Mechel “Mickey” Paggi directs the Center for Agricultural Business at California State University, Fresno.

Michael Pollan is Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. His books include The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Read an Oct. 9, 2008, column on farm policy that he wrote for The New York Times.

Jennifer Maiser edits the group blog EatLocalChallenge.com.

Dan Imhoff is an author, publisher and farmer in California whose writings on farm and environmental issues include the book Food Fight: A Citizen’s Guide to the Farm Bill, updated to reflect issues in this year’s bill. He is co-founder, director, and publisher of Watershed Media. Read an essay he wrote about the 2012 bill for the Oct. 3, […]

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at the University of California-Davis provides research and education about agriculture and food systems. It posts a page explaining what sustainable agriculture is and what issues are involved.

Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann is senior associate dean of religious life at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

Barbara A. McGraw is a professor of business administration at St. Mary’s College of California, in Moraga. She is the author of Rediscovering America’s Sacred Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America and the co-editor of Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics on America’s Sacred Ground, in which she argues that the […]

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which issued a statement April 12, 2012, decrying the House Agriculture Committee’s vote to cut $33 billion from food stamps. “If there’s a more misguided, mean-spirited and counterproductive way to address decades of deficits in this country, the Mayors of the United States can’t think of one,” […]

Jennifer A. Lindholm is project director for the Spirituality in Higher Education study, a project of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.