- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A New York Times opinion piece invited four prominent economists to explain why they believe food prices are rising. The paper had reported that food prices spiked in April, even as oil and gas prices were down.
One of the experts, UC Davis Cooperative Extension agricultural economist Roberta Cook, made the point that food prices are rising because consumers have signaled they are willing to pay more to get what they want.
For example, consider the tomato. "A tomato is no longer a tomato is no longer a tomato," Cook wrote....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Scientists at UC Riverside will apply compost to wildfire-ravaged land after the flames have been doused to determine whether it helps reduce erosion and water pollution and restore vegetation. The project is one of several to be undertaken with funding from the California Integrated Waste Management Board aimed at finding uses for what is expected to be an abundance of compost made from organic waste diverted from landfills, according to a story in the April issue of BioCycle.
The Waste Management Board plans to cut the amount of organic materials now going to landfills by half in the next 10 years. Meeting that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Continuing the tomato trend from my last blog post, the loss of nutrients in tomatoes from the canning process was pondered in another San Francisco Chronicle article.
For this one, freelancer Deborah Rich spoke to Diane Barrett of the UC Davis Center for Fruit and Vegetable Quality.
There is controversy, Rich wrote, about the fate of fat-soluble nutrients like the antioxidant lycopene in tomato processing. Studies suggest that processing increases the levels of lycopene relative to the naturally occurring levels in fresh tomatoes, the Chron story...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Who could resist tomatoes in mid-summer? Roadside stands around town (at least in Fresno) offer the beautiful, healthful, locally grown fruit for the best prices you'll see all year.
Apparently, media are also seeing red. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a lengthy piece over the weekend about processing tomatoes, fruit carefully bred for high soluble solids and portability that is transformed into spaghetti and pizza sauces, tomato paste, soup and other products. Of the 12.7 million tons of processing tomatoes grown in the United States, 95 percent come from California, the story says.
Drilling down further, the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new virus has appeared on tomatoes in Northern California, according to an article in the Woodland Daily Democrat that the paper attributed to Bob Johnson of AgAlert.
The story said the new virus looks like tobacco streak virus, which is fairly common in the delta. But when University of California plant pathologists ran DNA tests for tobacco streak on tissue samples from the diseased plants, they came back negative. Tests for other familiar tomato viruses have also come back negative.
"The symptoms on plants are an odd combination between tobacco streak and spotted wilt. Young branches have necrotic streaks...