Neal Van Alfen grew up in Modesto learning about agriculture from the experience of working in the peach harvest and on chicken farms. This experience convinced him that education was the route out of a life of hard manual farm labor. After receiving his PhD in plant pathology from UC Davis he served on the faculty of Utah State University and Texas A&M University before returning to UC Davis as dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, serving in this role for 13 years. He retired recently from the faculty of UC Davis to return to hard manual farm labor on his small farm in Winters, CA where his current goal is to find a way to make a profit growing citrus, make drinkable wine, and enough olive oil to meet the needs of his large family. He remains actively engaged with international agriculture and food issues and recently served as editor-in-chief of the latest edition of the Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems.
