- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California dairies are being squeezed between increasing costs for feeds and decreasing return for milk, according to a story in the Marin Independent Journal over the weekend. The story reports that 55 percent of Marin's agricultural income - more than $27 million in 2006 - comes from the county's 28 dairies.
Reporter Rob Rogers spoke to UC Davis CE specialist Bees Butler about dairy economic trends.
"The dairy industries in China and India will start to expand because of the incredible growth in those areas," Butler is quoted....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald has an idea that might make collaborators out of Californians who have commonly been at cross purposes. Ronald suggested that combining genetic engineering with organic farming may be the best way to grow food for a growing world population facing climate change and environmental degradation.
In a story with a Hong Kong dateline, Ronald told Reuters the world needed to use every technology available to secure food supplies for the 9.2 billion people expected by 2050, up from the current 6.7...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new episode of the periodic PBS series "Strange Days on Planet Earth" tonight focuses on the global implications of overfishing. It features the work of UC Berkeley assistant professor of ecosystem sciences Justin Brashares.
Says host Edward Norton in the program's online preview, "Follow a fish, and you can end up in unexpected places." Check your local listings for the show's broadcast time in your area. In the Bay Area, it will air at 9 p.m. on KQED; in the Central Valley, it will air at 9 p.m. on KVPT.
Speaking of strange days on...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In honor of Earth Day, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension veterinary specialist, John Maas, sent a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle asking the public to remember the "original environmentalists," cattle ranchers.
"California's ranchers manage more than 20 million acres of private land. They pay taxes, raise cattle, and protect wildlife in a sustainable manner. These are the green hills and mountain meadows you drive by on your travels," Maas wrote.
Maas...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new land-use ordinance under consideration in Monterey County would regulate roosters, which apparently annoy homeowners who are roused at the crack of dawn by the the birds' crowing, according to an op-ed piece in the Salinas Californian over the weekend. The column, by the executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau Bob Perkins, admonishes county staff to seek input from its own agencies, including UC Cooperative Extension, before proposing such restrictions.
Perkins wrote that residents who complained about noisy roosters are actually upset because they believe...
