This meeting of the Joint Policy Council on Agriculture and Higher Education (JPC) Advisory Board (AB) was held in the Plum Room of the DANR Building in Davis, California, August 11, 1998, from 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Board Members (13): Mark Burrell, Chair; William Allewelt, agribusiness consultant; John Braly, California Cattlemen’s Association; Don Camp, D. M. Camp & Sons; Don Gordon, Agricultural Council of California; Brenda Jahns Southwick, Attorney General’s Office; Ann Kraemer, vineyard consultant; Loyd McCormick, McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enerson; Ron Schuler, CA Canning Peach Association; Bob Scofield, agribusiness consultant; Nicole Van Vleck, Montna Farms; Doug Mosebar (for Bob Vice), CA Farm Bureau Federation; Richard Wilson, Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection.

JPC Liaisons present: Warren Baker, JPC Co-Chair.

Guests present: Charlie Crabb, UCCE South Central Region Director; Bill McFarlane, Friends of Agricultural Extension; Millie Meders, Chair, Friends of Agricultural Extension; Barabara Schneeman, UC Davis CAES (appeared from 12:00 p.m. to ~1:30 p.m).

Staff present: John Gutierrez, JPC Coordinator.

1) Bill Allewelt made a motion to amend language in the May 7, 1998 Advisory Board Meeting summary to reflect the fact that the JPC has no authority with respect to the voluntary organization Friends of Agricultural Extension, and thus can not unilaterally choose to "replace" their annual deans and department chairs meeting with a statewide version of the event. The specific language he refers to is found in the third paragraph on page two, the last sentence:

Mr. Allewelt suggested the following language be substituted:

The board agreed and the motion was seconded by Don Camp and carried unanimously.

2) On a separate note, Mr. Allewelt offered strong objections to language found in the meeting background material to Item 5 of the May 7 Advisory Board meeting, which was the item that reported the JPC’s adoption of a mission statement at their March 25, 1998 meeting. Discussion ensued, and Mr. Allewelt moved that the language be stricken from JPC records. This motion was seconded by Bob Scofield and carried unanimously.

The board reviewed and discussed the six responses to the 44 letters sent to leaders of the California agriculture industry asking for their input on what cross-cutting issues the JPC should focus its resources in the coming year. The issues suggested covered the primary areas that had been discussed by the board at previous meetings. The issues and the process envisioned for the JPC’s work on them were discussed. The discussion resulted in an identification of six issues: the quality of the scientific basis for ag rules and regulations; water, including quantity, quality and allocation; food safety; the ag/urban interface; tools of production, and maintaining an adequate human resource pool for agriculture.

The board quickly agreed that the quality of the scientific basis for rules and regulations was vitally important in many areas relating to agriculture and that this should be one of the issues recommended. The board also agreed that water issues must be recommended because of its overriding importance to agriculture. The board sought ways to reduce the number of issues, recognizing the JPC’s limited resources.

An Organizing Principle, A Feasible Project: It was suggested that several of the issues could be organized under the rubric of analyzing the "quality of the scientific basis for rules and regulations that economically impact agriculture." President Baker suggested that this sort of analysis was a feasible project for an intersegmental group, while it would be less feasible for the JPC to establish a new intersegmental research program designed to offer solutions to the problems represented in these issues. The board agreed to this approach, since all but the issue of maintaining the human resource pool for agriculture fit into this scheme. It was expressed that this issue is vitally important and deserved attention, but that it ought to rest within the purview of the new JPC Committee on Cooperation in Education, since it is composed of the deans of ag from all the JPC schools. Thus was derived the following list of recommended issues.

Under the rubric of examining:

The JPC Advisory Board recommends that the JPC focus its effort and resources in the coming year on the following issues:

Recommended Process for Addressing the Issues: The board moved on to discuss and outline the process by which the JPC might address these issues and came up with the following approach.

Overview: A sequential process is envisioned, with representatives from all three segments of higher education and industry represented at each step in the process. The first step is to describe each of the four issues in a very brief white paper, in order to form a common understanding of the issues, their history, the stakeholders and the values involved. Along with each white paper, a basic bibliography of recent research on each issue will be prepared. Creating the white paper was the focus of discussions at this meeting. It is planned to be complete by November 30.

The next step encompasses the time leading up to the planned deans and department chairs meeting in early to mid-1999. During this time, the issues will be fleshed out more so that the deans and department chairs meeting is useful and effective. The next step is envisioned to occur at the meeting, where experts on these issues from all three systems and from industry will convene to begin preparing a statement of work, which is the next step in the process. From the meeting, the core of panels of experts on the issues will be identified to complete the statement of work.

The statement of work is a key step. It will be performed by a panel of experts, hopefully selected through the deans and department chairs meeting, from all three systems and industry. The statement of work is expected to include an evaluation of the research base relevant to each issue; identify prevalent trends and their economic impact; identify educational and outreach needs, including best practices, defensible practices and non-defensible practices based on existing knowledge; and identify collaborative opportunities. The statement of work will be accompanied by a program proposal, a funding proposal, an identification of those recommended to do the work, and a timetable, which will be submitted to the JPC.

The First Step: Four Brief White Papers: For each of the four issues, the first step is to prepare a brief white paper, five pages or less in length, that will describe the issue in general terms. It must be stressed that this paper is to be descriptive of the issue, not in any way prescriptive, and especially not to represent any opinions or approaches for resolving the issue. The white paper is designed to create a common understanding and catalyze discussion of the issue for those who participate in the deans and department chairs meeting, and for those who will eventually be convened to take the next steps in addressing theses issues for the JPC. These papers will supplement the agenda at the Deans and Department Chairs Meeting. The meeting will bring together experts on these issues from all three systems and industry. The meeting is expected to serve as a starting point for expert panels to convene to flesh out these issues, under the rubric of analyzing the quality of the scientific basis for rules and regulations that economically impact agriculture.

As alluded to previously, these white papers will merely lay the groundwork for a more thorough analysis of these recommended issues. However, the board discussed expected outcomes necessary to move forward with the process of analyzing the quality of the scientific basis for rules and regulations that economically impact agriculture. These are to:

The specific manner of creating the groups that will perform this work, what they will be called, etc., was not discussed. But these are the outcomes envisioned.

The statement of work, the key work product, was further described to include:

Barbara Schneeman, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and chair of the new Committee on Cooperation in Education, arrived at midday to report on the first meeting, held June 18, 1998 in Davis. A Meeting Summary was distributed in the mail to all advisory board members in July. Dean Schneeman said that all the information she would report on is contained there. In general, she reported that it was a productive first meeting that resulted in an outline of three recommendations for the JPC’s attention, those having to do with articulation, barriers to and opportunities for increased cooperation, and co-teaching/shared curricula/distance learning.

1) Relationship with Friends of Agricultural Extension: Millie Meders, Chair of the Friends of Agricultural Extension, and Bill McFarlane, a member of the Friends of Agricultural Extension, graciously agreed to attend this meeting to assist in clearing up a misunderstanding regarding the deans and department chairs meeting. Ms. Meders read a statement describing events from the Friends’ perspective, and relating their board’s decision to forego hosting a deans and department chairs meeting in 1998. Ms. Meders and Mr. McFarlane were offered an official apology by Mark Burrell on behalf of the board for the fact that an impression was created that the JPC’s sponsorship of a deans and department chairs meeting on a statewide basis was intended to supplant or undermine their successful annual meeting. Ms. Meders and Mr. McFarlane were asked to convey these apologies back to their board. In addition, personal apologies were offered by several members. Mr. Burrell also offered assurances that the JPC Advisory Board in no way intended to compromise, interfere or undermine the Friends’ activities. On the contrary, he expressed the belief that their two groups shared the same objective of supporting the excellence of higher education and outreach in agriculture for the benefit of the agriculture industry in California.

2) These apologies having been offered, the board concluded that this misunderstanding should be put behind them. As discussed above, the JPC envisions hosting a statewide deans and department chairs meeting as part of the process of addressing a select few, cross-cutting issues for California agriculture. Mark stated that he now expects that meeting to occur sometime in the first quarter of 1999.

At this point the meeting went into executive session.