From dechaney@ucdavis.eduFri Dec 1 23:36:23 1995 Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 11:25:31 -0800 From: David Chaney Reply to: SAED-SHARE-L@cornell.edu To: SAED-SHARE-L@cornell.edu Subject: 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.