- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California bees got busy last year, producing 35 percent more honey than they did in 2007, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee over the weekend. The bee story cited USDA figures.
Despite the good news, the nation's beekeepers aren't out of the woods. Cases of what has been called Colony Collaspe Disorder are still reported, "but in most cases, here (in California), things are better," the story quoted UC Davis entomologist Eric Mussen.
Researchers are still trying to figure out what caused bees to abandon hives en masse two years ago, when honey production fell to its lowest point in 20 years.
Another factor that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
I can't resist a story that places any good light on climate change. It gives me hope for my children and children's children. One example, covered by the Times Online of the United Kingdom a few years ago, was a report that residents of Greenland will now be able to grow their own vegetables, rather than import everything from Europe, because of warmer, shorter winters.
A second story on climate change the involves a bit of good news for California appeared in the Stockton Record last week. The story said efforts to battle...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new UC Berkeley study that is getting lots of media attention notes that the incidence of obesity in high school students is greater when there is a fast food restaurant within 530 feet of the campus. Nearby fast food resulted in a 5.2 percent increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths, according to coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Scientists said the correlation is "sizable."
Reporter Jerry Hirsch sought comment from the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, Brenda Roche. She said she wasn't...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
While there have been whispers of skepticism about the Great California Drought of 2009, all would likely agree that California's water woes are complicated. The Wall Street Journal today ran a story outlining the decision process for farmers considering whether they should use the water allocated to them to grow crops, or whether they should sell the water to the state and let their land lie fallow.
Writer Pete Sanders penciled out the equation for Don Bransford, who grows rice on a 700-acre farm north of Sacramento:
- The state is offering $275 per acre foot of water
- Take 100 acres of his farm out of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith, had the opportunity over the weekend to publicly express her delight in the news that the First Lady and her daughters broke ground last week on an organic kitchen garden at the White House. Hayden-Smith was among a group of activists who for many months have called on the country's leaders to lead a Victory Garden rebirth by example.
An article in the Ventura County Star opened with Hayden-Smith's reaction to the cover story in the April 2009 issue of Oprah...