- Author: Karen Nikos,UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-6101, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu, cell, (530) 219-5472
The work by an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and members of the local community, is made possible by a $4.8 million grant last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The goal of the project, Ninos Sanos/Familia Sana ("Healthy Children/Healthy Family"), is to curb obesity among Mexican-heritage children ages 2-8.
In all, 400 children and their families in Firebaugh will be provided with practical tools, education and incentives to help them eat healthy diets and get sufficient exercise in a five-year program. Many of the programs and meetings will be held at a new center that will launch Thursday.
On Sunday, in celebration of Mexican Independence Day, a mural depicting the history and culture of the community will be unveiled on the wall of a community center in San Joaquin. The mural has been painted this month as a collaborative project by UC Davis students and San Joaquin residents, including youth.
A mural in progress, designed by Jaime Montiel, artist-in-residence at Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) at UC Davis, is created in the Fresno County community of San Joaquin. The mural painted Sept. 1-15 is based on the community's cultural and social history. Carlos Francisco Jackson, founding director of TANA, co-leads the Ninos Sanos/Familia Sana study. Photo by Gilda Posada, community art engagement project coordinator, TANA
- Contact: Karen Nikos, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-6101, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu, cell, (530) 219-5472
Called "Ninos Sanos, Familia Sana" (Healthy Children, Health Family), the center is a collaborative effort of the University of California, Davis, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and local communities and organizations.
"Opening this center really gives us an opportunity to work with the community -- to be there for children and families and show we are committed to promoting good nutrition and physical activity," said Adela de la Torre, professor of Chicana/o studies and director of the Center for Transnational Health at UC Davis. "We want to help them learn the best approaches to preventing obesity now and in the long term."
Part of a five-year, $4.8 million study aimed at identifying effective approaches to combating obesity, the center will address a problem that affects more than four in 10 children born to parents of Mexican heritage, putting them at greater risk of early diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Planning for the study, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began last year. The study will conclude in 2016.
During the study, 400 Firebaugh children and their families will receive practical tools, education and incentives to help them eat healthy diets and get sufficient exercise. Interventions will include:
- $25 monthly in vouchers for families to buy fruits and vegetables at participating markets;
- classroom instruction for children on nutrition and physical activity;
- 10 family education nights per year in which parents will learn how to select and use fresh ingredients to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their children; and
- twice-yearly health screenings to monitor weight, blood pressure, body-mass index, skinfold thickness and waist circumference.
At the same time, 400 children and families in the town of San Joaquin will receive:
- twice-yearly health screenings
- a series of forums designed to assist parents in supporting their children's education
The San Joaquin community will also benefit from these outreach
activities:
- UC Davis will collaborate with area schools to enrich the science curriculum.
- A community mural project will depict the rich cultural heritage and history of the community. (The mural, painted on an outdoor wall of a community learning center in San Joaquin, will be unveiled on Sunday, Sept. 16).
At the study's conclusion, de la Torre and her research colleagues will have data to show whether the food vouchers and health education programs tested in Firebaugh are effective, using San Joaquin as a control. San Joaquin families and schools will then receive much of the same intervention used in Firebaugh, with assistance from UC Cooperative Extension specialists.
Both Firebaugh and San Joaquin are located in Congressional District 20, an area with the nation's lowest human development index, an international measurement of wellbeing based on longevity, standard of living and other factors.
"The irony here is that their parents may harvest vegetables in the fields -- some of the richest agricultural land anywhere in the world -- but their children rarely share in this bounty," de la Torre said. "We need to provide better access to fresh vegetables and fruit in stores and teach these families how to prepare these foods in easy and convenient ways, to make these good foods part of their lives. That is what this program is about."
An agricultural economist, de la Torre has studied Latino health issues in the U.S. and Mexico for more than 25 years.
Throughout the study, an advisory committee made up of school, community and parent representatives from each community will provide feedback on program strategies, approaches, concerns and solutions to the barriers that prevent children from maintaining healthy weights.
Participants include parents who have volunteered to have their families take part; grocery stores; health professionals (Sablan Medical Clinics); a nonprofit, community-based program of promotoras, or outreach workers (Proteus, Inc.); school teachers and administrators (Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District and Golden Plains Unified School District in San Joaquin).
Also participating are about 20 educational specialists, economists, nutritionists, psychologists, physicians, and graduate and undergraduate students from UC Davis and the University of California Cooperative Extension.
Lucia Kaiser, Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition and a co-investigator on the study, said:
"This project is an exciting opportunity for UC Davis and UC Cooperative Extension to pull a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, nutritionists and other professionals to work in partnership with an underserved community to prevent a pressing health problem -- childhood obesity."
Additional information:
Editor's note:
- Interviews will be available in Spanish. Lean en espanol: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10329]
Media contact(s):
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- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UC studies examine costs for growing pears, walnuts, winegrapes
Analysis for each crop is based upon hypothetical farm operations using practices common in the region. Input and reviews were provided by UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, researchers, growers, farm accountants, pest control advisers, consultants and other agricultural associates.
The studies describe the assumptions used to identify current costs for the individual crops, material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead. A ranging analysis table shows profits over a range of prices and yields. Other tables show the monthly cash costs, the costs and returns per acre, hourly equipment costs and the whole farm annual equipment, investment and business overhead costs.
The four new cost studies are the following:
- Sample Costs to Establish and Produce Pears, 2012, North Coast, by Rachel B. Elkins, Karen M. Klonsky and Kabir P. Tumber.
- Sample Costs to Produce Organic Pears, 2012, Sacramento Valley, by Chuck A. Ingels and Karen M. Klonsky.
- Sample Costs to Establish a Walnut Orchard and Produce Walnuts, 2012, North Coast, by Rachel B. Elkins, Karen M. Klonsky and Kabir P. Tumber.
- Sample Costs to Establish a Vineyard and Produce Winegrapes (Cabernet Sauvignon), 2012, San Joaquin Valley North, by Paul S. Verdegaal, Karen M. Klonsky and Richard L. De Moura.
These cost studies and cost of production studies for other crops are available online at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu, at UC Cooperative Extension offices and by calling (530) 752-3589. For more information about the studies, contact Richard De Moura at rdemoura@ucdavis.edu in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
- Contact: Pam Kan-Rice, (530) 754-3912, pam.kanrice@ucanr.edu
- Contact: Richard DeMoura, (530) 752-3589, rdemoura@ucdavis.edu
Analysis for each crop is based upon hypothetical farm operations using practices common in the region. Input and reviews were provided by UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, researchers, growers, farm accountants, pest control advisers, consultants and other agricultural associates.
Assumptions used to identify current costs for the individual crops, material inputs, cash and non-cash overhead are described. A ranging analysis table shows profits over a range of prices and yields. Other tables show the monthly cash costs, the costs and returns per acre, hourly equipment costs, and the whole farm annual equipment, investment, and business overhead costs.
The new studies are the following:
- Sample Costs to Produce Fresh Market Broccoli, 2012, Central Coast, by Surendra K. Dara, Karen M. Klonsky and Kabir P. Tumber.
- Sample Costs to Produce Cotton (Acala Variety), 2012, San Joaquin Valley; Sample Costs to Produce Cotton (Pima Variety), 2012, San Joaquin Valley; and Sample Costs to Produce Cotton (Transgenic Herbicide Resistant Acala Variety) 2012, San Joaquin Valley by Robert B. Hutmacher, Steven D. Wright, Larry Godfrey, Daniel S. Munk, Brian H. Marsh, Karen M. Klonsky, Richard L. De Moura and Kabir P. Tumber.
- Sample Costs to Produce Oat Hay (Dryland), 2012, Sacramento Valley by Rachael Long, Karen M. Klonsky and Richard L. De Moura.
- Sample Costs to Establish and Produce Alfalfa Hay, 2012, Intermountain, by Steve B. Orloff, Karen M. Klonsky and Kabir P. Tumber.
All cost of production studies are available online at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu, at UC Cooperative Extension offices and by calling (530) 752-3589. For additional information on the studies, contact Richard De Moura at rdemoura@ucdavis.edu in the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The study is led by Robert Krieger, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside. Krieger is an expert in environmental and occupational toxicology.
This summer, Krieger and a team of researchers spent nearly three weeks in Santa Maria with workers at DB Specialty Farms. The workers wear gloves as they pick strawberries. Before each break, their gloves are collected and frozen for later lab analysis.
“We’ve found that pesticides are transferred to the gloves during normal work and we’re measuring the amounts that are transferred in hopes that we can use it to measure total exposure,” Krieger said. “The real question is how much exposure occurs, how much is OK, and how little occurs under normal conditions of use.”
The team is also collecting samples of strawberries harvested by the workers and samples of leaves.
In order to understand uptake and excretion, the workers are asked to collect urine for 24-hour periods after working in sprayed fields. To be certain any sign of pesticides in the urine came from work exposure, the researchers have also collected 24-hour urine samples from spouses or roommates of the field workers to assess dietary or home exposure.
“The levels of exposure are determined by how much is applied, how much remains on the crop and how much is transferred to people. We’ve independently measured those and came up with an assessment of how much a person is exposed to during their normal work,” Krieger said.
The research focuses on two pesticides: the organophosphate malathion and the pyrethroid fenpropathrin. After the pesticides are applied, there is a three-day waiting period before harvest gets under way. In the project, as soon as the workers are back in the field, the monitoring begins.
Studies that Krieger has conducted over the past 18 years show that low, safe levels of pesticide are absorbed and rapidly excreted by harvesters. Breakdown products of the pesticides – parts of the pesticide molecule that are not toxic – can be measured in the urine, but it is not known whether the pesticide broke down on the plant, before the workers were exposed, or if the workers’ metabolism broke down the pesticides.
“Those breakdown products are not toxic, but if they are absorbed, they will appear in the urine and we can’t tell whether a plant made it or a person made it and that complicates our analysis and that’s one of the new areas that we’re investigating in 2012,” Krieger said.
By comparing the gloves, fruit, leaves and urine and using sophisticated metabolic chemistry in the laboratory analyses, the researchers will be able to reconstruct how much exposure there was during the work day.
If the research concludes that analyzing gloves is a useful way to measure worker exposure, gloves could become an important tool for farmers and regulators. Another probable area of impact from the study is in verifying the levels of exposure, which the researchers are finding to be very low.
“These workers have very low levels of pesticide exposure. And in fact, they’re the best-studied workers with respect to pesticide exposure in agriculture,” Krieger said. “That gives us confidence that the exposure is not having a health impact.”
Definitive results from the August study are expected in about six months.
The research program has been sponsored by strawberry growers of the California Strawberry Commission and the Personal Chemical Exposure Program, UC Riverside. The current Santa Maria research is possible by the involvement of DB Specialty Farms and Safari Farms of Santa Maria, and PrimusLabs.
The research was approved by the Institutional Review Board of UC Riverside and the California Environmental Protection Agency. All the participation is voluntary and the farmworkers and their spouses or roommates are compensated for the inconvenience of urine collection. They receive $25 for each 24-hour collection and a $100 bonus for completing all 10 urine collections.
In addition to the extra pay, the study volunteers benefit by helping improve pesticide safety for themselves and their colleagues.
“These workers are doing a service to other workers by allowing us to measure the amount of exposure that occurs during normal work,” Krieger said.
View video of the on-farm research below: