CAFE: Forging the Path Towards Agricultural Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY: Using new and improved agricultural innovations to create eco-friendly communities that support food consciousness and well-being.

Maintaining a well-balanced and healthy ecosystem is pivotal to the long term success of our planet. However, as populations grow and the demand for resources rises, this goal begins to sound increasingly unobtainable. The system that is mainstream in most of the world, including a majority of the United States, is one that is honestly the opposite of what is to be expected of ecologically conscious and precedent laying practices. Some things must be done to alter the system that so many practice to reach the levels of sustainability that a necessary to keep global temperatures from rising above the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold. This is pivotal if we hope to maintain environment balance and wellbeing for future generations to enjoy. Making better use of the limited land and resources that we have are necessary in maintaining the balance of nature and human health.

The University of California, Riverside is leading the frontier of sustainability research in areas of agricultural science and resource management. The hope to address the issue of the food crisis through their initiative CAFE, which stands for California Agricultural and Food Enterprise. With the slogan of “Hunger Free 2050” the mission of the research collective become clear. It’s not just a mission to help the planet we inhabit, but to help our fellow citizens on this Earth. The technology and methods that are readily available to farmers and members of the agricultural sectors are simply not able to keep up with the exponential growth of our society. An advanced technology needs to be developed or our species will reach its carrying capacity much sooner than anticipated. The University of California, Riverside, along with a few other partner universities, recognize this, leading to the development of the CAFE project. It has even spread to a some local governing bodies that are interested in delving further into the promising results that the research done by these scholars and professors. But the question remains: what experimentation is being run by the scientists and students involved in the CAFE project and what does it mean for normal citizens?

Some of their most important research, especially in the UCR sector of the program, is research that relates to the orange trees and other citrus that make up such a large part of the Southern California economy. The research allows for us to find ways to help our plants resist the diseases that threaten them. It even has come as far as to experimentation in genetic modification of the fruits in order to create larger, more sustenance filled foods. This can work not only with citrus fruits but also other foods that we all enjoy such as asparagus and avocados. More resistant and nutritious alternatives to the foods we already have can help combat the issues of starvation and lack of resources that many countries struggle with. It is even crisis for many citizens in the United States.

The issue of food sustainability has gone beyond a simple problem of the necessity for new methods of food production but is an issue with the practices in many first world countries. To us they are normal but in reality they are habits of overindulgence that aren’t very conscious in long term effects. The issue that CAFE finds itself needing to focus on is that this changes won’t work on a compact level. It needs to be a worldwide movement if the better habits hope to make ground and protect the planet. The science is only half the battle. The other half is finding a way to spread this meaningful and impactful work to the minds of the public whom it will make the largest change for. To do this they hold many events in an attempt to engage the citizens that are willing to listen. From conferences to in the field initiatives CAFE members do whatever they can to involve the community.

The conference in question focused primarily on the Hunger Free 2050 initiative and slogan that the California Agricultural and Food Enterprise adopts. Many scientists involved in the food sustainability research address the challenges that we are still facing and which solutions are in the process of being solved. By the year 2050, scientists speculate that the population will grow to 10 billion humans. By then the climate crisis will not only be worse but space will be even more limited and exponentially more resources will be required to maintain the same levels of comfort. Despite how bleak it may seem for our future, it isn’t hopeless. In fact, many scientists are hopeful that with a concerted effort by our planet’s citizens there is a chance for the world to rebound from the path that it is currently set on. The scientists a speakers voiced their creative and incredibly innovative ideas that have the potential to turn around the trajectory that the planet has been set on. From discovering the possibilities of farming amidst areas of urban sprawl to exploring the sustainability of bugs as a form of cheap and nutritious food, these ideas illustrated the work being put in by passionate people and scholars when it comes to protecting the only planet that we have been given to inhabit. Although conferences are a good way to disseminate ideas in a structured format, real life application is where some of the biggest strides in this area are being made.

Initiatives that promise to incite change in our agriculture and environment are beginning to become common practice at universities such as UCR and other associated schools that take part in CAFE. Large change starts with big ideas and intelligent execution of the aforementioned ideas. UCR itself has started work on their own microbiome project. This part of their mission entails creating and maintaining and balanced and healthy microbiome on the UCR campus. They have successfully worked on it for a couple years now and it has garnered positive results. The campus is not only more beautiful but has become a safe home for a greater multitude of flora and fauna. Other universities, especially on the West Coast, have begun to follow suit and carry out similar projects.

The role of the CAFE initiative is to create a healthier balance between nature and human industrialization. Rampant innovation and industrialization have proven to be detrimental to our planet as is evidenced by the rise of climate change as a defining issue in our time. Despite this, in recent decades, we have, as a species, begun to understand how dire the situation has become. CAFE provides an alternative path that has the potential to counteract the greatest extremes of global warming. If scientists can find ways to create more efficient agricultural methods and spread the use of them we can address the issue of the growing population and provide more space for nature to regrow and regain its natural dominance. It is important to discuss issues such as these so that awareness of the rising issue becomes commonplace in the minds of the citizens of our world.