ANR news blog

Sumner injects logic into romantic locavore visage

A story in the Sacramento Bee paints a lovely picture of local food production in a story under the title "Think globally, eat locally."

"The sun is coming up. Geese fly overhead. Wild turkeys meander amid the fruit trees, as (farmer Lisa) Tollefson picks sunflowers in the golden glow of dawn," goes the story, written by Stuart Leavenworth.

The article's vision of local farming wasn't entirely rose-colored. Indeed, it mentioned that Tollefson's partner, Steve Pilz, disrupted a yellow jacket nest while clearing brush and had to set traps for voracious gophers with his eye swollen by insect stings.

But the real juxtaposition comes in comments by the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center Dan Sumner, where he uses what some might consider truly global thinking.

Some of his key points:

• Does buying local help the poor? Probably just the opposite. To help poor farmers, seek out products produced in poor countries (mostly thousands of miles away).
• Does buying local help local farmers? Maybe a little, but most California farms should hope that buying local does not catch on elsewhere. If other consumers became locavores, most California commodities would face a collapse of demand and price.
• In California, we are deficient in pasta wheat, but produce lots of wine grapes. Do we really expect local farmers to yank out vines to plant wheat? And if they do, what about those poor wheat farmers in Minnesota who simply cannot grow wine grapes, or the poor Minneapolis connoisseurs of fine California wine?

Sumner was also quoted this week in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the commodities bubble. In short, the article said commodities recently enjoyed a boom, but in the last month, are facing something of a bust.

The shift will bring some relief to consumers, who are already seeing gas prices fall. Food prices should ease as well, according to the article.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this commodity effect lowers (food) prices, maybe in the fourth quarter," Sumner was quoted.

More info could help diners avoid weight gain

A story on the Medical News Today Web site says that an analysis by the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health shows that California adults could avoid gaining 2.7 pounds a year if calories were posted on fast-food menu boards statewide. 

The analysis combines findings of two studies, the article says:

• A 2008 New York City study found that patrons of fast-food restaurants where calorie counts were shown consumed 52 fewer calories per visit.
• A 2007 consumer survey shows that California adults who eat at fast-food chains do so an average of 3.4 times per week.

Doing the math, the researchers calculated that Californians would cut more than 9,000 calories a year from their diets if they saw the calorie counts on menus.

"Menu board labeling has the potential to dramatically alter the trajectory of the obesity epidemic in California," UC Berkeley states in its report, Potential Impact on Menu Labeling of Fast Foods in California, according to the article.

Click here for a pdf version of the 11-page report.

Sample menu board.

4-H member writes story for Lake County paper

A 4-H member who traveled to Australia this summer wrote a summary of her trip that was published today in the Lake County News. The writer, Kelsy Sills of Kelseyville, along with Kelsi Alexander and 4-H volunteer Sherry Falge were participating in the 4-H International Exchange Program.

Since Kelsey (and alternative spellings Kelsy and Kelsi) make repeated appearances in this story, I thought it would be interesting to check the meaning of the name. According to thinkbabynames.com, it is of Old English origin and means "victorious ship." It is also possibly a place name referring to "island." Eerily, Australia is known as the "island continent." Perhaps this trip was predestined.

Back to the newspaper story . . . . The article said Alexander stayed on a small farm in Simpson, Sills stayed on a dairy farm in Cobden, and Falge stayed on a sheep farm where she helped with the daily chores. All of them also did some traveling.

The trip was part of the Lake County Citizenship and Leadership 4-H Club, which is aimed at keeping older youth in 4-H and designed to prepare future leaders and good citizens.

Smell of DEET repulsive to mosquitoes

The groundbreaking research released by the UC Davis Department of Entomology yesterday at 2 p.m. was picked up by some prominent media outlets, including the New York Times and Reuters.

"We found that mosquitoes can smell DEET and they stay away from it," UC Davis entomology professor Walter Leal was quoted in the Reuters article. "DEET doesn't mask the smell of the host or jam the insect's senses. Mosquitoes don't like it because it smells bad to them."

Earlier research by scientists at Rockefeller University concluded that DEET jams the insect's ability to smell. "Not so fast," interjected the New York Times in today's article, reporting on Leal's research.

“They smell it and they go away because they don’t like it for some reason,” he was quoted in the New York Times.

DEET, the acronym for N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide, is the most common active ingredient in insect repellents. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health groups recommend DEET as the best way to avoid the bites of mosquitoes, ticks and other disease-carrying insects.

A full news release about the research is on the UC ANR News and Information Outreach Web site.

Mosquitoes are repelled by DEET.

Bill Peacock called a guru, hero and innovator

Retired UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor Bill Peacock was christened "Tulare County's grape guru" in the headline of a Visalia Times-Delta story that lauded his 36-year career.

The story of his UCCE odyssey was punctuated with warm praise.

"I would say, in my eyes, Bill is one of the heroes of the industry," grower Alfred Guimarra was quoted in the article.

"Bill turned out to be an outstanding farm adviser," grower Pat Pinkham was quoted.

The article said Peacock played a prominent role in some of the most important innovations for Central Valley grape growers in the last 50 years. Among them:

• Introduction of drip irrigation, which cut per-acre water use in half.
• Use of gable v-shaped trellises, which doubled per-acre grape production 
• Development of dried-on-the-vine raisin-production system, often called the "Peacock system," which doubled per-acre raisin production. 
• Identification of ideal fertilizer-application times, mostly post-harvest, which ended years of wintertime applications.

For more on Bill Peacock's career, you can also read this news release from the UC ANR News and Information Outreach.

Bill Peacock

Read more