female announcer: "Fresh Glass" is brought to you by: Visit California.

University of California.

Cal State University San Marcos.

CCAE Theatricals, transforming lives through theater, creating pathways in the arts, inspiring the next generation of arts leaders.

Maya's Cookies, you can visit their locations or order online at mayascookies.com.

The County of San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce.

Computers 2 Kids.

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With additional contributions from Fresh Glass Innovators Thank you.

For a complete list of financial contributors, visit FreshGlassProductions.com.

Cassandra: I'm Cassandra Schaeg.

This is "Fresh Glass."

How do you turn this thing on?

[engine turning over] On this episode of "Fresh Glass."

Christopher Burroughs: This is the best fertilizer you're gonna get.

Cassandra: We're diving into the realm of agriculture and its importance within our communities.

Glenda Humiston: At least one out of five kids here in California is food insecure.

Cassandra: There's more than meets the eye when it comes to food, and this episode sheds light on how vital it is to our health and well-being.

Christopher: If you can't feed yourself or your community, it's over.

♪♪♪ male: Cheers.

Cassandra: I'm Cassandra Schaeg, entrepreneur, advocate, and enthusiast.

Food, beverage, and entrepreneurship are growing, with diverse innovators creating brands and making a name for themselves.

both: We are the McBride sisters.

Cassandra: Join me exploring unique flavors, captivating stories, and the entrepreneurial spirit of America's tapestry.

I'm creating a space for people who look like me to share their stories and their spirits.

This is "Fresh Glass."

♪♪♪ Cassandra: Did you know George Washington Carver was the most prominent scientist, with his sustainable farming techniques?

Did you also know Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, farm workers and civil rights activists, co-founded the United Farm Workers?

What do these pioneers have in common?

Agriculture.

They paved the way for innovation and labor rights to ensure access to food and equality.

One individual changing the narrative in agriculture is Chris Burroughs, founder of Garden 31 and associate professor of Horticulture at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California.

Christopher: Hey, what's going on Cassandra?

Cassandra: How are you?

Christopher: I'm good.

How are you?

When people call me Professor Burroughs, it's a shock to me.

Where I came from, this was never in the cards, you know.

It wasn't even anything that I had ever considered until up until a couple of years ago.

Cassandra: What did that look like before?

Christopher: What did that look like before?

Struggle.

From the age of 14, I was really in some type of state of incarceration, whether I'd be locked up in a group home, on probation, or parole, there wasn't much time between the ages of 14 and 40 that I wasn't at some level of incarceration.

Cassandra: Chris was at a turning point, and that turning point revealed a solution.

Christopher: I was by myself in a hole in prison, and this vision came to me.

What do I do with the rest of my life?

I don't have a trade.

I don't know anything.

I don't know--all I've been doing is running these streets for the last 30 years.

What can I do with my life that's gonna add value to my community?

Organic farming came to me.

Just like that: organic farming.

Never farmed before, don't know nothing.

I don't even know if I've been on a farm before.

Cassandra: What is Garden 31?

Christopher: It's an organization that, really, is just about building community health when it comes down to the core.

Agriculture, or farming, is the most important job on this planet that if you can't feed yourself or your community, it's over.

It's through-- whatever you want to say.

Cassandra: What are you most proud about with Garden 31?

Christopher: I think the thing I'm most proud of with Garden 31 is that the youth that we work with--not even just the youth, but the adults also, they come to me when they have issues and problems.

They may not have anything to do with plants or soil.

They might be having a problem at home or with their job or whatever it is, but I think I'm most proud of the fact that it's become a place where they know that they can be themselves.

Cassandra: Are you gonna teach me how to garden, or what?

Christopher: Let's go.

Cassandra: Let me get ready.

Christopher: Is that your gardening clothes?

You brought the camouflage?

We--am I gonna be able to see you?

You know, you're going around-- Cassandra: I was trying to be one with the plants, okay?

Christopher: Oh, okay.

You can be one with the plants, but the clothes ain't gonna do it.

It's gonna be right here.

Cassandra: Every time I need to breathe, just tell me.

Christopher: Breathe.

Breathe with--not just breathe, but at the same time you're breathing, you're intentionally letting go.

Of what?

Whatever is there.

You ready?

Cassandra: Where's my shovel?

♪♪♪ Christopher: We're gonna plant some kale today.

This is our seedling mix here.

Go ahead and feel it.

There is some potting soil in here, some worm castings.

Cassandra: There's worms in here?

Christopher: No, worm poop.

Cassandra: Even better.

Christopher: Yes, even better.

Worm poop, they call it black gold.

Yeah, this is the best fertilizer you're gonna get.

Dig in.

Yeah, I mean we could use the shovels, but--that's good.

Cassandra: This actually feels good.

Christopher: Doesn't it?

You got your hole?

Quarter inch deep?

Cassandra: Now put them in?

Christopher: And then cover them up.

Just like that.

The last thing that we need to do, which is the very--a very important thing, go ahead and put those together, water.

Put a little water on them.

There you go.

That's perfect.

All right.

I like it.

We're gonna be eating kale this year.

I like that.

Now we wanna put them on their place.

These are misters, so they're gonna do the rest for us.

Put them here.

Oh, our labels.

We need to make sure that we always label.

If you don't know what you're planting, then you can't space them correctly.

You might plant something that's gonna get 6 feet wide, 2 feet away from something else, and so it's always good to label.

You wanna come transplant some plants outside?

Cassandra: Please.

Christopher: Let's do it.

I got some more stuff to show you.

This is kale and broccoli.

These are brassicas.

So we're gonna wanna plant them 2 feet apart.

Down here, yeah.

And here.

So we don't wanna, like, stir, stir, stir.

The less disturbing that we do of the soil, the better.

So what I like to do is kinda just pull out some there.

I squeeze the bottom.

Instead of trying to pull it out from the top just squeeze the bottom until it comes down like that.

We want it to stick, to stay together, and then I'm gonna plant all the way up here.

This has gotten kind of leggy, so I'm gonna plant it all the way up here.

And then we just wanna put this mulch back around it, gotta protect the soil from the sun and help retain moisture, and that's good.

Why don't you try this one?

Yeah, but you know, our goal is if we don't plant, we don't eat.

That's what I'm talking about.

You got a green thumb, I can tell.

So the last thing is, we're gonna do a little pest protection.

And that is as simple as making sure that these are back on safely because little rabbits love tender kale and broccoli greens.

Good job.

Cassandra: Thank you.

Christopher: Absolutely.

Cassandra: How does agriculture help black and brown families?

Christopher: The agriculture that I think you're talking about is localized agriculture.

It's something that's done close to home, it's something that's done with a sense of community, with a sense of responsibility for feeding each community.

And once you have green spaces, now you're stewarding people's spiritual well-being, their emotional well-being.

Cassandra: What do you tell the youth of today?

Christopher: I just tell them like, "You mean, you know you can do better, and you gotta do better."

Well--and then a lot of things I was talking to them about is gardening, you know, like--because we're bringing a garden to them.

So I just talking to them about, "Well, what do you eat when you're at home?

What would you like to grow here?"

You know, "Have you ever grown anything before?"

You know, trying to figure out what their life is--has been like and what are their wants and desires?

And they ask me, like, "What's your title?"

Cassandra: Yeah, what's your title?

Christopher: Man on a mission.

That's it.

Cassandra: Professor Burroughs, man on a mission?

Christopher: Yeah, that's it.

Cassandra: Like Chris said, he's a man on a mission, and supporting his mission is Glenda Humiston.

Cassandra: Hey, Glenda.

Glenda: Cassandra, I'm so glad you could join us here today.

Cassandra: Thank you, thank you.

Glenda: Do this and give you a hug.

Glad to have you here at South Coast Research and Extension Center.

Cassandra: I see a tractor.

So, this is gonna be a bumpy ride?

Glenda: No, we've got some fairly decent roads for you.

But it's a big property and it's hard to see it all if we don't let you use the tractor tram.

Cassandra: Well, I say let's take a ride, then.

Glenda: Okay, let's do it.

Cassandra: All right, let's do it.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Cassandra: Driving up here, I noticed part industrial in the very beginning, housing, and then I come across this farm, or this land.

Glenda: This land's been here for over 100 years.

And actually, what's really amazing about it, it's one of nine research extension centers we have around the state from the Oregon border down to the Mexican border.

Each one in a different bio region so we can facilitate different types of research.

Cassandra: What is the mission of UC ANR?

Glenda: Basically, help California have thriving communities, sustainable agriculture, healthy ecosystems, and prosperous economies.

Cassandra: I don't think people really understand how agriculture affects, you know, our daily lives.

You see it at the grocery store, but you don't know what happens-- Glenda: Yeah, people don't always make the link between agriculture and the food they buy.

They--I think they sometimes think it comes from a machine in the back room or something.

And what's even tougher is the natural resource aspect, because, you know, people in cities like this don't always realize that those mountains far, far away are producing 60% of the water the state utilizes, and a chunk of that water is used for growing food.

Cassandra: In the last decade, California faced wildfires, droughts, and earthquakes that threatened agriculture, prompting the creation of Vision 2040.

Talk about Vision 2040.

Glenda: What we're really looking at is, what are the big issues and challenges for California for the next 15 years, and what could, and should, we be doing to help find solutions to those challenges and, you know, helping our communities thrive?

Cassandra: Care to share some of those challenges?

Glenda: Oh goodness.

Cassandra: Top two.

I'm gonna--I think--I feel like water is one.

Glenda: Well, water is always an issue, but it's hard to do a talk to in California because, you know, now with fire and flood, disaster is an issue.

Workforce is a huge issue in ag and natural resources.

A lot of people don't think about that as a career path, even though there's really outstanding career paths in it.

Cassandra: According to the United States Department of Agriculture, farm labor in 2020 accounted for 64% Latinx, 32% Caucasian, 3% black, and 1% indigenous or Alaska Native.

I wanna see these plants out here.

It looks like lettuce.

Glenda: Cabbage.

Cassandra: All of this is cabbage?

Glenda: Yeah, but think how many people live here.

That'll be gone in a heartbeat.

Food insecurity is a huge issue.

What is it?

Like, at least one out of five kids here in California is food insecure.

So we do a lot of work with that too.

Our--one of my institutes, I have 13 statewide programs and institutes, one of which is the Nutrition Policy Institute, and we do a lot of research on how to improve access to food.

You know, like in urban areas, food deserts.

How can we get healthier food into those?

Cassandra: Talk about some of the career paths one could go into with agriculture.

Glenda: Well, this is a great example.

The problem we have with agriculture is too many people think, when you talk jobs, there's only two: farmer or farm worker.

And that is not the truth.

There are hundreds of jobs.

There's jobs in laboratories, media, legal, tractor driving like this, research, extension.

You know, there's just--there's so many different jobs.

Cassandra: Part of this story is about Chris Burroughs.

He's the founder of Garden 31, formerly incarcerated, justice-impacted, got into farming while he was in the fire camps, and incarcerated, and then came out and formed this nonprofit and is also an associate professor at MiraCosta College, like, doing phenomenal things and building gardens in urban areas because of the importance of food.

How does someone like UC ANR support someone like Chris?

Glenda: A couple different ways.

We actually do those kind of trainings in, like, juvenile delinquent facilities and other entities, and we've even got one up in the Central Sierra with county jails and prison system, where we're teaching things like gardening, landscaping, as a potential career path.

When we have land here that isn't being used for a research project, we let a local farmer, and he has a lot of those kind of learning, intern farmers, they come out here and plant that, and then that food goes to the local food bank.

It's just really a win, win, win for us and the community.

You know, one of the things that we are also looking at is where we can get our hands on people that might have land and aren't farming it and, really, kind of connect them up with people that wanna farm.

You know, Center for Land Based Learning does that.

There's another organization we work with in California called California FarmLink, which is--it's kind of like a Match.com for farmers and landowners.

So, it literally does help them find each other.

Cassandra: Of the 2 million US farms, ownership accounted for 91% white, 4% Latinx, 2% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1% black or African American, and 1% Asian.

Glenda: If you wanna be a farmer and you don't own land, that's a real steep cliff to try to climb.

But if you can find land that you can lease for a reasonable rate, then you can get in and start farming.

And we've got folks in programs that, like, try to help people out initially, because often you'll need to get two or three years of track record before you can start getting loans from banks to expand your farming operations.

So we wanna give folks that foot in the door.

Cassandra: You mentioned you're doing three jobs.

Glenda: I am, yeah.

Cassandra: What keeps you going?

This is a lot.

Glenda: Well, 'cause I love--how could you not love doing this?

I mean-- Cassandra: I wanna see these plants out here.

So we have cabbage, broccolini.

Do we have avocados here?

Glenda: No, no, that's over there.

Those are trees.

Cassandra: Oh, I wanna take a look at that.

Glenda: Yeah, we need to go to the avocados next.

Cassandra: Avocados!

Glenda: So we're coming up on some avocados and, pretty soon, some citrus as well, groves that we have here.

This is research that's been going on for decades.

In fact, we've got some trees here that are probably 30, 40, 50 years old in some parts of the property.

But we've got different varieties of avocados, and our researchers are always looking to keep the trees healthy, deal with whatever pests might come in.

But also, they look to crossbreed and do new plant varieties that can then, you know, better serve the public.

In fact, one of our big successes recently was the new avocado Luna, which was chosen as one of the top 100 science achievements of 2023, I believe, in "TIME" magazine.

So it's a brand-new variety of avocado that uses a lot less water, so that was one of its things, but it stays fresh longer and it's got a great taste, just like those Hass avocados everybody likes.

So it's got a lot of nice attributes to it, but still a great taste.

Cassandra: Let's go check out some avocado!

Cassandra: Darren!

Darren Haver: Hey, how's it going?

Cassandra: How are you?

Darren: Good, good.

Glenda: What are you doing today?

Darren: Working on finding new root stock for avocados, and so just checking and making sure the grove is in good condition and that the research is proceeding as they want it to.

Cassandra: Do avocados grow up and down this row?

Darren: There are--these are actually seed--root stock seedlings.

So these--some of these trees have some really nice fruit on them that may actually not taste that great because what we're evaluating here is actually good root systems.

So, avocados get easily a root rot disease that'll take the tree down very slowly over time, and so the breeding program focuses on trying to find trees that are resistant to that.

Cassandra: What happens next?

Like, how long is this research?

Darren: So, I was just checking out some of the tagging.

So, they're actually looking at each of these trees, probably has a unique tagging, and they're evaluating for its ability to withstand the disease.

The other thing they will look at, the disease actually goes after trees that, maybe, are under drought stress, or maybe have--poor quality water is being used that has high salts.

And so when you put that tree under stress, the disease can easily attack.

Very much like a person and a weak immune system.

And so they'll evaluate these trees for their quality, and once they find some that are showing promise, then they can actually clonally propagate those so they are exactly the same as that plant that they want.

So they'll take a cutting off of that and be able to propagate those trees, and there'll be a new root stock that they'll actually--UC will actually patent.

Glenda: And then the other trees are being used for the fruit itself because they can cross different varieties to come up with bigger, greener, fruiting earlier, tasting better.

Cassandra: What other fruits are are down here?

Darren: So we have a little bit of citrus left.

The citrus in--you know, we are Orange County where we're located, but there's not a lot of citrus left in Orange County.

We probably have some of the larger acreage left in the county.

Ours is used for educational purposes, mainly for homeowners.

Most homeowners in our area have some kind of citrus tree in their backyard, whether it be a lime, lemon, orange, and there's a really significant disease that's moved across the country from Florida into Texas, up into California.

And so there's a lot of research going in to try to mitigate that disease.

And that disease originally came to our area through urban avenues, where people were grafting trees in their backyard and they were contaminated.

And now that's-- Glenda: You're talking Citrus Greening or Huanglongbing.

Actually, that Huanglongbing, it takes a little while to learn how to say that.

Darren: I just say HLB.

Glenda: Yeah, HLB.

But you know, that's actually one of our great stories about volunteers.

We have over 20,000 volunteers doing a variety of work, some of which is citizen science.

But also, in this case, our master gardeners have been instrumental in protecting the citrus industry in the state.

Because in Florida, when they got the same exact disease, they took a rather punitive approach, trying to force homeowners to give up their backyard citrus, which didn't really work very well.

We send out our wonderful master gardeners.

They go to a homeowner and they say, "Hey, that tree's not healthy.

How about if we safely remove that?

And then, lookee here, this one gives more fruit, this one tastes better," whatever.

And the homeowner is like, "Oh yeah, we love that.

I'll take a new tree."

And it's just been so much more effective working with the homeowners like that because that truly is the vector, that we don't wanna get that disease into the commercial groves.

And so far, we're protecting our California citrus industry.

Cassandra: Thank you.

Darren: Thank you.

Thanks for visiting.

Cassandra: Thanks for all you do.

Thank you.

Cassandra: Agriculture is the backbone of our communities.

It provides the food we eat that sustains families and local economies.

Glenda: At least one out of five kids here in California is food insecure, and we do a lot of research on how to improve access to food.

You know, like in urban areas, food deserts.

How can we get healthier food into those?

Cassandra: Supporting the initiatives of Garden 31 and UC ANR ensures food security, sustainability, and a future to thrive.

Cassandra: What would today Chris, founder of Garden 31, tell Chris at 15?

Christopher: "Buy all the Michael Jordan rookie cards you can get and hold on to them and keep them in good condition."

I ain't playing.

Cassandra: You're like, "I'm dead serious."

Christopher: If I had a time machine, that's what I'd do.

I think about it sometimes.

I would like to go back and do this and do that and not do this and not do that.

I think about it and I'm like, but then who would I be?

So, I guess, as hard as it is to say, I'd do it all over again.

Cassandra: Now it's your turn to do your part.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of "Fresh Glass."

Should have had an apple, huh?

It would have been like-- ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Woah, wait what a perfect day ♪ ♪ How did it manifest?

♪ ♪ I've been on top if I tried ♪ ♪ I was truly blessed ♪ ♪ Stop with the negative spit ♪ ♪ If the world keeps spinning, ♪ ♪ keep the pedal pressed ♪ ♪ Let the road settle debt's way ♪ ♪ What a perfect day ♪ ♪ How did it manifest?

♪ ♪ I've been on top if I tried ♪ ♪ I was truly blessed ♪ ♪ Stop with the negative spit ♪ ♪ If the world keeps spinning, ♪ ♪ keep the pedal pressed ♪ ♪ Let the road settle-- ♪ ♪♪♪ Cassandra: On the next episode of "Fresh Glass."

male: Let's get the party started.

Cassandra: I head south to Baja California for the ultimate weekend adventure.

We soaked up the sun, sipped margaritas, and more.

Cassandra: I'm about to eat crickets, okay.

male: You have to love what you do, and I love this.

I love making people happy.

Cassandra: Salud, amigos.

female announcer: "Fresh Glass" is brought to you by: Visit California.

University of California.

Cal State University San Marcos.

CCAE Theatricals, transforming lives through theater, creating pathways in the arts, inspiring the next generation of arts leaders.

Maya's Cookies, you can visit their locations or order online at mayascookies.com.

The County of San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce.

Computers 2 Kids.

Lifetime Smiles of Escondido.

Black Public Media.

With additional contributions from Fresh Glass Innovators Thank you.

For a complete list of financial contributors, visit FreshGlassProductions.com.