- Author: Linda Forbes

UC ANR works to benefit the California economy by improving agricultural efficiencies, mitigating risk, providing trusted information to inform policy, combating pests and diseases, advancing agriculture technologies and training the next generation of leaders. Additionally, UC ANR improves community health and well-being through nutrition education, saving millions in healthcare costs and reducing monthly grocery bills. UC ANR's work is supported by more than 26,000 volunteers who provide donated service worth $71 million annually.
Nutrition
UC ANR's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) helps limited-resource participants develop food buying and budgeting skills. Graduates save an average...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

With sales down dramatically at Asian markets and restaurants, crops on Southeast Asian farms have been left to wither away in the fields, reported Donald Promnitz in The Business Journal.
“I would say it's a 100% loss. I can't sell anything," said Chongyee Xiong, who used his earnings as a school groundskeeper to pay upfront expenses for his farm.
According to UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno, there were nearly 2,000 Asian farms in the San Joaquin Valley area in 2015. Roughly 70% of these were run by Hmong growers. The farmers typically produce crops they had previously cultivated in Laos —...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

After more than 100 4-H members, UC Master Gardeners and others attended a Riverside Board of Supervisors' meeting in support of UC Cooperative Extension June 10, the panel voted 5-0 to restore UCCE's funding, reported Jeff Horseman and Matt Kristoffersen in the Riverside Press Enterprise.
The vote reversed an earlier decision to cut UCCE funding as part of a larger plan to deal with reduced county tax receipts. If the funding had not been restored, services including 4-H, nutrition education and agricultural programs would have been effected, said
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

The cost of avocados, tomatoes, berries, meat and countless other foods - both imported from Mexico and produced in California - could go up if new tariffs on Mexican products are imposed, reported Gosia Wozniacka in Civil Eats.
Last week, President Trump tweeted that the U.S. "will impose a 5% tariff on all goods coming into our country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our country, stop."
"I assume Mexico will retaliate," said Dan...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

The East Oakland non-profit organization Planting Justice hires former inmates, many from San Quentin, and pays them a family sustaining wage to work on urban farms, orchards and nurseries, and offer environmental education, reported Patti Brown in the New York Times.
Of the 35 formerly incarcerated workers hired by Planting Justice since 2009, only one is known to have returned to prison. Employees must commit to staying sober and drug free.
Jennifer Sowerwine, UC Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Berkeley, said that the...