Sara Rosenberg joins UCCE as regenerative agriculture farm advisor

We are excited to introduce Sara Rosenberg as our new Regenerative Agriculture Advisor. She joined UCCE on May 1st for Mariposa, Merced and Stanislaus counties. Sara earned a master's in international agriculture development and a Ph.D. in horticulture and agronomy from UC Davis. Her academic focuses are agroecology, sustainable nutrient management, and extension research and methodology. Her past research centers on understanding the implications of diversification (with a focus on crop rotations and cover crops) for California rice systems. For her master's program, she conducted a countywide assessment to learn from rice growers about their experiences with crop rotations and understand barriers to adoption, opportunities, and required resources for successful implementation. Her doctoral research explored how different summer crop rotations affect multiple sustainability factors including soil health, crop yields, weeds, input use and economics. She also assessed different cover crop species performance in rice environments and their carbon and nitrogen contributions. Prior to working on her Ph.D., she was an agriculture advisor in the Peace Corps for more than three years. Here, she worked closely with smallholder farmers in West Africa, implementing conservation agriculture programs and increasing agricultural resilience in both annual crops and tree crops, mainly in the cashew forestry sector. In California, she has worked on farms for more than eight years, including running her own small, diversified farm in Woodland.

What Is Her Role?

“I believe my role is to support farms and land managers in achieving sustainability goals. As a technical advisor my area of expertise connects food systems with natural resource conservation by applying ecological principles to farm management. I provide technical advice, conduct research to provide evidence on how management practices effect regenerative outcomes on a regionally relevant context, provide resources and education opportunities, and help farmers and land managers build capacity for their operations in collaborative ways. I am passionate about community-led development and using participatory research as a powerful tool for developing sustainable solutions. My aim is to develop collaborative programming that will support a wide range of farm types, including commercial and small-scale, organic, and conventional, annual crops, tree and vine crops, and livestock production systems. I hope to develop a robust research program aimed at assessing farm sustainability impact across ecological, agronomic, social and economic factors. I hope to collaborate with farmers to help overcome barriers to adopting regenerative practices and build their capacity to overcome challenges and advance their sustainability goals. I look forward to getting to know the communities I serve and solving problems together.”

Sara is based in Mariposa and can be reached at srosenberg@ucanr.edu and (209) 966-2417 ext. 1417.