In October 2004, we took President Dynes to Silacci Dairy in Sonoma County, where advisor Stephanie Larson and former advisor Dayna Ghirardelli talked about their water quality projects at the dairy.

I read in the May 23 issue of AgAlert that the Silacci family had to shut down the dairy. They had used 50,000 old tires to stabilize a hillside 50 years ago. But a change in the law in 1989 made it illegal for anyone besides a tire facility to stockpile more than 500 tires. The state paid for removing the tires, but the Silaccis had to pay for restoring the hillside and preventing erosion. They couldn't afford it.

Rich Silacci, who succeeded his father and grandfather in the dairy business, is now moving his family to take a job in San Luis Obispo.

This shameless plug for shopping at farmers markets is from Lyra, aka the Sustainable Wonkette....

I hope you're all green with envy, because I just walked out of a meeting at UC Davis today and bought a pound of gorgeous, juicy orange-pink apricots. Fresh apricots remind me of summers at our farm in Yuba City and my little sister's pink freckled shoulders. The ones I ate today were delicious and were sold by a farmer who brought his fruit from San Joaquin County to UCD's East Quad Farmers Market. The market runs every Wednesday through June 6, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

I also bought cherries from a one of my favorite farmers—Steve from Mt. Moriah Farm. I bought a whole bagful of goodies from the UC Davis Student Experimental Farm market garden—beautiful red and white spring onions, zucchini and tomatoes. The tomatoes were from the greenhouse. They were also selling potatoes, broccoli, kohlrabi and spinach, as were other growers. I also bought five little bags of fresh peas, already shelled! Farmer Sam Cabral was selling olive oil, and cut flowers were everywhere. My neighbor, who owns a nursery in the Capay Valley, was selling plants for the summer garden: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, and many herbs.  

The market is part of the Davis Farmers Market pilot project to expand sales of local produce, promote the use of fresh produce on campus and in area K-12 schools and teach consumers about nutrition and healthy eating. Most of the farmers move their produce to the Davis Farmers Market later in the afternoon. (From April to October the Davis Farmers Market hours are 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.)

At the President's Advisory Commission meeting on April 26, four people gave presentations related to the Farm Bill, which is now being discussed by Congress for reauthorization. One of the presenters was Julian Alston, a UCD ag economist, who gave us a little history lesson.

I was surprised to learn that 40 percent of the $125 billion Farm Bill in 2005 was spent on food stamps and school lunches. I didn't know those programs were part of the Farm Bill. I also didn't know that the government started the school lunch program after WWII as a result of undernourished recruits. So much for thinking politicians were concerned about kids being hungry.