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New Publication
DAVIS -- A new compendium of Spanish-language publications on sustainable
agriculture is now available from the University of California.
A Guide to Spanish Language Sustainable Agriculture Publications is
published by the UC Davis-based Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education Program (SAREP). Although the publications compiled in the new
guide are in Spanish, the guide itself is written in English. "We heard
from UC farm advisors and researchers that there wasn't much information
about sustainable agriculture available for the Spanish-speaking community,"
says Gail Feenstra, SAREP food systems analyst and nutritionist who
coordinated the project with editor Beatriz Cabezon.
Feenstra and Cabezon surveyed the literature, and found a group of useful
publications. "We decided the most efficient way to get that information
was to translate summaries of the publications into English and make those
available to the farm advisors and others who work with Spanish-speaking
farmers and farmworkers," she adds. "They will be able to use these
resources to do outreach and educational programs about sustainable farming
practices with their clientele, and also offer them the full publications in
Spanish." Most of the 74 English abstracts of Spanish-language sustainable
agriculture documents in the Guide were chosen for their ease of use and
readability, says Feenstra. The abstracts cover a wide range of topics, from
the principles of sustainability to practical information about soil and
water management, agricultural machinery, field safety, and learning English
as a second language.
Former UC farm advisor Faustino Issac Munoz of San Diego County has used
the Guide with his Spanish-speaking clientele. "The most important part of
the Guide is the soil fertility information," Munoz says. "It was the
easiest to understand and was most easily accepted. The translations were
very useful."
SAREP has established libraries for the original Spanish documents at five
strategic sites in California including the Small Farm Center at UC Davis,
the UC farm advisors' offices in San Diego and Fresno, at UC Santa Barbara,
and at the Rural Development Center in Salinas. A Spanish version of the
abstracts is available on request.
In addition to UC farm advisors serving Spanish-speaking communities,
Feenstra says visitors from Nicaragua and Columbia have also made use of the
Guide and have taken copies of specific articles back to their countries.
The $10 publication is available (checks payable to 'UC Regents') through UC
SAREP, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; Tel: (916) 752-7556. For
VISA or MasterCard orders, call UC ANR Publications at 1-800-994-8849
(within California; elsewhere call (510) 642-2431); e-mail inquiries to
anrpubs@ucdavis.edu. The publication number is SA-003.