Amah Mutsun Land Trust
Our mission is to: conserve and restore indigenous cultural and natural resources within the traditional territories of indigenous Mutsun and Awaswas peoples; steward our lands and waters, combining traditional resource and environmental management with contemporary approaches–ensuring a resilient future for all inhabitants of Popeloutchom and fulfilling our obligation to Creator; and research and teach the ways of nature—returning to the path of traditional ecological knowledge that our ancestors followed for thousands of years.
Cabrillo College Horticulture Department
A comprehensive Horticulture Program serving both career students and home gardeners.
California Native Garden Foundation
A half-acre ecological learning center, native plant nursery and urban farm located in downtown San Jose, CA.
Community Agroecology Network
CAN works to empower families to build local, thriving food systems in Mexico, Central America and the US. Growing Justice, a CAN initiative focused on urban gardens, focuses on urban gardens, food justice, and community well-being in Watsonville and Pajaro, California, in partnership with Mesa Verde Gardens. Despite their location in the agriculturally-rich Pajaro Valley, food insecurity is on the rise. Food security refers to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that fulfills household dietary needs and preferences.
Eat For The Earth
Eat for the Earth transforms communities and empowers people to be agents of transformation, confidently making dietary changes to reduce their contribution to climate change and other environmental disasters, and influencing others to do the same.
Ecological Landscaping Association
Advocating for responsible stewardship of land and natural resources in landscaping and horticultural practices.
Esperanza Community Farms
Promoting healthy eating and economic justice in the Pajaro Valley by supplying sustainably farmed, affordable produce for traditionally excluded people of limited income, grown by former farmworkers newly trained in organic practices. We envision a healthy, localized food system based on food sovereignty, work with dignity, and stewardship of the environment.
Farm Discovery at Live Earth Farm
Farm Discovery at Live Earth Farm is a nonprofit organization working in the Monterey and South Bay area communities to empower youth and families to build and sustain healthy food, farming, social and natural systems. Our home, Live Earth Farm, is a 150 acre patchwork of working organic farm, riparian corridor, oak and redwood forest in the Pajaro Valley of Santa Cruz County. Farm Discovery hosts more than 2000 children on the farm each year for farm based, hands-on learning opportunities through 9 different programs.
Global Student Embassy
Global Student Embassy’s mission is to develop community leaders through action-oriented environmental education. GSE works in three global communities engaging students in Northern California, Nicaragua, and Ecuador in year-round place-based education, action-oriented sustainable garden and reforestation projects, and cultural exchange. Our student leaders in Santa Cruz County manage five local high-school gardens and are always looking for new ways to get involved.
Homeless Garden Project
The Homeless Garden Project provides job training, transitional employment and support services to people who are homeless on a 3.5 acre organic farm, a value-added workshop, and 2 store locations in downtown Santa Cruz.
Mesa Verde Gardens
Mesa Verde Gardens (MVG) is a targeted response to rising food insecurity and diet-linked chronic diseases primarily affecting low-income families in South Santa Cruz County.
Organic Farming Research Foundation
OFRF’s mission is to foster the widespread adoption and improvement of organic farming systems. We envision organic farming as the leading form of agriculture, leading to healthy and resilient people, ecosystems and economies.
Santa Cruz County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society
CNPS seeks to increase understanding and appreciation of California’s native plants and to preserve them in their natural habitat through scientific activities, education, and conservation.
Santa Cruz Fruit Tree Project
The Santa Cruz Fruit Tree Project promotes urban agriculture, builds community, and reduces waste by harvesting surplus fruit, hosting food processing workshops, and supporting the propagation and cultivation of fruit trees. The Santa Cruz Fruit Tree Project strives towards an agriculture that is sustainable, equitable, and community building. We envision a future with fruit trees and shrubs in residential yards, along sidewalks, and in public parks throughout the County. We envision a world in which all people have access to fresh healthy fruit, and to the resources and skills necessary to participate in its cultivation, without any need for dangerous pesticides or harsh working conditions.
Santa Cruz VegFest
Santa Cruz VegFest is dedicated to: bringing awareness to the benefits of a vegan lifestyle and helping support people in their transition to making healthier, more sustainable, and compassionate choices; and, connecting and networking in the larger community – solidarity needs to extend across causes and organizations in order to truly bring about a more just and sustainable world.
UCSC Arboretum
The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum is a research and teaching facility committed to plant conservation and serves both the campus and the public.
UCSC CENTER FOR AGROECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
The mission of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS or the Center) is to research, develop, and advance sustainable food and agricultural systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsible, non-exploitative, and that serve as a foundation for future generations.