili stew

Indigethanx reflection

Jay L. Nelson, the Sustainability Office CUIP Events Coordinator, attended Indigethanx and reported their experience. 

On November 19th, I had the opportunity to attend Indigethanx, an annual event put on by the American Indian Resource Center to teach about and celebrate Native foodways and the reclamation of food sovereignty by Indigenous communities. After a welcome honoring the Four Directions and a song for generations of grandmothers, UCSC alumna and San Francisco State University professor Melissa Nelson and California State University professor Dr. Enrique Salmón each gave a presentation regarding Native food justice issues as well as connection to food.

Main themes included the epidemic of nutrition-based health afflictions in Native communities, particularly Type II Diabetes caused by lack of access to fresh and traditional foods due to food deserts; the cultural role of food such as strawberries and corns in creation stories, ceremonies, nutrition and culture in general; eating traditional food as a way to reclaim an identity and oppose harmful agricultural practices; and the inherent connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity.

The event was an amazing experience full of opportunities to get educated and get involved with Native food sovereignty movements. I appreciate all of the resources (books, movies, quotes, opportunities, and more) provided through each presentation and hope to learn more and stay updated on ways to get involved. There are a number of tribes and nations using traditional growing techniques in community supported agriculture to provide food to children and other community members, which I particularly wish to continue to research.

Here are notes from the event.

November 2015 Green Tip: Have a Green Thanksgiving

Shop local and organic when it comes to groceries for Thanksgiving. This includes selecting a certified organic, pasture-raised turkey! Localharvest.org is an amazing resource to find places near you where food is grown and raised using sustainable practices! Also, avoid unnecessary food packaging by placing bulk-bin items such as rice or beans in your own reusable bags!

Avoid the use of beef in your Thanksgiving dishes. Not only does it require 1847 gallons of water per lb to produce, but also beef production releases five times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions as the average of other animal products and meats.

On Thanksgiving Day, carpool with friends or through zimride.com,  use public transportation, or ride your bike! Not only will this cut your overall gas consumption and carbon emissions, but you'll feel better about eating that last slice of pumpkin pie! During Thanksgiving dinner, remember to use cloth napkins, and if you don’t have enough dishes, go for the most eco-friendly option, like biodegradable plastic dishes!

Avoid wasting food by starting with small portions and taking as you need. If you’re hosting, ask your guests to bring their own Tupperware containers for leftovers to avoid using single plastics such as Ziploc bags or saran wrap. Start a composting bin and compost your food scraps!

October 2015 Green Tip: Reducing Halloween Waste

Pumpkin spice is quickly taking over the menus and shelves of the nation, the Halloween puns are beginning, and it’s time to start planning for the season. But instead of using plastic in your costumes and dumping rotting Jack-o’-lanterns in the garbage, here are some tips to keep waste out of the landfill!

Pumpkins are the perfect seasonal, edible, and compostable decoration! Instead of tossing pumpkin guts in the landfill this year, try some recipes such as pumpkin butter or classic roasted pumpkin seeds. Not interested in eating gourd guts or being stuck with a decaying Jack-o’-Lantern? Pumpkin is also easily compostable. Uncarved pumpkins can last for around 10 weeks depending on the variety, leaving plenty of time to enjoy your squash. Check out 50 pumpkin recipes to try this fall here!

Instead of buying a new costume and decorations, try making your own or buy one secondhand. If you’re up to the challenge, make a recycled costume out of cardboard, fabrics, or other materials you and your fellow costumers already have. Remind trick-or-treaters in your life to use reusable candy containers like canvas bags. Alternatively, have a decoration and costume swap with friends!

Reduce candy waste by choosing candies with relatively smaller amounts of wrapping. Opt for those in recyclable boxes instead of individually wrapped plastic when possible, and remember that you will always find someone else more than willing to eat any candy you may not want.

Remember to turn off and unplug electronic decorations when not in use, and have a safe and happy Halloween season!

UCSC Farm featured in the New York Times

Mark Bittman, the New York Times lead food columnist, visited the farm at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz and interviewed Daniel Press, the center’s executive director and Tim Galarneau, a coordinator with Food Systems Working Group. The interview highlighted the apprenticeship program that has been active since 1967. Check out the article accompanied with a video, here.

May 2015 Green Tip: Sustainable Art

Do you have any old glass bottles or bottle caps? Would you rather repurpose products instead of recycling them? You can turn them into beautiful art pieces! Meesh Montgomery and Jacquelyne Vera, students at UCSC, do just that. With Mother's Day coming up, you can show your mom -and Mother Earth- how much you love her by making sustainable and recycled art.

Meesh makes flower vases, watering devices for their plants, and paper flowers. They use glass bottles, paper, and bottle caps that they find in recycling bins or laying around. They have always had a passion for art and when they started school here, they had a new passion: sustainability. So, they combined the two to make sustainable art.

Meesh says their favorite part of recycled art is how good they feel while making it. They say that, first of all, it relieves a lot of their stress. Second, they feel good being sustainable while doing something they love. They would love to delve more into larger sculptures using recycled materials, but they don't have enough space in their dorm room.

Jacquelyne makes jewelry/charms out of polymer clay and different pattern friendship bracelets. She uses any items she comes across as inspiration. She's currently learning how to make koi ponds and flower gardens in Altoid cans, pies in bottle caps, and terrariums in old light bulbs.

Jacquelyne says her favorite part of making things is how fun it is. She enjoys making things while watching random youtube videos and finds it relaxing. She likes seeing her friends' faces when she gives them the items.

Below are some of her amazing and adorable creations:

May 2015: Classes, Community and Training

The Homeslice CSA: Registration Now Open
The Pie Ranch in Pescadero is expanding their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to include Santa Cruz and Davenport. As a CSA member, you will receive a weekly delivery of organically grown produce. You can either sign up for half a season for $312 or a full season for $600. The boxes come with vegetables, leafy greens, herbs, wheat flour or berries, dry beans, seasonal fruit and eggs available on request. Register to be a CSA here.

2nd Annual Transportation Festival: May 8
The Student Environmental Center's Transportation Campaign is hosting the 2nd Annual Transportation Festival on May 8th from 1 to 4 P.M. at the College Eight Upper Lawn. There will be activities, an open mic, a panel, and a drawing at this event! This is a great opportunity for students to learn more about sustainable transportation on and off campus.

PICA Garden Workdays: All Spring Quarter
Every Saturday from 10 A.M. - 2 P.M. the Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA) hosts garden workdays. Free vegetarian lunch will be served. Meet in the A-quad of the village.

Student Garden Market Cart: May 11
The next Student Garden Market Cart will be held Friday, May 15 from 12-1:30 P.M. in front of Science & Engineering library. PICA and other campus gardens will be handing out free produce from their gardens.

IDEASS at the Crepe Place
Three IDEASS teams—rainwater catchment, graphene synthesis, and the use of graphene filters for desalination—will be participating in the WISE meeting for Science On Tap, which happens monthly at the Crepe Place. Stop by on May 27th to hear their presentations and learn about the future of green technology! Check out the event page here.

Want to Live at PICA next year?
At the Program in Community and Agroecology, students grow organic food, share in community meals and learn sustainable living skills. Through PICA, students from a variety of majors have the opportunity to study agroecology and apply their knowledge to everyday activities within their community. If you are interested in a sustainability-themed housing for the 2015-2016 school year, sign up for the Village and mark "strongly prefer" for involvement in PICA.

Upcoming Common Ground Events
The mission of the Kresge Common Ground Center is to create cultural change for social justice, environmental regeneration, and economic viability. They act as a catalyst and facilitator of systemic change through undergraduate action-education, research, advocacy, and civic engagement. Common Ground is hosting a speaker series this quarter through their Collaborative Learning class and other events this spring. To find out more about the events, click here.

Innovative Approaches to Sustainability at Other Campuses

Here are a few selections of the innovative approaches to sustainability taking place on other college campuses. Each of these examples was chosen because they represent ideas that UCSC could potentially implement in some form, or in some cases, already has begun to. If you see something here that you want to make a reality at UCSC, contact the Sustainability Office at sustain.education [at] ucsc [dot] edu and we will help you direct your ideas toward fruition!

Food

Six Vermont Schools Participate in Food System Tour
As part of an effort to study local and global food systems, students from around the U.S. will visit Green Mountain College, Middlebury College, Sterling College, University of Vermont, Vermont Law School, and Vermont Technical College. The 21-day tour explores urban food systems, the local dairy industry and carbon economy, food system advocacy in the context of genetically-modified food, conservation, and climate change and its impacts on global food system.

Transportation

GMR Institute of Tech Imposes Vehicle Restrictions on Campus (India)
In an effort to curb noise and air pollution at the institution, the university recently banned vehicles on campus every Thursday whereby all faculty, staff and students park their motorized vehicles in assigned locations and reach campus by foot.

USA Today: Campus Bike Reuse Programs
The recently released article points out some universities and colleges that are collecting unwanted bikes, repairing them to working order, and lending them to students who might not otherwise be able to afford a bicycle.

Nashville, TN Walk Bike University Free Public Bike Classes
Walk/Bike Nashville's Walk Bike University (WBU) seeks to grow the number of Nashvillians biking and walking through education, raising awareness, and cultivating bicycle and pedestrian leaders. They host workshops on bicycle skills, bicycle maintenance, pedestrian advocacy, and various other bicycle and pedestrian issues. Classes are fun, informative, and open to the public.Some classes include: Adult Learn to Ride a Bike; Bicycling 123 refresher course; Basic Bike Skills on off-street (parking-lot) skills course; and City Cycling.

Ohio State U Enters Negotiations with Bike Sharing Company 
The recent negotiations, if agreed upon, will bring Zagster, a bicycle-sharing system, to campus with 115 bicycles including tandem, hand cycle, electric assist, heavy duty, and three-wheeled cargo bikes.

Big Idea: $1 To Save Bicycling on Campus
A graduate student studying urban planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign successfully lead a campaign on campus to institute a $1 semesterly fee for bicycle programs and infrastructure. The fee not only passed, but it sailed through a vote with 73% of students in support.

Awareness, Education, and Engagement

California State U Monterey Bay Opens New Sustainable Degree
The new bachelor of science in sustainable hospitality management provides students with local, regional and global perspectives on current and pressing sustainability issues and problems within the hospitality industry. Concentrations exist in sustainable hotel, resort and event management, and sustainable ecotourism management.

Portland State U Launches Graduate Certificate in Public Design
The university's School of Architecture's new certificate in Public Interest Design aims to prepare students in sustainability, community development and architecture to aid underserved populations through sustainable, human-centered design methods via in-classroom studies and hands-on field experience, working directly with communities in need.

U Virginia Begins Employee Sustainability Program
Seeking to reduce its environmental impact by building more efficient spaces, the university's sustainability committee has started its new, self-reporting Green Workplace Program, which uses a checklist of 60 actions that workplaces can implement to improve operations and reduce cost, and includes eight categories: energy, transportation, purchasing, zero waste, community, health, food and bonus credits. If UCSC held sustainability trainings for employees, would you attend? Comment below!

Maharishi U Offers Masters Program in Sustainable Living
During the first year of the program, beginning fall 2015, students will spend half their time in class and half in the community addressing challenges. The second year will be entirely devoted to a major community project, with one option being a 25-month hitch in the Peace Corps.

U North Carolina Chapel Hill Announces Campus Climate Dialogues 
Inspired by the rising level of national and local discourse surrounding events and issues of equity and inclusion related to race, intellectual diversity, religion, identity and culture, the university recently began Carolina Conversations, a coordinated effort that gives the campus community an avenue to share thoughts and opinions with the administration. The campaign includes an interactive website, a calendar of all campus events related to diversity, equity and inclusion, and a series of ongoing events to encourage dialogue.

Waste

Fitchburg State U Removes Drinking Straw Option
In an attempt to improve waste reduction, recycling and composting, the university removed the straws, which are hard to spot when conducting post-consumer, dish room garbage separation.

University of Washington Students Hold Trashion Show
The first annual UW "Trashion" Show was hosted by EcoReps to celebrate Earth Day and beckon audience members to reimagine and critically think about "waste."All clothing made through upcycling scavenged materials. Something like this would be a great opportunity for the Theater and Art and Environmental Studies departments to collaborate on something environmentally creative.

Energy

Cambridge U Studies Plant-Powered Bus Shelter (U.K.)
The prototype hub at the university's botanical garden has walls of plants in pockets made of carbon fiber that receive electrons, produced as a byproduct of photosynthesis, that power a light in the shelter.

Climate Change

Stanford U Students Hold Panel on Climate Change Education
Students for a Sustainable Stanford and the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences recently held a panel to raise public awareness of the interdisciplinary importance of global climate change.

Want to live at PICA next year?

The Program in Community and Agroecology, or PICA, is a sustainability-themed housing option at the Village. Located on the picturesque UC Santa Cruz campus, in the Village, PICA features amazing community programs like Garden Workdays, Community Meals and Sustainability Workshops. You also get your own single room, which is a huge perk!

To apply to live at PICA, please visit studenthousing.ucsc.edu during the Priority Housing Application Period from April 13th-20th. On the application, mark that you "Strongly Prefer" involvement in PICA and say why in the additional comments section.

For more information, click here or contact Mira Michelle at mmichel1 [at] ucsc [dot] edu.

*Photos courtesy of PICA 

February 2015: Classes, Training, and Community

Future Campus Housing Plans: February 10 and 11
Plans are underway to expand student housing at UCSC with a focus on the west campus. Although these plans won’t be realized for several years, your experiences as a UCSC student, the reasons behind your current housing selections, and anything else you’d like to suggest that would enhance student satisfaction regarding housing are extremely important. This housing development will have possible effects to Family Student Housing, the Porter Meadow, and the Trailer Park.  It would be a great place to express the need of sustainability within new housing and planning. All are encouraged to attend. Please contact jimgrove [at] ucsc [dot] edu to participate. Click here for more information about upcoming stakeholder engagement sessions to provide your input.

March for Real Climate Leadership: February 7
On February 7th, thousands of people from all corners of the state will take to the streets of Oakland to call on Governor Jerry Brown to protect all Californians from dangerous oil activities that harm our water, our health and our communities. As he took office on January 5th for his fourth and final term, Governor Brown declared he wants California to be an international leader in the fight against climate change. But California can’t be a leader in the fight against climate change while we unabashedly push extreme extraction methods like fracking that worsen climate change and seriously endanger the health of our communities. Details about the march here. Sign up for the bus from Santa Cruz here.

Winter Food System Learning Journeys
Join OPERS on the journey through our local food system here in Santa Cruz. Food Systems Learning Journeys will take you from the classroom and the halls of campus into a not too distant world of farming, distributing, cooking, consuming, and composting food! You will have the opportunity to taste, touch, listen, and look into a world that we are all connected to. FSLJs that are offered this quarter are listed below Viticulture and Regional Terroir (Thursday, 2/12/15); Fruit Tree Pruning (Friday, 2/20/15); The Pie's the Limit (Wednesday, 2/25/15); and The Craft of Fermentation (Saturday 2/28/15). Registration and more information here.

El Intercambio: February 17, 19 and 20
Join FoCAN and youth from Central America at the Intercambio event. On February 17th from 5-8 P.M., there will be a gathering with free food about the Scales of Labor in the Food System at the College Eight Red Room. On February 19 from 2-4:30 P.M., there will be a panel about the International Youth Network for Food Sovereignty at the UCSC Kresge Town Hall. The last event will be on February 20 from 9-11 A.M at New Leaf (located at 1101 Fair Ave.) for an AgroEco Coffee Tasting.

Education for Sustainable Living Program Spring Classes

Are you interested in social justice, food systems, renewable energy or any other Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus topics? Take the ESLP class for 2 or 5 units next quarter! Designed and led by undergraduate students. Go to eslp.enviroslug.org to learn more about class offerings and how to enroll.

LEED Green Building Accreditation Training
The UCSC Sustainability Office will again be hosting LEED green building training to prepare students, staff and faculty for taking the Green Associate (GA) and/or the Accredited Professional (AP) exams. These classes are free with a provided lunch! Draft course agenda can be viewed here. If you are interested, please email Chrissy at cthomure [at] ucsc [dot] edu.

Where the Health Can You Eat Around Here: February 25
Meet our Chefs at the Healthy Monday Tasting Event. Free to everyone, you do not need to have a meal plan! Wednesday, February 25th, 2015 3:30pm-5:00pm @ Terra Fresca Restaurant above the College 9 &10 Dining Hall. Sample selections from our new Healthy Monday's dining hall menu! Find out about healthy alternatives in our cafes. The Health Center, SHOP, OPERS Cruz Fit, along with several other campus departments are going to be on site to talk about healthy lifestyle resources available right here on campus for Slugs. Campus chefs are anxious to get your feedback too on new dishes and hear ideas for future cafe and dining hall menus! Door Prizes and Freebies too!

3rd Annual Zero Waste Youth Convergence Deadline for Speakers: February 15
The UC Berkeley Zero Waste Research Center is pleased to announce it will be hosting Zero Waste Youth USA's 3rd Annual Zero Waste Youth Convergence at UC Berkeley on Sunday, March 15, 2015. The Convergence is the kick-off event for the annual Bay Area Zero Waste Week. The call for speakers/presenters is now open. If you are interested in presenting, please apply here. The deadline to apply is February 15, 2015. Questions should be directed to info [at] zerowasteyouthusa [dot] org

Launch of new PICA website
Please take a few moments to check out PICA's new features, including a calendar of upcoming events, a food justice focus and a link where you can make a donation directly to PICA. 

Winter PICA Workdays
Come out and get your hands dirty at the PICA Garden Workdays! Every Saturday, January 17 to March 7 from 10 A.M. - 2 P.M a free garden grown lunch will be served. For more information contact Ariel Wexler: awexler [at] ucsc [dot] edu

PICA Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop: February 20
Have you ever wanted to learn fruit tree pruning? PICA is offering an opportunity to do so on Friday, February 20th with Orin Martin from 1 - 4P.M. PICA will be leaving the OPERS Recreational Porch at 1pm. RSVP here -- spots are limited! If you experience any problems signing up or have any questions, please email kemjones [at] ucsc [dot] edu

Fall 2015 Natural History Course: applications due February 2

A new program launching in Fall 2015 will immerse students from across the UC system in the outdoor classrooms of the UC Natural Reserve System. The NRS Field Quarter Program will give students opportunities to closely observe California habitats, practice hands-on field research, and gain a deeper understanding of the natural world. California Ecology and Conservation will be the only course students enroll in for the term, and it yields a full complement of quarter units. As they visit up to six of the 39 reserves in the NRS, students will master standard field techniques and get to know a broad range of California habitats, climate regimes, and species. The deadline is February 2, 2015 and instruction begins in the fall. Visit the website for more information.

Agroecology, A Global Movement: Tracing Our Roots and Looking Forward

The 16th Annual Agroecology Shortcourse will explore the roots of agroecology as a global movement as well as a science and a practice from July 12-25, 2015. Santa Cruz offers the ideal context to examine historical and current issues of social and environmental equity and sustainability that agroecology movements confront all over the world. The course aims to introduce agroecology and strategically connect the diverse and powerful agroecology experiences and movements active worldwide and create a collective overarching view of the current global situation. The course will end with a vision of how to better facilitate cross-fertilization across agroecology movements and overcome obstacles to convergence. For more information, contact can.shortcourse [at] gmail [dot] com or visit the website.

Maui Wowi: Food Systems, Agriculture, and Outdoor Adventure Spring Break Trip
Though this is fall quarter, registration is open (and will fill) for the annual experiential learning and food system engagement spring break trip. Join the Food Systems Working Group & Rec Department on Maui to explore traditional food and farming sites, explore different aspects of culture, and adventure into bamboo forests, ranch lands, and marine sanctuaries to explore the ecological aspects of the island. This trip will also include a 2-unit Environmental Studies internship in winter quarter to prepare the group for different concepts and frameworks of food system engagement they will explore in March. Sign up on the OPERS Recreation website this quarter to reserve your spot!