Logan Begley

Nina Belloni
Jaya Betts
Marina Encinas
Esmeralda Gonzalez
Connor McPherson
Paige Ricker
Sydney Sampson
Kayla Smith
Faiben Tefera
Sebastian Torres
Abigail Yannetta
Kelly and Nate
English 130I Univ 105
November 14, 2017
Meeting The Hands That Feed You
Proposal:
As students of CSU, Chico, we feel like our university farm doesnt receive enough credit

for the many things it does such as benefitting our community and our environment. For the sake

of convenience, people rather skip to the easy route of buying foods at their local supermarkets

instead of making a trip to their local farm. We also feel like people rely heavily on large

corporations to provide healthy foods, but most of the time, don't even know where that food is

coming from, how its been grown and treated, or how damaging that practice is to our

environment. If we were to just focus on buying foods from local farms then the world and our

community wouldnt be in the situation it is in today dealing largely with global warming. As a

collective, we hope that by spreading awareness to local farms, such as our university farm,
people would then appreciate sustainable small farms that not only produce healthy foods, but

also preserve the longevity of our planet.

In order to bring awareness to our university farm, we designed two interventions with

aims of changing our audiences behavior by getting people involved with our farm. We are

targeting both Chico State students and citizens from the community to participate in our

interventions by becoming inspired by a short Youtube video that shows the comparisons

between a sustainable farm and a large company in the food industry. We also want to get people

thinking about how beneficial it would be to attend a possible seasonal event by offering fun,

social events that relate to the seasons and, or holidays. Both interventions serve as a way one

can learn more about the farm and be educated by its practices.

Research:
Background/ History
Farming began many years ago and has improved greatly through time. Many acts and

reforms have been established over time in hopes to create a set foundation to improve the works

in marketing, and production for our nation as a whole. In 1900 George Washington Carver

(director of agriculture) of Tuskegee institute pioneered new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes,

and soybeans that later helped diversify Southern Agriculture. In 1906 the Food and Drug Act

was created in order to help improve food and safety within the industry. In 1922, Capper

Voldtead Act gave cooperatives legal standing and authorized many different types of agriculture

procedures. The act has played and continues to play a vital role in enabling agricultural

producers to collectively process, prepare, handle and market their products (Barnes and

Ondeck,1997). In 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act initiated crop and marketing control to help
improve overall farming, and in 1936 the Rural Electrification Act greatly improved quality of

rural life. Between the years of 1945-1970 revolution in agricultural technology brought

increased yields and more specialized capital intensive farms. In 1947 general agreement on

tariffs, and trade established working procedures that substantially reduced tariffs between

member nations. Between the year of 1954-1955 rural development programs began and

Biotechnology became a viable technique for improving crop production increasing livestock

products in 1980. In 1996 the Federal Agricultural Improvement Reform Act revised the farm

programs to increase their reliability on selling products in markets. Then, in 1998 HACCP was

implemented to target and reduce the presence of pathogens in meat and poultry. Finally, in 2000

the Roadless initiative was implemented to preserve roadless tracts in national forest to secure

fish and wildlife habitat along with protecting natural resources at the same time. From then on

farms have increasingly progressed and changed overtime, bettering the agriculture industry as a

whole.

As years go on things get increasingly better, agriculture and farming is one of them. In

prehistoric times, people were more hunter and gathers rather than farmers. These hunter and

gatherers would have to move with the seasons to get the necessary food for survival. Eventually

early civilization things increased and got better, causing a boom in agriculture and science.

They eventually realized that they needed to specialize agriculture in order for societies to

survive. During this time, they saw irrigation as the best thing to work on for farming

improvement. Then when we entered the era of early to modern civilization, the Middle East

continued to see innovation of agriculture and later became more developed and later began
trading with Europe. That is when modern farming in the 18th century started to kick off. Since

this time, many changes occurred and farming became a lot less labor intensive.

All the previous advancements have made it possible for schools (such as Chico State) to

have its own farm. There are very few California colleges that have school farms and we are

truly lucky to have such an amazing one. The University Farm was created in 1960 by a man

named Paul L. Byrne. This farm isn't just a normal farm it is an 800 acre farm that is an

Agricultural Teaching and Research Center, and serves to more than just students. For students,

it is a research center where agriculture classes often go out and get their hands dirty discovering

and researching different things while farmers and ranchers benefit from the research being done.

The community also benefits from this farm not only because the goods produced and sold at the

farm, but because seminars are held there to educate people as well. Each year more than 1,000

students visit the farm and most of which is there first time exposed to the farming life and

nature.

Within the video of The Story of Us: Birth of Farming, the main idea is that farming is

revolutionary and the ways farming has revolutionized are explained throughout the video. Back

when people discovered how to farm, we increased the ability of the land to support us. Most

humans today rely on the agriculture revolution. Back when it was a necessity, humans were

extremely good at farming. A very large problem at the time was that around 8 to 10,000 years

ago, the animals in which they hunted practically died out. Farmers are and were invested into

land. Inevitable, if there was more than one person farming, it brought conflict among for the

other farmer. Warfare came along with farming in a natural sequence. Nowadays, our nation
can't have enough farmers because of how much it has progressed over the years, in need of

feeding families all over the world.

Agriculture practices over the years has changed dramatically, food production has

increasingly gotten better because of the advancements in technology. The more recent

advancements have allowed farmers to not have to work as hard as they did in past decades. The

labor intensive jobs have become more manageable and farming is getting easier. Even though

farming has gotten easier, the cost to run farms has increased. Overall farming is a very time

consuming process that has changed in some ways for the better and has become more

sustainable.

In the article titled Sustainability of Farming Enterprise-Understanding, Governance,

Evaluation created by Professor Bachev, describes sustainable agriculture as a blanket term for

any new approach to agriculture. These new changes are centered around not only environmental

issues, as they are also attempting to address social issues. The ultimate goal for those following

the sustainability movements is self sufficiency. He delved into the factors that can be utilized to

help determine the sustainability of a farm. These factors include resilience, soil, water, and air

quality, social acceptance, and energy efficiency. There are many dimensions to sustainable

agriculture (managerial, economic, social, and ecological), and they all need to be accounted for

when determining the sustainability of each farm. In order to indicate the levels of sustainability

for a particular farm, the quality and quantity of these dimensions is compared to a reference

value of the desirable levels.

Farming has been a huge factor in human lives since the plow. More and more

Universities are finding the value of having a local community based farm. Dr. Chen describes in
his research Towards a Local Food Web for Sustainable Urban Development that local farms

are incredibly valuable. Not only does Dr. Chen suggest improved biodiversity, but increased

recycling, community, and quite frankly encourage some entrepreneurship.

Dr. Chen has three tiers of a good sustainable urban farming environment. First tier is reserving

good agriculture land within a 15 acre distance of the largest residential development. Second,

neighborhoods should be adding in rows for vegetables in communal backyards. Lastly each

residential house needs an adapted form of herb or vegetable garden, whether it be vertical

gardens from balconies or roof gardens.

Dr. Chens idea is very utopian and requires a huge revision of infrastructure.

A problem in modern agriculture is pesticides. The fight between organic and genetic

modification has been waging for longer than Ive been alive. Residents have been searching for

organic labeled foods, but now so are sustainable people. Aimee Shreck takes a survey to the

many Organic farmers of California and ask the question, Does being certified organic also

entice the idea of being environmentally sustainable? Should it?

Next is the problem animal treatment. Corporations are creating more machinery to be

more efficient in harvesting consumable easy animal made proteins. Although data has shown

that nutrients are disappearing faster and faster in mass produced products. Local farms have

been proven to keep the equilibrium on animal treatment to production of the product.

Many farmers were surveyed and the data states that more than s of the organic

community does not practice environmentally sustainable ways. Most organic farms are having

trouble being innovative towards new, more efficient harvesting machinery, transportation, and

labor options. Making organic crops being grown in an unsustainable way thus breaking the idea
of rich organic crops.

The Chico farm is a great example of a great organic farm. Having community based

days. All of their time and efforts are given back to the university. The University farm is giving

more than just food to the cafeteria's and the local farmers markets, but educates people. If

everyone is educated about an issue, then perhaps the people themselves will solve the issue if

they care.

When we usually think of farming we think of organic produce and a bunch of acres of

crops, but what doesn't come to mind to everyone is going to a farm to shop for groceries. The

average supermarket does have an organic section aswell but most of the time you don't actually

know where your food is coming from. Most supermarkets have contracts with corporate farms

that have all these claims such as free-range cows and cage-free chickens, but in reality they

hardly have any space to move in their cages, workers that are aggressive with the animals and

breed for their own benefit. That does not benefit us as consumers if we are being lied about

when buying what we think is being sustainable. These large scale corporate farms have taken a

lot of smaller family owned farms out of business that do have the common interest in their

products for the people. People might say over the years the demand has gone up but doesn't that

mean we have to pay the price with deteriorating our earth. In many situations factory farms ship

their products in large amounts that end up being wasted.

In the book Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, talks

about the fact that the food industries make prices on unhealthy food less expensive than the

more healthy food.

 People tend to buy more unhealthy food which eventually affects their overall health. The

prices of organic produce in supermarkets are typically way more over priced then if you were to

just to a local farm nearby, where you could physically see the animals and how they are treated

as well as ask questions to the farmers about a certain fruit, vegetable, or meat. Many of the farm

factories where our produce comes are unsustainable in regards to damaging our environment.

According to Marion Nestle, too much agricultural production produces excessive amounts of

greenhouse gases, uses unsustainable amounts of resources, and pollutes the environment. It not

only contributes to the phenomenon of global warming by the emission of greenhouse gases

(GHG), but also has detrimental environmental impacts such as deforestation, rapid loss in

biodiversity, water scarcity (both in terms of quantity and quality), limiting economic growth,

and hampering much of the aquatic ecosystem and services that accrue from water-based

systems.

Another book called Food Industry Wastes : Assessment and Recuperation of

Commodities also touches base on the fact that a lot of the food get wasted because of the

amount of produce that is produced Producing food that will not be consumed leads to

unnecessary CO 2 emissions in addition to loss of economic value of the food produced. Which

is not good at all for the environment because that is extra greenhouse waste that we don't need

going into the atmosphere.

Many families and schools like to embrace the concept of outdoor activities especially ones on a

farm. Creative farm operators have begun offering programs for diverse age groups especially in

Texas. Programs are designed to draw crowds from urban areas and capitalize on an ongoing

interest in family weekend getaways to the countryside (Hawkes,2012). The non-traditional farm
revenue seems to be growing in popularity. They have such things as Corn maze, hay rides,

christmas tree farms, pumpkin patches, tour of the apple orchard, a visit to the cider mill and

many more! Also making fresh farm product to purchases onsite brings in more income.

This could relate to our intervention because the farm could use more social ideas. Having

seasonal events or social events on the farm could bring more revenue and interest to the college

of agriculture. Also spreading the word out of the farm could possibly lead to expansion of the

orchards or animal units.

After researching some events that could be done on the farm, several examples for events

done on other farms can be found. For example, on the Ruitz Farm, there is pumpkin picking,

berry picking, as well as pumpkin picking workshops that can be great for families to attend.

They also have corn roasts, cooking demos, signings from cookbook authors, and farm tours.

These are great examples of how to attract visitors from on campus as well as from people

visiting the farm.

Another farm called Ryder farm has a chef to table event, in which visitors attend a dinner

using foods only grown and raised on the farm. This is a good way for people to get to know the

people who grow their food, and to have a great experience eating natural foods.

Another farm called Shady Brook farm has events held year round. They have seasonal

events during Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc. These events are great for attracting families to

visit the farms, because it could allow the family to spend a day outdoors, at a cheap price, and

experience what it is like to be on the farm. Some events could be fun for kids also, such as

pumpkin picking, Easter eggstravaganza, and the Holiday Lights show.

 The previous farms offer examples of what seasonal events attract visitors, and could

demonstrate what we have to do in order to offer a better experience for visitors. We could also

use these events in order to determine a good intervention, so that we can show people why

having a farm is good and important for the school, as well as giving them a good time.

A farm in southern California has newborn animals throughout the season and lets local

families and schools come and have educational days watching these procedures be done. They

also host classes you can sign up for to learn about animal handling and how to grow your own

crops. On Easter Sunday they have magicchickens who lay chocolate eggs for the children to

find. There is also an Easter Egg Hunt split by age group which the children adore. They is as

well berry picking tours they can go on. This is not only a traditional farm but also loves to bring

families together outdoors and to learn something new!

An article in the guardian, elaborates on the seasonal peaks of income through events in

businesses and labels them as crucial. Businesses are expected to have moments of high

consumer productivity, that change with the seasons. This reference may be able to be used as an

method to sway farm administration to host events, because it reassures businesses that the high

of an event is not detrimental once it falls. We can use this in our intervention as a form of

encouragement and an expectation when an event is over, and attendance at the farm decreases.

This journal was published through a nonprofit organization, in an attempt to explain the

benefits and negative aspects of putting up seasonal events on agriculture establishments. This

document will have a very big impact on our intervention, not only does it educate us on the

benefits of seasonal events, but it also gives tactics to partake in a successful event. It will be
used as a method of persuasion towards farm administration and also as guideline when

conducting our intervention and collecting data.

These things relates to our intervention because we want not only the students educated

about animals and agriculture but also the community. The Chico State farm could have classes

for the community to learn more about what they teach the students and just common things

people should know about agriculture. Also just recently our farm had young labs I think it

would be cool to have students there to witness how amazing these processes really are.

The Monsanto website describes the progression of technology and machinery

throughout the years in agriculture since 1960s. Its a clearer way to see what technology has

been beneficial for agriculture. This focuses more on the past evolution of technology and

methods used to improve agriculture.

Intel describes how drones can be used to make farming (and other industries) more

sustainable in the future. The drone allows farmers to scan for irrigation breaks and plant

counting for yield prediction to focus on areas that need the most help.

The article shows recent progress of technology and change in agriculture and how the

newer technology overcomes problems introduced from other technology, reduce negative

impacts on soil and water and improve the sustainability of environment. It goes into the specific

ways technology has improved things such as yield and net output, decrease in control by

producers, increased intensification, specialization of complexity of productions, greater

dependence on non-renewable resources, etc.

Showing The Farms world:

 Have you ever seen the hands of the man that grows your vegetables? Or the woman that

slaughters your beef? Of the families that are awake before the sun rises to pick cold berries?

Group eight is proud to intervene, help educate. CSU Wildcats are going to make a video that

informs the Californian student body about the uncertainty we could face in agriculture. Local

University farms leave smaller Carbon footprints, produce healthy nutritious foods and well

raised cage free meats. Our objective is to help you realize, help educate you in agriculture, and

spark your appetite in tastier healthier foods!

To make this video, group eight will go onto the University farm with the cameras from

their cellphones and record the locals. We will then compare the footage to clips taken from

incorporated farms and mistreated animals. We will observe the difference and put the survey

into the description of our video.

Seasonal Events
For our second intervention we are going to make a petition to get a seasonal event

done on the CSU Chico Farm to bring awareness to our local farm. For our seasonal event we are

thinking of either pumpkin patch or christmas tree farm for Fall/Winter 2018. We plan to first set

up a table in the quad in front of the BMU with posters that will be done by us. As well as have

flyers on our table for people that would like to take to let others know. At the table we will have

four member of our group at a time, two will be standing on either sides of the table attracting

people as long as answering question and the other two will explain the petition aspect of it and

what will be needed of them. Which will be a name, academic year, gender and whether or not

they have gardening experience. We will also ask questions such as if they would be willing to
pay for entrees to help out the farm or donate their time if accepted to make it possible. There

will be interviews conducted of some of the people signing our petition to put into our video that

will be of the farmers (our first intervention). At the end a card will be giving to them with a link

of our first intervention, and advise them to take the survey that will be in the description of the

youtube video.

After we have reached our goal of 35 people, we are going to propose our idea to the

CSU Chico board and submit it to The CSU President. Hopefully it is able to be made possible if

we show that people are willing to make it possible. It would be a great way for students and

families to get out without breaking the bank. While supporting our local State Farm by bringing

awareness to it.

Audience & Benefits:

The audience for our seasonal events is mainly Chico State students and the people of the

Chico community. With the seasonal events we feel the community will have a better connection

to the farm and that they will use it more often to buy their food. We also believe that these

seasonal events and increased attendance to the farm will create a better sense of respect for the

farm and farmers.

Through creating a video comparison between locally grown, within the farm, centered

production and mass production, the primary method of yielding, we hope to bring awareness to

the differences, in an effort to guide general public to make sustainable choices. More people

will utilize a resource that is useful to members of the community as well as students in the

university. The video may serve as a catalyst in the introduction of meeting new people, making
the farm a socially equitable place, while also encouraging the interaction between people, to

build a connection that can be increasingly emphasized in a small community setting. We may

also bring attention to the smaller ecological footprint that is made due to the minimizing of

transportation, through access of locally grown produce. A benefit that we hope to occur is for

the farm to lower price to a more economically feasible market for college students, easier access

to the community on the lower part of the economic threshold.

Measurements of success:
It would be a huge accomplishment if our intervention actually changed someones

behavior in becoming more appreciative of local farms including our very own university farm.

It would give us a sense of accomplishment because now that person plans to participate in small

farms, whether thatd be buying crops or attending seasonal events. As a group, weve decided

that the best possible way to track our success would be through the amount of views on our

video and the number of people who take the surveys at the end, which would show, we hope,

whether or not a certain person was moved in a way. We hope to have fifty people complete the

survey and if we accomplish this we will feel successful.

Since our other intervention requires more work, and given the time we have it is

unlikely that we would be able to accomplish this seasonal event before the semester ends, the

least we can do is begin spreading awareness to students and members of the community. We

plan to have something similar to a petition, which would show clearly those who actually

support our idea. If we gain a large amount of support, then the board of our university would

hopefully take this idea into consideration. Given a large amount of voices, how could they reject

it?
Timeline and Work Distribution:
Between the sixth and tenth of November we plan on having our research completed,

have a collaboration with the farm and a survey done for our intervention. Our research will

consist of the background and history of the farm, evolution of farm technology and how it is

used today, comparing the grocery industry to farming, and the benefits of seasonal events.

Sometime between the thirteenth and seventeenth we should have our video, which will consist

of our intervention, and data collected from the survey at the end of the video done. Our

presentation will be put together by the twenty-second and group members will start revision.

Our revisions will be done by the twenty-seventh leaving us time to practice our presentation

until December first and then finally presenting on the fifth.

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