ANR News Blog

Faced with growing global food demand, one solution to increasing productivity is cutting air pollution, reported Ohio's Country Journal.

National Public Radio highlighted a growing concern for San Joaquin Valley tree fruit and nut farmers - diminishing winter chill in an age of climate change. "Warm winters mess with nut trees' sex lives," reported Lauren Summer on Morning Edition.

California ag faces a decade of challenges (Farm Press) Tim Hearden, Jan. 31 We're getting close to a point where field work in agriculture is similar to or higher than the wages in other sectors, said Dan Sumner, director of the University of California's Agricultural Issues Center in Davis.

Five of the past six years have been the warmest in Bakersfield's recorded history (Bakersfield Californian) Steven Mayer, Jan. 15 Daniel Sumner, an ag economist at UC Davis, said researchers across the state are busy studying the changing patterns of California's Mediterranean climate.

An airborne fungus from Europe, ganoderma adspersum, has been killing almond trees in the San Jaoquin Valley since it was discovered in the area five years ago, reported John Cox in the Bakersfield Californian. The fungus rots wood from the inside out, usually weakening the trunk a ground level.