- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
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 probably won’t find sweet potato farmers at your local farmers market.
“Even smaller growers tend to work with a packing shed and have their crops combined with others and marketed,” said
- Author: Ann Brody Guy
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 complexity.
Public outreach on the part of dynamic writers...
- Editor: Shelby MacNab
- Author: Brittanny Zweigle
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 is the best because of all the amazing fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. With berries, melons, cucumber, tomatoes, squash and stone fruit the cooking possibilities are...
- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
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 eloquently of food as a human right, and described inequalities in the food system. Her opinion is that climate change will increase inequalities and human suffering, and that the effects of climate change...
- Author: Trina Wood
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), recently co-authored a study that highlights the need to be aware of...