- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Agricultural economics has prompted a lively online discussion on Steven Dubner's New York Times blog "Freakonomics." As of this morning, 71 comments had been posted, which combined with a lengthy Q & A add up to more than 13,000 words, some heated.
This post had its beginnings a week or so ago when Dubner invited his blog readers to send questions for the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner. The blog post included 23 questions and answers touching on such hot topics as organic agriculture, local food production, obesity and farm subsidies. Dubner titled the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Opening with what must be an old Irish idiom, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reporter Meg McConahey said her subject, local gardener Tom Berger, was just a "wee shaver" when he began collecting gardening wisdom.
He "always remembered The Green Grocer's TV admonishment to Bay Area housewives: 'Do NOT buy tomatoes out of season,'" she wrote.
The story said Berger is part of a wave of new gardeners raising food for themselves. The article includes information from UC Cooperative Extension experts Rose Hayden-Smith, the 4-H Youth Development advisor in Ventura County, and Paul Vossen, a tree crops farm advisor...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The San Diego Tribune ran a feature yesterday that included advice from a diversity of experts on ways to save money. One of the story's segments had advice from Patti Wooten Swanson, the UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor in San Diego County.
The segment was somewhat counterintuitive. It suggested against buying in bulk. "If the food spoils faster than you can eat it, or the 'use by' date passes on medicine before it's used up, you've wasted money," the article says. On the other hand, cooking in bulk is a good idea, Swanson told the paper.
"You can save money and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The University of California was called in to help settle a dispute between neighbors in Rail Road Flat over hen and roosters' cackles and crows. According to an article in today's Stockton Record, three rural families have met in court twice to argue the case of the vociferous farm animals, only to come back with split decisions.
"I want to be a good neighbor. But at the same time, this place is zoned ag," the story quotes chicken owner Dave Redmond.
"I have to cover my ears or wear earplugs," Terry Baker was quoted.
The UC Cooperative Extension...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An insurance industry study of the 2007 Witch Creek wildfire, which destroyed 1,700 structures in San Diego County, reached the same conclusion as UCCE's wood durability specialist Steve Quarles: wind-blown embers cause most home fires.
The report, released by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, was covered in a 1,000-word Stockton Record article written by Bruce Spence.
In addition to danger posed by flying embers, the study found that combustible fences and decks connected to houses were so effective in drawing a wildfire into structures that they "might as well be called wicks,"...
