Letter from the Dean
Fall is always a time of rejuvenation for the College's
missions of teaching, research, and extension. For this
special issue, all three of those missions converge. Several
UC Berkeley faculty and their graduate students, mainly from
CNR, are coalescing around nothing short of a paradigm shift
in the way the world produces food. Research related to an
integrated agriculture and land-management approach they
are calling "diversified farming systems" challenges the longheld
convention that large-scale industrial monoculture, with
its attendant environmental and ecosystem impacts, is the only
way to feed the world's expected population surge. In fact, they
contend, continuation of the status quo in agriculture is exactly
what the world's hungry billions cannot afford (see How to Feed the World: Start Small).
With our focus on agriculture, conservation, and economic
development, the College has always been a place for global
thinking. Scratch a professor and she'll rattle off the names
of past students who served in one of the nation's most
venerable organizations with a similar global perspective: The
Peace Corps. This year Cal has been helping the Peace Corps
celebrate its 50th anniversary, and Breakthroughs joins in with
remembrances and advice from a few of CNR's many Peace
Corps veterans (see The Peace Corps at 50).
In addition to service, our alumni give back through philanthropy.
With the state's ever-decreasing support of its public
universities, we at UC Berkeley are fortunate to have a generous,
passionate, and engaged alumni base to help keep us
strong. David Knutson, '53, an Agricultural Science alumnus
and a good friend of the College, has made the most of a very
innovative giving vehicle (see College Support).
One last note on global thinking, and it's a note of welcome. I
am pleased to announce that the University's internationally
renowned Energy and Resources Group is now an affiliate
of the College. With well-aligned missions and researchers
who are already collaborators, we look forward to a rich and
fruitful relationship (see ERG Joins the CNR Family). I welcome your comments at
gilless@berkeley.edu.
