Vice President Glenda Humiston, Interim Associate Vice President for Research and Cooperative Extension Darren Haver and a delegation of UC ANR members and supporters traveled to Washington, D.C. for the annual Council for Agricultural Research Extension and Teaching (CARET) and Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities’ Board on Agriculture Assembly conference on Feb. 22-25.
They met with California’s congressional members and staff in more than 30 offices to describe how UC ANR research and extension address critical agricultural, environmental and health challenges across the state.
Josh Davy, UC Cooperative Extension livestock, range and pasture advisor and director for Tehama County; Ali Hill, UCCE agricultural and resource economics specialist at UC Berkeley; Laura Vollmer, UCCE community nutrition and health advisor; and Georgios Vidalakis, UCCE plant pathology specialist and director of the Citrus Clonal Protection Program at UC Riverside, shared their research and extension highlights.
The California CARET delegates included members of the UC President’s Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources: Ismael Herrera, executive director of CA FWD’s California Stewardship Network; and Mike Mellano, Mellano & Company vice president of farming.
Other members of the delegation included Peter Atkinson, dean of the UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences and professor of genetics; Kathy Eiler, UC Riverside director of federal relations; Cori Lucero, UC Merced assistant chancellor and chief of staff; Brandon Minto, UC Davis director of federal relations; Stacy Philpott, UC Santa Cruz dean of the Agricultural Experiment Station; Patricia Springer, divisional dean of the UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences and professor of genetics; Ashley Stokes, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Loressa Uson, UC Santa Cruz associate director of federal relations; Anne Megaro, director of government and community relations; Kamala Lyon, assistant director for governmental relations and legislative analysis in the UC Office of Federal Governmental Relations; and Melissa Lopez, UC FGR intern.
The delegates thanked the policymakers for supporting the federal Research Facilities Act in H.R. 1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), which includes $125 million in mandatory spending each fiscal year for grants to help universities upgrade agricultural research facilities.
“Robust investment in modernizing that infrastructure must remain a top priority, and we encouraged our congressional members to continue funding – at the highest levels – research and extension in wildfire resilience, youth development, agriculture and more,” Humiston said.
Noting that agriculture and working lands drive economic growth in many congressional districts, they urged representatives to fully support the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the vital research programs that it funds.
“Federal partnerships are vital to advancing science-based solutions that strengthen California’s agriculture, natural resources and communities,” said Megaro.
The advocacy visit was arranged by Megaro and Lyon. See the UC ANR statistics handout attached.
