http://cecentralsierra.ucanr.org/index4.cfm?blogrss=15297&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed UCCE News en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Tue, 21 May 2013 01:43:10 PST Tue, 21 May 2013 01:43:10 PST UC ANR Reporters sought UC Cooperative Extension expertise for recent articles about unusual farming efforts in two parts of California. Fresno Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez covered the story of sisters in their early 20s who have settled on their dad's Laton alfalfa farm after he suffered complications from a black widow bite. The young women purchased chickens on a whim and began producing specialty eggs under the brand name "Just Got Laid." Rodriguez spoke to Shermain Hardesty, UCCE specialist......
]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 09:31:10 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10421&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10421 Sweet potatoes are perhaps most familiar in the U.S. smothered with melted marshmallows in a Thanksgiving casserole. But baked, boiled or raw, they can be a healthful part of California cuisine any time of year. California is a significant producer of sweet potatoes. About 90 percent of the California crop – 18,000 acres – is grown in Merced County, on farms ranging from 5 acres up to several thousand acres. In 2011, the crop’s value statewide was $125 million. However, you......
]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 08:29:39 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10398&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10398 Beneath your home, below lawns, under asphalt streets, farms and natural areas there is a complex blend of minerals and organic matter that varies widely in texture, color and structure. Producing food, maintaining landscapes and building structures all depend on this little understood, but critical outermost layer of the Earth’s crust - the soil. Anyone can learn about the United States’ diversity of soils using SoilWeb, a nationwide database of soil variability first developed in......
]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 08:29:16 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10395&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10395 The biennial Childhood Obesity Conference is taking place in Long Beach June 18-20. Book-ended by two world-class keynote speakers — Michael Moss, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, and Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of food studies and public health, and author of Food Politics and What to Eat — the event promises a no-holds-barred, systemic look at the problems of obesity in all their......
]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 13:33:33 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10399&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed annguy@berkeley.edu(Ann Guy) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10399 A Sudden Oak Death "Blitz" planned for Sonoma County June 15-16 will prepare local residents to spot infected plants, collect samples from their neighborhoods and submit them for laboratory testing, reported the Kenwood Press. The session is hosted by UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners and Matteo Garbelotto, UCCE specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. Trees susceptible to sudden oak death include California bay laurel, tan oak, live......
]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 09:23:42 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10390&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10390 The Santa Barbara County 4-H program is raising awareness about the county board of supervisors' plans to cut funding for UC Cooperative Extension, according to reports that appear on the KSBY Channel 6 website and in the Santa Barbara Independent. According to the Independent article, written by Mary Thieleke Jackson, director of the Santa Barbara County 4-H Management Board, a draft budget released Friday, May 10, does not include a county contribution to UC Cooperative Extension. Budget......
]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 10:02:28 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10381&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10381 The first thing I had to learn as writing staff at the John Muir Institute for the Environment, UC Davis, was the difference between "climate" and "weather." I compare it to reading a stock chart, there are jagged peaks and valleys daily, but it takes stock performance over years to reveal an unmistakable trend. The small ticks are similar to weather but the trend over decades is closer to climate. Nearly every stock chart has a huge valley at the year 2008, this is thought to be a once in a......
]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 09:40:27 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10380&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed sjklahorst@ucdavis.edu(Suanne Klahorst) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10380 UC Berkeley researchers relied on historical samples of marbled murrelet breast feathers to understand what factors may be impacting the species' survival today, said an article on Crosscut.com. The team compared the ratios of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the feathers, which revealed what the birds ate. They learned that, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, murrelets relied heavily on sardines, anchovies and squid. But as decades passed, anchovy, sardine and squid stocks......
]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 10:38:55 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10377&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10377 California cherries are now beginning to show up at roadside stands, farmers markets and grocery stores, but the supply in 2013 may be a touch scanty, reported Reed Fujii in the Stockton Record. Joe Grant, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Joaquin County, said the cherry crop is light throughout the area, across orchards and varieties. "That rules out orchard-to-orchard factors, management factors or disease factors," he said. Crop losses are often weather-related, but early frosts, or......
]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 09:33:22 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10362&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10362 Have you heard of the UC ANR California Naturalist Program? This new UC ANR program fosters a diverse community of naturalists and promotes stewardship of California's natural resources through education and service. Designed to introduce Californians to the wonders of our unique ecology and engage volunteers in stewardship and study of California’s natural communities, California Naturalist provides hands-on instruction and exposure to real world environmental projects designed to......
]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 08:10:01 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10351&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed bgamble@ucanr.edu(Brook Gamble) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10351 Despite light rain earlier this week, it appears the Butte and Glenn county rice industry is getting seeds in the ground during the ideal planting window, reported the Chico Enterprise Record. The ideal time for planting rice is May 1-15, said Randall "Cass" Mutters, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Butte County. As the date gets later, farmers will end up with a later harvest. Fall weather is more unpredictable and farmers could end up harvesting in the mud. Last year, farmers were still......
]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 09:41:30 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10346&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10346 To feed the growing world population, farmers will have to produce more food in the next 40 years than they have in the last 10,000, according to an op-ed piece published in the Modesto Bee and written by Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Don Bransford, chair of the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources and a partner in Bransford Farms in Colusa. The article was written to bring attention to the fact that, despite......
]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 10:21:03 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10333&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10333 The nearly 30-member 2013 class of California Naturalists in Mendocino County participated in a field day Saturday at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center, reported the Ukiah Daily Journal. The University of California's California Naturalist program aims to host courses around the state to train outdoor enthusiasts on a variety of topics, such as plants, animals, water resources and geology. The Mendocino Program focuses on the local mixed oak woodland. "The goal of the program is to......
]]> Mon, 06 May 2013 09:56:52 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10326&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10326 One reason the Napa County wine industry is so successful is its commitment to working together, wrote Paul Franson in an op-ed piece that ran in the Napa Valley Register today. Franson credits frequent industry meetings in the area, where a wealth of information on grape growth and wine production are offered. A recent meeting he cited was a field day last month in which John Roncoroni, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Napa County, took two groups through the Huichica Creek Demonstration......
]]> Fri, 03 May 2013 08:49:39 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10316&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10316 With the world population reaching 9 billion by 2050, creative solutions are needed for global food security. The 2013 Thought for Food Challenge has put the call out and two UC Davis teams have responded. One group, Team UC Davis, proposes a social networking game that spreads awareness through crowd sourcing and draws donations through virtual purchases. “The team is using a game platform like Farmville, which they call Global Village,” said Patrick Brown, professor in the......
]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 10:27:22 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10290&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed gbhooker@ucdavis.edu(Bradley Hooker) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10290 UC researchers are testing tobacco's potential to be genetically modified in order to produce biofuel, reported Louis Sahagun in the Los Angeles Times' ScienceNow blog. “The beauty of our proposal is that carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere as a byproduct of combustion of these bio-fuels would be captured again by tobacco plants and, through the natural process of photosynthesis, be converted back into fuel," said Anastasios Melis, professor in the Department of Plant and......
]]> Wed, 01 May 2013 08:36:38 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10293&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10293 A settlement between Caltrans and the California Farm Bureau Federation, which resulted in CFBF dismissing a lawsuit against Caltrans about the Willits Bypass Project, includes a long-term wetlands study by UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension researchers, according to Caltrans and farm bureau press releases issued last week. Caltrans is building a bypass along U.S. Route 101 around the community of Willits. The project will relieve congestion, reduce delays, and improve safety for traffic......
]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:50:26 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10270&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=10270 It’s summertime, which means I am one happy camper. No really - it’s nice and warm, let's go camping! I find most people hate summer: the heat, the AC bill, the kids are out of school and they’re “sooooooooooo… bored.” Well I’m a summer baby, and I’m here to help you survive the heat wave with healthy recipes and family cooking tips. Summer time food: Summer time is the best because of all the amazing fresh fruits and vegetables that are in......
]]> Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:09:19 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9791&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed smacnab@ucanr.edu(Shelby MacNab) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9791 The troubled tobacco industry may be getting some good news for a change. UC scientists are engineering the tobacco plant to produce oils that, when extracted, can serve as drop-in biofuels to power airplanes, cars and other machines. Research success would allow farmers who have been growing tobacco for generations to continue the tradition for a different purpose, while taking advantage of an infrastructure established to serve the diminishing cigarette, cigar and snuff markets. Peggy G.......
]]> Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:20:48 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9806&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9806 UC CalFresh educators took part in a field trip for fourth-graders in Fresno where the children tasted a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, reported Dale Yurong on ABC 30 Action News. "We encourage them to try it and then they try it and wind up liking it," said UC CalFresh nutrition educator Kristi Sharp. "That's a saying that we say - you can't judge it unless you try it." Fresno Unified School District is the state's largest recipient of funds from the fruit and vegetable......
]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:20:59 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9807&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9807 After the extraordinary explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas this week, people living in rural agricultural areas are looking around warily to see whether a similar facility might be in their own backyards. The Redding Appeal-Democrat asked Franz Niederholzer, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Sutter and Yuba counties, whether such danger lurks in their community. Niederholzer said ammonium nitrate fertilizer was popular and prevalent until 1995. "It was phased out after the bombing in......
]]> Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:10:25 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9789&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9789 Oaks (Quercus ssp.) are one of the signature trees of California landscapes and are among the most favored by wildlife, according to the UC publication Wildlife among the Oaks. In addition, several studies have found that open space and residential properties containing oak trees have higher property values than those areas without oak trees. Ecosystem services provided by oak forests and savannahs include recreational opportunities, shade and shelter, increased property values, aesthetic......
]]> Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:28:47 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9769&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmillercripps@ucanr.edu(Rebecca Miller-Cripps) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9769 Last week, UC ANR hosted a one-day Global Food Systems Forum. Providing 8 billion people with quality, affordable and accessible food is the defining economic, sociopolitical and ethical issue of our time. It is a global challenge. But it is also a challenge to California, one of the world's top agricultural producers. UC was proud to provide the opportunity for discussion around this vital topic. The keynote was offered by the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Robinson spoke......
]]> Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:04:06 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9774&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmhaydensmith@ucanr.edu(Rose Hayden-Smith) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9774 UC Cooperative Extension range research was featured at a field day Saturday in Tehama County, reported Julie Johnson in the Corning Observer. Josh Davy, UCCE advisor in Tehama County, reviewed test plots were 60 varieties of annual and perennial range grasses were growing. Ken Tate, UCCE specialist, and Leslie Roche, postdoctoral researcher, both in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, gave an update on their long-term grazing research projects evaluating the effects of multiple......
]]> Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:46:08 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9772&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9772 California forests aren’t natural anymore. Over time, human impacts such as logging and fire suppression have left forests more prone to diseases, insects and wildfires. UC Cooperative Extension received a competitive grant from Cal Fire to launch a forest management training program for private landowners to help protect California’s forests. There are approximately 33 million acres of forest in California. Forty percent of those acres are owned by families, Native American......
]]> Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:57:27 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9368&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed mpalin@ucanr.edu(Marissa Palin) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9368 The "Roadside Attractions" column in the Santa Maria Times today comments on the increasing number of hoop houses seen along Santa Barbara County highways and byways. Hoop houses, long white tents also known as tunnels, shelter raspberries, the article said. “There’s been a dramatic increase in berry growing in the county,” said Mark Gaskell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Hoop houses essentially serve as mini-greenhouses.......
]]> Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:58:17 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9760&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9760 Citizen scientists are once again beginning their annual Northern California search for signs of Sudden Oak Death, reported Lisa Krieger in the San Jose Mercury-News. Volunteers were trained in Santa Cruz on Friday and training sessions are planned for Orinda, Berkeley, San Francisco, Saratoga, Burlingame, Woodside, Atherton and Los Altos Hills. "This outreach is really important because it not only teaches people how to look for the disease, but it also helps them to monitor for it in their......
]]> Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:15:58 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9751&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9751 So far, the impact of climate change on San Joaquin County hasn't been apparent, reported Reed Fujii in the Stockton Record. The story said Paul Verdegaal, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Joaquin County, has been tracking local crop and weather data for 30 years and to date has seen only normal year-to-year variability. "There's no particular trend in early bud break (in vineyards); there's no particular change in earlier harvest," Verdegaal said. "I haven't seen any hint of a trend,......
]]> Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:11:24 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9750&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9750 Ask most youth what they think about wildfires in forests and they will usually respond with "they kill trees and animals" or "it’s bad – they burn down homes and put out lots of smoke." They are partially right. Ask youth about considering a career studying the history of fire from a tree cookie, a slice of tree branch that shows the rings, or lake bed sedimentation. Or ask them what role wind plays in how a fire jumps from treetop to treetop or how wildfire can help open pine......
]]> Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:27:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9685&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kcingram@ucanr.edu(Kim Ingram) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9685 For home gardeners, spring is a busy time of year and there’s never a tomato with more flavor than one grown to full ripeness on the vine. But there are also many safety precautions to follow to prevent contamination of fruits and vegetables with pathogens that cause serious food-borne illnesses. Michele Jay-Russell, a veterinarian and research microbiologist at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security (WIFSS) and program manager of the Western Center for Food Safety (WCFS),......
]]> Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:33:56 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9669&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed tjwood@ucdavis.edu(Trina Wood) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9669 At the World Ag Expo in February, nine states had booths designed to recruit California dairy operators out of the Golden State, reported the Los Angeles Times. South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard himself made a personal appeal for the state, where ag officials estimate that a single dairy cow creates $15,000 in economic activity each year. In recent years, an average of 100 California dairies have closed annually, said Leslie "Bees" Butler, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the......
]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:06:45 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9686&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9686 With warm weather and mostly dry skies, some California farmers are prepping their fields for spring planting. On many fields used to grow squash and pumpkins, native squash bees (Peponapis pruinosa), valuable pollinators for squash growers, are nesting in the soil, waiting for spring emergence. With over ten thousand acres of squash and pumpkins grown in California in 2011, the success of pollination covers a lot of ground. New studies are showing that native bees may be more productive......
]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:47:22 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9445&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed abwhite@ucdavis.edu(Aubrey White) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9445 Twenty minutes of hail on Easter Sunday means no melons for July 4th at Pacific Star Garden's farmers' market stall. Hail comes sometimes, suddenly and randomly, in February or March or April. It can hit one farm but not the one down the road. This time the sudden hail hit Woodland farmers Robert and Debbie Ramming, owners of 40-acre Pacific Star Gardens, on March 31, almost as if Mother Nature couldn't wait for April Fool's day. Mid-April, in most years, is a good time to visit strawberry......
]]> Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:39:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9673&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed paleff@ucdavis.edu(Penny Leff) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9673 Rodenticides used on illegal marijuana farms have already been shown to pose serious harm to the fisher—a cat-sized carnivore found in forests across Canada and four regions in the U.S. (Previous news article.) Mourad Gabriel, a doctoral candidate with the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, provides a more comprehensive look at the situation in the recent issue of The Wildlife Professional, put out by The Wildlife Society. (Article here.) New......
]]> Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:20:31 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9618&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed tjwood@ucdavis.edu(Trina Wood) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9618 UC Cooperative Extension in Humboldt County is asking local artists to submit their work for its "Art and Agriculture" show and auction, an event that is part of the 100th anniversary of the organization, said an article published in the Times-Standard. Humboldt County was the location of California's first UCCE office, opened in 1913. The program later spread across the state with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. According to the article, the Humboldt Centennial is “a......
]]> Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:35:50 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9667&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9667 Rising demand for Asian vegetables in urban areas of California is creating an improved market for produce grown by the San Joaquin Valley's Asian farmers, reported Yu Wei in the San Francisco-based China Daily. Richard Molinar, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno County, told the reporter that demand is driving increased cultivation of Asian vegetables in Fresno County. "We have around 50 to 75 Chinese farmers here in Fresno County and over 2,000 acres of Chinese crops selling locally......
]]> Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:17:52 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9628&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9628 Spring is here, almonds are blooming beautifully and farmers have not a care in the world. Actually, even though no crop-damaging insects or diseases may be present at the moment, the UC Integrated Pest Management program advises farmers to manage pests year round. Not sure what you should be doing? UC IPM has just published an online video outlining the year-round IPM program. How to Manage Almond Pests Using the Year-Round IPM Program is a narrated how–to guide for growers, PCAs, and......
]]> Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:10:10 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9602&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9602 The 80-member San Joaquin Valley Quality Cotton Growers Association has leased the 80-acre Shafter research station from Kern County, recruited University of California researchers and initiated talks with the Kern Community College District and a number of private groups to bring cotton research back to the historic facility, reported John Cox in the Bakersfield Californian. In addition, ag companies are expressing interest in using some of the station's vacant greenhouses, labs, storage......
]]> Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:23:54 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9599&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9599 Construction is scheduled to begin April 1 on the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources new home in Davis, reported Jeff Hudson in the Davis Enterprise. The facility is a former indoor sports center. Following retrofit construction to ensure the interior is LEED-certified, ANR is slated to move in before the end of this year, the article said. “ANR is a statewide program, with programmatic staff in 57 of California’s counties. But the bulk of our (administrative) operations have......
]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:46:34 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9592&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9592 As drought dries the landscape and rising global temperatures make for decreasing crop yields, farmers are faced with the question of how to feed billions of people in a way that both reduces global greenhouse gas emissions and adapts to the realities of climate change. Scientists and policymakers from around the world will gather today through Friday, March 20-22, at the University of California, Davis, to grapple with the threats of climate change for global agriculture and recommend......
]]> Wed, 20 Mar 2013 06:45:43 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9557&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kekerlin@ucdavis.edu(Katherine Kerlin) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9557 Fields with diversified, organic crops get more buzz from wild bees, concludes a synthesis of 39 studies on 23 crops around the world published March 11 in the journal Ecology Letters. The study found that wild bees were more abundant in diversified farming systems. Unlike large-scale monoculture agriculture, which typically relies upon pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, diversified farming systems promote ecological interactions that lead to sustainable, productive agriculture. Such......
]]> Wed, 20 Mar 2013 06:45:05 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9496&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed annguy@berkeley.edu(Ann Guy) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9496 Scientists need more information about how farmers use nitrogen fertilizers before the state imposes new regulations, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press. Hearden's story was based on a study published in California Agriculture journal. Nearly 600,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer is sold in California each year, but sales figures are not an accurate indicator of how it is used. Imposing regulations without supporting data could fail to address the problem while damaging agriculture, said Tom......
]]> Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:19:19 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9555&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9555 Drought, population growth and salty soils are problems that may cause worldwide food shortages in the coming decades, reported Edward Ortiz in the Sacramento Bee. These are problems that will be addressed by scientists and policymakers at the Climate-Smart Agriculture Global Science Conference at UC Davis this week. For the story, Ortiz interviewed Eduardo Blumwald, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, one of the conference speakers. Blumwald believes many of the......
]]> Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:58:22 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9547&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9547 UC Cooperative Extension's nutrition education programs were the feature of freelance writer Don Curlee's "Ag At Large" column last week. The column appears in a variety of publications, including the Hanford Sentinel, the Stockton Record, the (Sutter-Yuba) Appeal Democrat and Capital Press. Curlee's article noted that UCCE has, "Knowledgeable, trained advisors ... on hand locally ... to help with meal planning, wise shopping, individual diet planning and overall nutritional health." The......
]]> Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:24:58 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9540&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9540 “My jar of honey went bad so I threw it away.” How many times have you heard that? It did not go “bad” but it did granulate, as honeys do. Granulation is the formation of sugar (glucose) crystals. Reheat the honey and it’s good to go — and eat. “Most honeys granulate during storage after extended periods of time in containers,” says honey bee specialist/bee wrangler/six-decade beekeeper Norman Gary, emeritus professor in the Department of......
]]> Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:21:41 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9497&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9497 Sahara mustard, a resilient weed native to North Africa and the Mediterranean, is invading desert landscapes in the American Southwest, squeezing out beautiful wildflower displays that attract tourists and maintain the local ecology, reported the San Diego Union Tribune. UC Cooperative Extension is testing methods of removing Sahara mustard, including hand weeding, hoes and herbicide. But these are only stopgap measures meant to keep the plant at bay in select spots. “I don’t......
]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:01:53 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9492&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9492 Whether farmers are growing carrots destined to be baby-sized for school lunches, cut into small pieces in frozen pot pie or the classic length sold with their green feathery tops intact, they rely on a collaborative breeding program that has been in the works at UC’s Desert Research and Extension Center near El Centro for nearly 50 years. The scientists working in USDA’s carrot breeding program, embedded at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, realized long ago that the Southern......
]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:48:03 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9484&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9484 When actress René Russo appeared in a video (posted below) about “New Oak Threats,” she wasn’t acting. The veteran of big-budget thrillers like Lethal Weapon 3 and 4 and the Thomas Crown Affair expressed her personal convictions when she called for Californians to become educated and observant guardians of California oaks. “I love our beautiful oak trees,” Russo said. “But there’s a new pest in town, and we could potentially lose every tree that......
]]> Mon, 11 Mar 2013 07:11:52 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9449&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9449 Lunch trays filled with grayish green beans, mystery meat and a pasty scoop of mashed potatoes will be relegated to history if UC Cooperative Extension has anything to do with it. At the UCCE office in Stanislaus County yesterday, Jeri Ohmart of the UC Agriculture Sustainability Institute spoke to about 30 school food managers about how to get more fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy fare into school cafeterias, reported John Holland in the Modesto Bee. Ohmart also displayed a food waste......
]]> Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:03:34 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9452&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9452 A little love goes a long way, especially when it comes to saving resources, saving lives and teaching youths responsibility. And a Solano County 4-H project is doing just that — with orphan kittens. Twenty-one 4-H’ers, all from Dixon, Vacaville, Rio Vista, Vallejo, Elmira or Fairfield, participate in the Solano County 4-H Orphan Kitten Program, doing their part to care for the orphan kittens that arrive at the Solano County Animal Care and Control Facility, Fairfield. The......
]]> Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:04:31 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9435&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed kegarvey@ucdavis.edu(Kathy Garvey) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9435 The warm, dry late winter weather in California has been good news for almond farmers who were concerned about a bee shortage during bloom, reported Capital Press. "It looks good right now," said Rich Buchner, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Tehama County. "The bees are out working like crazy. It's going to be warm and dry over the next 10 days, so it should be about perfect for almond set." Almond growers are enjoying a vibrant blossom season even though California only had about 500,000......
]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:59:26 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9426&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9426 From broccoli to watermelon, California farmers grow more than 400 agricultural commodities. In 2011, California was the primary producer of almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, raisins, kiwi, olives, cling peaches, pistachios, dried plums, pomegranates and walnuts— accounting for nearly 100 percent of each of these crops grown in the United States. When Americans think of “agriculture,” California may not be the first state to come to mind. But the Golden State — just......
]]> Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:45:59 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9424&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed bldawson@ucdavis.edu(Brenda Dawson) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9424 ]]> Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:00:22 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9417&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9417 During a tasting event recently at the UC Desert Research and Extension Center, experts conveyed their desire for a variety that is smoother and has better flavor than European cultivars, which were described as too “perfumy” and sweet, said an article in the Imperial Valley Press. “It’s crucial to have rich, full flavor,” said an extension specialist from Washington state. “I know it when I taste it.” The scientists and farmers weren't critiquing......
]]> Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:46:43 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9399&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9399 Some of us spent our weekend in the garden or at the farmers market, obsessing over our fresh produce that will get us through the week. Some of us went to bed last night dreaming about a Frostie from Wendy’s and fries from McDonald’s. Still, others of us spent the weekend trying to make ends meet and scraping together barely enough food to feed our families. Bottom line – food is something we all have in common. It’s a universal language. Whether we pride ourselves on......
]]> Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:07:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9365&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed mpalin@ucanr.edu(Marissa Palin) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9365 At times during the winter and early spring it looks like a vast inland sea between Sacramento and Davis. This is the Yolo Bypass, which shunts Sacramento River floodwater around the state capital during high flows. You drive over the bypass on a three-mile-long elevated stretch of Interstate 80 known as “the Causeway” (the Blecher-Freeman Memorial Causeway). The bypass is also the site of a lot of innovative fish and wildlife work. From late fall through winter you can see......
]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:13:54 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9373&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jdstumbos@ucdavis.edu(John Stumbos) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9373 If you want to maintain a healthy weight, UC Cooperative Extension advisor Susan Algert has some sage tips: snack wisely; eat more fruits and vegetables; keep a food record and stay active. Algert shared the latest dietary advice from the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services with UC Office of the President employees at a brown bag event Wednesday in Oakland co-hosted by UC Health and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. (Listen to an audio recording of the event.)......
]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:59:43 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9375&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed alec.rosenberg@ucop.edu(Alec Rosenberg) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9375 The public is invited to the UC Cooperative Extension office in Solano County tomorrow to take part in "Tobacco Jeopardy," a play on the TV game show that is intended to inform the public on the health effects of tobacco use, reported the Vacaville Reporter. The event is sponsored by the Solano County Tobacco Prevention and Education Program. "The goal of the training is to increase public awareness and inspire action to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke in Solano County,"......
]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:36:24 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9364&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9364 The State Water Resources Control Board recommended a point-of-sale fee on agricultural commodities, a fertilizer tax, or a water-use fee from residents to offset the costs of providing clean drinking water to communities where tap water supplies have high levels of nitrate, reported Gosia Wozniacka of Associated Press. The final report to the legislature is on the SWRSC website. The AP article was published in BakersfieldNow.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. A story by......
]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:06:16 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9355&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9355 The third edition of Integrated Pest Management for Rice is now available. The publication's informative color photographs of pests and their damage, line drawings, tables, and figures are valuable aids in the diagnosis and treatment of common rice pests. New in this edition, readers will find information on: Exotic pests in rice Detecting, confirming and managing herbicide resistance New diseases: bakanae, rice blast and false smut New weeds: red rice, rice cutgrass, waterstargrass......
]]> Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:21:09 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9344&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9344 Proven health benefits is increasing demand for walnuts, and farmers are reacting by planting more trees, according to an article in the Chico Enterprise-Record. The trend has created a backlog for new trees. "All the nut crops are doing very well," said Joe Connell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Butte County. Markets for almonds, pistachios and walnuts have expanded, and prices are firm, he said. In 2011, walnuts became the No. 1 crop in Butte County. If growers want to plant new......
]]> Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:43:56 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9336&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9336 UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners played a key role in establishing a vibrant garden behind a church in Livermore that has produced 8,000 pounds of vegetables for the church's food kitchen, reported two MGs in a column published in the San Jose Mercury News. What was unused vacant land only three years ago has spurred the creation of an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Fertile GroundWorks. Fertile GroundWorks has pilot projects under way to help organizations......
]]> Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:21:01 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9317&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9317 Most Americans gravitate toward the familiar in supermarket produce aisles. But some creative shopping unveils a tremendous diversity of edible vegetables that can turn an ordinary menu into a much more interesting cuisine. At certain roadside stands, at farmers markets that cater to diverse clientele and in small Asian supermarkets, adventurous Californians can buy vegetables like bitter melon, Chinese long beans, opo and luffa. Finding them is the first step, knowing how to prepare them is......
]]> Wed, 13 Feb 2013 06:42:04 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9237&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9237 In touring the back roads of California’s great Central Valley during wintertime, you may be surprised to come upon hundreds of sheep grazing alfalfa fields. The sheep are penned in by electric fences and graze the fields to near bare soil. Look closely and you may also see some Great Pyrenees dogs, used to guard the livestock from coyotes and other predators. The dogs blend in well with the sheep and it’s often fun to try to spot them in the mob. You may wonder about this practice......
]]> Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:13:32 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9249&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rflong@ucanr.edu(Rachael Long) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9249 The official magazine of the World Ag Expo 2013 contains a three-page spread about sorghum research being conducted at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center by Jeff Dahlberg, director of the center. Copies of the magazine will be available to visitors at the world's largest agricultural exposition Feb. 12-14 in Tulare. A pdf of the sorghum article is attached below. In the article, Dahlberg says that, in the past, sorghum forages were not as good as corn for silage feed.......
]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:00:02 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9264&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9264 Got pests and want to use integrated pest management? Use a year-round IPM program developed by the UC Statewide IPM Program. If you’re not familiar with what a year-round IPM program is, think of it as a checklist for the agricultural pest management activities you should be doing throughout the season. You can take the new video tour "Using Year-Round IPM Programs" to explore the benefits and uses of IPM in field, orchard and vineyard crops. If you are managing pests in cole crops or......
]]> Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:10:49 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9238&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9238 Mark Bolda, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Santa Cruz County, was recognized by the North American Raspberry and Blackberry Association in January for his research and extension work on spotted wing drosophila, reported The Grower. Bolda received the 2013 Distinguished Service Award at the association's North American Berry Conference, Jan. 30, in Portland, Ore. He first identified drosophila as a new pest for coastal California berry growers in late 2008. Bolda led field trials to......
]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:54:31 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9243&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9243 Releasing aquarium fish into local waterways — or down the toilet — can damage aquatic ecosystems in a number of ways. The fish themselves can become an invasive species, they can disrupt habitats for other fish and aquatic species, and they may introduce secondary problems such as harmful pathogens or other aquarium species (seaweed, snails) into the waterways. At least 13 of the 102 aquarium species that are imported into California have been introduced into California marine......
]]> Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:07:23 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9221&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed afilmer@ucdavis.edu(Ann Filmer) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9221 Demonstrating the global reach of UC research, the UC Integrated Pest Management Citrus Manual was displayed in a picture on Twitter of a Cornell graduate student and the Teso Women Development Enterprise in Uganda. The tweet was from the UC Davis-based Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program, which uses the Twitter handle @HortCRSP. The Cornell student, Brian Flanagan, is working on a HortCRSP Trellis Fund project. HortCRSP has just released a new call for Trellis Fund project......
]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:58:13 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9227&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9227 Pop quiz: About 7 billion people live on earth today, and that number is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. What’s the best way to reform our global food production to meet the rising demand? Invest in technology, plant breeding, soil science and seed genetics to make our finite farm land more productive. Increase sustainability, so farm land can remain productive in the future. Encourage more people to get into farming. Help farmers manage......
]]> Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:57:21 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9189&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed denelson@ucdavis.edu(Diane Nelson) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9189 Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest eating days of the year — right up there with Thanksgiving. Enjoy the party without over indulging. Here's how: Pre-game warm-up: Eat a healthy breakfast and lunch or snack before you head to the party. Skipping meals to “save up” your calories for the big event backfires when you over eat because you are so hungry. Think like a winner: Focus on the game and enjoying your friends, rather than on the food. Have a game plan: Take a......
]]> Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:21:55 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9182&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9182 Hands-on science activities offered as part of 4-H SET (Science, Engineering, Technology) at a El Dorado County park recently were colorful enough to warrant a lengthy feature story in the Mountain Democrat yesterday. The 4-H'ers experimented with resin to understand how tree sap trapped and preserved insects that flew and crawled 100 million years ago. They examined fossils, viewed a collection of dinosaur bones and went on a fossil fuel scavenger hunt. “We have great schools, but they......
]]> Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:56:23 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9183&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9183 No matter what happens with immigration reform, the United States will likely suffer a shortage of farm labor in coming decades, reported the Washington Post. The story was based on a study titled "The End of Farm Labor Abundance" by Edward Taylor, professor in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at UC Davis, UC graduate student Diane Charlton and Antonio Yúnez-Naude, professor in the Center for Economic Studies at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City. “It’s......
]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:15:37 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9165&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9165 Dan Morain’s opinion piece on California Technical Bulletin 117 in the Sacramento Bee last Sunday has most of the facts we need to learn about our toxic couches. Drafted in the 1970s to mandate the fire protection for household furnishings, the bulletin was intended to save lives. That was in a naïve era, before methods could measure fire retardants in women and children or correlate their accumulation over years in our bodies to lack of attention, poor motor skills and low IQ in our......
]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:44:50 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9162&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed sjklahorst@ucdavis.edu(Suanne Klahorst) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9162 When the calendar said it was time to harvest rice last September, the crop wasn't ready. Over the winter, UC Cooperative Extension advisor Randall "Cass" Mutters tried to solve the mystery of the untimely immature rice, reported the Oroville Mercury-Register. Since the problem was ubiquitous in the Sacramento Valley, Mutters deduced the weather was the culprit. He crunched weather numbers, studying humidity, nighttime and daytime temperatures, and uncovered a plausible explanation. Average......
]]> Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:12:23 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9157&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9157 Food prepared at home is slowly getting healthier, but food prepared away from home is not, according to a new study by the USDA Economic Research Service. Food prepared away from home accounts for 32 percent of Americans’ caloric intake and 41 percent of food expenditures. (Food prepared away from home includes restaurants, fast-food establishments, and take-out or delivery meals.) Americans increased their away-from-home share of calories from 18 percent to 32 percent in the last......
]]> Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:03:13 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9144&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed afilmer@ucdavis.edu(Ann Filmer) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9144 When FoodCorps begins operating in California this year, one of its "service members" will be hosted by UC Cooperative Extension in San Andreas, said an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. FoodCorps is a national organization that connects kids with healthy food. It selected two non-profit organizations - Life Lab and Community Alliance with Family Farmers - to administer the California program. Those two organizations selected 10 hosts, including UCCE. According to its website, FoodCrops......
]]> Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:20:49 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9142&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9142 Glenn McGourty, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Mendocino County, predicted 2012 will be a wonderful vintage in the North Coast wine region, reported the Ukiah Daily Journal. "We kind of wish every year could be like that. There was enough water, practically no frost protection needed, and no mold, mildew or rot on the fruit," he said. McGourty told reporter Justine Frederickson he usually finds growers to be pessimistic when they begin harvest, but that wasn't the case in 2012. "I even......
]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:37:59 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9127&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9127 Two more trees in Idyllwild are infested with goldspotted oak borer, reported the Riverside Press-Enterprise yesterday. The announcement came at a community meeting over the weekend, in which Tom Scott, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Natural Resources at UC Riverside, and Kevin Turner, UC Cooperative Extension goldspotted oak borer program coordinator, joined fire and forestry officials to brief local residents about the new pest threat in the area. Residents learned......
]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:09:59 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9126&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9126 Anaheim boasted a thriving wine industry in the late 1800s, before an unnamed affliction killed 40,000 acres of the grapevines and put 50 wineries out of business. The problem was later found to have been Pierce’s disease of grapevines. Would Anaheim be wine country today if it weren’t for Pierce’s disease? Probably not, but the sad fate of this Southern California wine industry underscores the importance of controlling the disease and the insects that spread it in......
]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:53:23 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9039&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9039 Cal Fire, UC Cooperative Extension and other officials will be meeting with residents of Idyllwild tomorrow to enlist their help in stopping the goldspotted oak borers' tree destruction in the picturesque mountain community, reported the Riverside Press-Enterprise. GSOB appears to have spread to Idyllwild by hitchhiking on firewood from San Diego, where it has killed some 80,000 oak trees. It has been found in only one tree in Idyllwild so far. Tom Scott, UC Cooperative Extension specialist......
]]> Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:34:03 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9091&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9091 It has been particularly cold at night in California for about a week, but it appears the state's citrus industry will emerge mostly unscathed, reported Oliver Renick on Bloomberg.com. “The temperatures were not severe enough to cause widespread damage,” said Craig Kallsen, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Kern County. “This is nothing out of the ordinary, so we’re able to handle this.” Thermometers dipped about 10 degrees below normal overnight during the......
]]> Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:21:13 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9086&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9086 Styrofoam — referring generically to #6 expanded polystyrene foam — is a disposal headache. Extremely bulky, yet lightweight, it takes up space in the waste stream (and in landfills), but its removal doesn’t add much value to what is known as “diversion numbers.” In 1989, California Assembly Bill 939, known as the Integrated Waste Management Act, mandated reduction (or diversion) in waste disposal: jurisdictions were required to meet a 50 percent diversion goal......
]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2013 06:59:28 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9045&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed rmillercripps@ucanr.edu(Rebecca Miller-Cripps) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9045 During the recent cold snap in California, the media turned to UC Cooperative Extension advisors for information on the weather's impact on agricultural production in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. The consensus for this part of the state: cold weather is good news. The Stockton Record checked in with Joe Grant, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Joaquin County. "We'll take any and all cold that we can at this time of year to fulfill the chilling requirements of the trees," Grant......
]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:03:32 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9071&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9071 California Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed $97.6 billion general fund budget for fiscal 2013-14 boosts spending on education, implements health care reform and eliminates what was a $25 billion state deficit when the governor took office, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press. The governor's proposal increases funding for both public schools and higher education, adding $250 million for the University of California and California State University systems. The increases come after voters approved......
]]> Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:25:26 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9049&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9049 Volunteers are turning a food desert green in the Los Angeles Del Aire neighborhood as they plant more trees that will bear fresh fruit for the community, said an article in the LA Weekly Fruit and Vegetable Blog. Twenty-eight fruit trees and eight grapevines were planted in Del Aire park, near the intersection of freeways 105 and 405. A sign declares, "The fruit trees in this park are public. They are for everyone, including you." The story noted that UC Cooperative Extension is part of the......
]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:22:13 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9044&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9044 The Redding Appeal Democrat reported in December that the ranks of U.S. farmers is dwindling. Said Sutter County almond grower Mat Conant, "Pretty soon we'll be such a small minority nobody will listen to us." Fewer farmers means there are fewer lawmakers with first-hand knowledge of agricultural production. "You can go to Washington, D.C., and talk about agriculture, but it doesn't have the same impact if you practically experience it," said Christopher Greer, UC Cooperative Extension......
]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:13:23 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9025&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9025 Mark Bittman, cookbook author and New York Times food writer, used the occasion of New Year’s Day to throw down the gauntlet for real and permanent change to the U.S. agricultural system. “We must figure out a way to un-invent this food system,” he says in a Times opinion column. He likens the scale of the task to tectonic cultural strides like abolition, civil rights, and the women’s vote. As to how we go about achieving this goal, Bittman speaks in broad terms. He......
]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:24:14 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9021&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed annguy@berkeley.edu(Ann Guy) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9021 California rice grower Tom Butler is dry seeding his crop to reduce irrigation and draining the fields earlier than before when preparing for harvest. These new practices conserve water and may help the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from his farm, according to an article by UC Davis science writer Brad Hooker. The story was picked up by Western Farm Press. Butler is participating in a pilot program funded by the Environmental Defense Fund. Though it’s too early to......
]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:40:12 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9010&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=9010 Low production, low prices and labor issues are plaguing the California cling peach industry and prompting farmers to pull out their orchards in favor of growing something that carries less risk, reported Joshua Emerson Smith in the Merced Sun-Star. Many environmental factors can significantly compromise a peach harvest, said Maxwell Norton, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County. "For tree fruit you need to have a greater net profit than you do raising tree nuts because growing......
]]> Fri, 21 Dec 2012 10:33:25 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8955&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8955 UC Cooperative Extension researchers are discovering that, for the best control of a pest like lygus bugs, growers should not view their individual farms as isolated islands, reported Cary Blake in Western Farm Press. “It takes a village to manage lygus,” says Pete Goodell, UC IPM Cooperative Extension advisor with the UC Statewide IPM Program. “Effective lygus management involves landowners, producers, pest control advisers, those with an expertise in biological and......
]]> Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:24:41 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8947&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8947 Steady rain so far this fall has produced a verdant emerald green panorama on California rangeland, reported Capital Press this week. Livestock producers are elated, said Josh Davy, a UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Tehama County. "It's been nice to start the year with some big rains because it fills up the reservoirs, puts some drinking water out there and it helps build deeper soil moisture in case it doesn't rain later," Davy said. "We hope it keeps going until March." The 2012 rainy......
]]> Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:48:15 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8938&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8938 There is a new predator in the forest these days. It has arisen quietly over the years. Any wildlife feeling hungry when they come upon it in the Sierra is vulnerable. This predator is amazingly small for the scope of its damage; it can’t run fast or climb high. This new predator is rodenticide in pellet form, used in violation of all safe-use regulations in our national forests by large-scale marijuana growers. Rodenticides are being used to protect young and tasty marijuana seedlings......
]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:11:14 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8922&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8922 State officials will spray pesticide on residential citrus trees near Fallbrook today (Dec. 17), part of an ongoing effort across Southern California to prevent a devastating citrus disease, reported the San Diego Union Tribune.The pesticide application targets Asian citrus psyllid, which can transmit huanglongbing disease. Residents in the area have been notified, said Steve Lyle, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He said officials have used the same preventive......
]]> Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:19:26 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8911&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8911 Ants can be a huge nuisance in and outside our homes, particularly if you have food lying around. But now, it turns out, they’re unwelcome, too, on citrus trees. A year ago, UC Riverside entomologists released Tamarixia, a parasitoid wasp and natural enemy of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) imported from Pakistan, into a biocontrol grove in Riverside, Calif. Tamarixia can serve as an excellent biocontrol agent against ACP, a citrus pest first detected in 2008 in Southern California......
]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:33:01 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8891&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8891 After losing 86 UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists to retirement or resignations over the past four years, the University of California program has announced plans to step up hiring and put "more boots on the ground," wrote Cecelia Parsons in Capital Press. The article noted that UC is planning to hire 19 new UCCE advisors and specialists in the coming year. One of those - a regional viticulture advisor serving Tulare, Kern and Kings counties - will be funded with an $840,000......
]]> Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:58:14 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8886&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8886 For years the news and media have released reports that the holidays mean weight gain and ever-widening waistlines. All the hype leaves me asking: how many holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year’s do we actually have? Ok, so take out your calendar and circle the holidays and potential “food-related” events you might attend. We have Thanksgiving Day, Hanukkah, Christmas Day, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and a Saturday or two of holiday parties to attend. When we look at......
]]> Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:44:27 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8855&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed smacnab@ucanr.edu(Shelby MacNab) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8855 A UC Cooperative Extension specialist says there isn’t enough scientific evidence to warrant consumers making changes to their diets nor to their children’s diets based on recent media reports about levels of arsenic in rice. The issue arose from an analysis by Consumer Reports of white and brown rice from around the world and rice products like rice cereal, rice milk and rice pasta. “In virtually every (rice) product we tested, we found measurable amounts of total......
]]> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:06:51 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8856&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8856 A feature story about UC Cooperative Extension advisor Rachael Long graced the front page of the David Enterprise this week in an article about her newly published children's chapter book, "Gold Fever." The Enterprise story, written by Brett Johnson, noted that Long has a personal interest in bats and wrote several scientific articles about the flying mammals before picking a bat to be one of two animals in her book that helps save a nine-year-old boy who fell in a cave in the Black Mountains......
]]> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:59:02 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8854&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8854 Scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands will take part in a one-day seminar Monday, Dec. 10, at UC Davis on water efficiency and water quality, reported Imperial Valley News. Because 20 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level and the country maintains an important agricultural sector, managing water has required creative approaches. Wageningen University entered into a memorandum of understanding with UC Davis to collaborate on water issues. Both institutions and CDFA's......
]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:20:27 PST http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8842&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucanr.edu(Jeannette Warnert) http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=8842