As urban development encroaches more deeply into California'sagricultural strongholds, the tension between longtime farmersand their new neighbors is growing. Homeowners are concerned about pesticide drift, unpleasant odors, dust and noise that may be associated with living next to an agricultural operation. Farmers resent the increased regulation that accompanies complaints from neighbors who seek country living but have low tolerance and little knowledge of farming. "The state's urban edge problems are serious both because so much is at stake and because there is much misunderstanding," says Alvin Sokolow, a UC Davis public policy specialist. "A major task involves educating California's urban citizens that farmland is not just a pastoral, rural area conducive to residential lifestyles; and educating producers that the right to farm doesn't give them the right to create a nuisance." Sokolow co-authored the summary of a new report on rural/urban conflicts produced by the UC Davis-based UC Agricultural Issues Center. The report, titled "Farmers and Neighbors: Land Use, Pesticides and Other Issues," is the summarized proceedings of a daylong workshop held at UC Davis last fall.