Agroecology Farm Lab—keeping agriculture resilient in a changing world
The Challenge
Agriculture has been extraordinarily successful at increasing food production over the past several generations, which is critical as society works to feed a growing population. The challenge is maintaining agricultural productivity on farmland while simultaneously increasing biodiversity, enhancing carbon sequestration, managing nutrients and adopting strategies that protect agriculture and the environment in our changing world. Agroecology is an emerging field that draws on our understanding of how ecosystems function and sustain themselves, and can help California agriculture become more efficient, multi-functional and resilient.
The Solution
The Agricultural Sustainability Institute believes the most transformative and lasting innovations in agriculture are to be found at the interface of agroecology and technology. We believe game-changing solutions are best made on a working farm by teams of farmers, scientists and industry working together. The Agroecology Farm Lab will develop systems-oriented approaches to agriculture that are environmentally sustainable and economically viable. The Agroecology Farm Lab will cultivate a new global standard for food production that will sustain productive, nutrient-dense crops and thriving healthy soils that optimize the use of external inputs.
The Philanthropic Opportunity
We seek philanthropic partners who share our vision to create a space for interdisciplinary innovation—an incubator where multiple disciplines and stakeholders can collaborate, design and explore new ideas for systemic changes in food production.
Here’s how your gift can help realize this vision:
- Provide startup funding to upgrade existing physical assets and build new ones, including field test beds and research laboratories for farmers, faculty, students and other partners to solve problems together.
- Initiate seed funding to jump-start research projects that will create the knowledge needed to develop new cultural practices and management strategies for a sustainable future.