Farmworkers harvesting summer squash in Costa Rica
Food Systems and Sustainability Lab

Galt Lab

Kase Wheatley, M.S.

Kase Wheatley, M.S.

Portrait photo — bearded man in purple beanie and patterned shawl, leafy background

Ph.D. Student

Kase Wheatley is a Ph.D. student in Geography with a Designated Emphasis in Native American Studies at UC Davis. Kase co-coordinates the multicampus California Organic, Agroecological, & Regenerative (COAR) Transitions project which is a collaboration between staff, faculty, county advisors, and students across the ANR and the five Agricultural Experiment Station campuses, UCB, UCD, UCM, UCR, & UCSC, to support just and sustainable regional food systems transitions across CA.

Kase is deeply invested in regional food system transition efforts and supporting bio-regionally adapted cropping systems. He is researching the politics of agricultural research as well as the (dis)connections between agroecology and Indigenous food sovereignty in the United States. 

Kase was born in Los Alamitos, CA and attended UC Davis for his undergrad earning a B.S. in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems. He spent a few years farming in CA, and other parts of the US, before earning an M.S. in Agroecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kase loves science fiction, cooperatives, vulnerability, and sharing meals with others.

Education and Degree(s)
  • PhD Student

Who we are

We are a group of researchers looking at how to make agriculture and food systems more just and sustainable. We study the ways that political, economic, and social structures influence the resiliency and fairness of our food systems throughout the value chain from production to consumption. Our work has a particular emphasis on California and Latin America.