There are over 400,000 farmworkers employed in the agricultural industry in California (California Employment Development Department, 2022). Despite only making up a small proportion of the total 40 million people in the state, their work is fundamental to everyone’s daily life. The significance of their work is a contrast to the difficult working conditions they face on a daily basis– strenuous tasks, poor living conditions, exposure to extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and toxic pesticides.
Consider this: the coffee you drink in the morning, and the chocolate you eat at night, were both grown by a farmer somewhere in the world. You feel good knowing that the coffee was produced sustainably through the farmer's partnership with Fair Trade USA™. However, growing concerns regarding climate change and deforestation have increased pressure on farmers to mitigate harm to the environment, which begs the question, how? And what role can a nonprofit certifying agency, like Fair Trade USA (FTUSA), play?
For the Policy Clinic, our team worked alongside NOAA Fisheries to analyze the impacts of salmon extirpation on communities in the San Joaquin River Basin.
This team of students partnered with the California Ocean Science Trust to research existing data on blue carbon ecosystems and frontline communities in California, along with conducting informational interviews to provide research and policy recommendations.
A hallmark of the Graduate Program of Environmental Policy and Management is the annual Policy Clinic, a capstone class where student teams partner with environmental organizations to address an environmental policy or natural resources management issue.
Our Policy Clinic team partnered with the non-profit organization Friends of the River to better understand the potential impacts of the proposed Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir.
A lack of clean, drinkable water was a problem society faced before modern water treatment and transportation systems, so why do some San Joaquin Valley residents still lack access to safe drinking water?
Five Environmental Policy and Management graduate students examined regulatory code changes with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a bi-state regional environmental planning agency, to increase climate resiliency in the Tahoe Basin.
Our policy clinic team worked with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) to create a multi-benefit policy matrix and a report outlining a summary of best practices for multi-jurisdictional SLR adaptation.
Our team of EPM graduate students worked with three external clients to identify former sawmill sites in California that could be redeveloped into wood processing facilities to support sustainable forest management, rural economies, and climate resiliency.
The EPM Policy Clinic partnered with ICF International to conduct a retrospective analysis of Colorado River management and provide forward looking and innovative recommendations.
Our Policy Clinic project partnered climate resilience with insurance policy to create a framework of equitable and resilient solutions that can guide stakeholders across the state.
