- Author: Lauren Biron, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
![Almonds in the shell and split hulls lay on the orchard floor amid green leaves.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/107830small.png)
UC ANR to help create database, support technology for sustainable bioproducts and biofuels
In California's Northern San Joaquin Valley, crop leftovers such as almond shells, fruit peels and orchard trimmings can potentially be converted into sustainable bioproducts and biofuels – with the right technology. The philanthropy Schmidt Sciences' Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future, which supports replacing fossil feedstocks with renewable biomass sources, has awarded new funding to a...
/h3>- Author: Ria DeBiase, UC Giannini Foundation
![A hand cups soybeans from a trailer of harvested soybeans in the field.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/107746small.png)
How policies affect emissions, land use, and the prices of fuel and vegetable oils
Over the last two decades, both the federal government and state governments have enacted policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transportation sector. In a new Special Issue of ARE Update, University of California agricultural economists explore how these federal and state renewable fuel policies have affected biofuel production for motor and aviation fuels and consider how these policies have affected land use and food prices. Their research shows that as U.S. demand for...
/h3>- Author: UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management
![Cannabis production operation with mountains in the distance](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/99483small.jpg)
Land use change in agricultural frontiers can have far-reaching social and environmental implications, such as habitat loss, water contamination, or worker demographic shifts — particularly when it involves the rapid expansion of a new industry such as cannabis production. A recent study published in Landscape and Urban Planning offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the drivers of cannabis production in rural areas, using interviews with farmers and spatial modeling to uncover key factors.
Led by researchers from UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) and the...
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
![A group of young students posing in front of a water recycling facility with their tour guide.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/97976small.jpg)
Ibrahim Yaaseen, member of the Palos Verdes Peninsula (PVP) 4-H club, grabs a hard hat and places it on top of his head. He then reaches for a bright orange safety vest and goggles to complete his safety gear outfit before joining the rest of his club members who are dressed the same.
The 4-H Youth Development Program of Los Angeles is already thinking about the future of water management and turned to the West Basin Municipal Water District in El Segundo to gain a deeper understanding of the precious resource we often take for granted.
The University of California 4-H Youth...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
![Healthy cannabis plants on raised beds surrounded by stakes.](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/blogfiles/94725small.jpg)
Wildfires are an increasing threat to people's lives, property and livelihoods, especially in rural California communities. Cannabis, one of California's newer and more lucrative commercial crops, may be at a higher risk of loss from wildfire because it is mostly confined to being grown in rural areas, according to new research by scientists in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management at UC Berkeley.
"Our findings affirm that cannabis agriculture is geographically more threatened by wildfire than any other agricultural crop in California,” said Christopher Dillis, lead author of the