Narrator:       This is Science Today. The field of agricultural sustainability has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade or so, partly because consumers have become more conscious about where their food comes from. Gail Feenstra, a food systems analyst at the University of California, Davis, says another reason for the rising interest in food sustainability is energy concerns.

Feenstra:        That came right about the time there was a spike in food prices - that was about a year and a half ago, something like that. But before that, there was increasing concern about energy and our energy future and energy embedded in the food supply and how much energy it took to produce food and the thought is maybe we could be getting it closer by, maybe that would be better - so, there was that and then there seemed to be food safety scares recently that have just brought public attention to the way that food is produced. And people were thinking - hey, I want to make sure I know where my food comes from so I can have more control. This is my suggestion of why we're beginning to see that.

Narrator:       For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.