- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An article posted today on Salon.com said the maker of imidacloprid, Bayer CropScience, found the pesticide in the nectar and pollen of flowering trees and shrubs at concentrations high enough to kill a honeybee in minutes. That December 2007 revelation, plus beekeepers' own experiences in fields treated by the pesticide, have scientists taking a new look at imidacloprid's role in sudden, unexplained bee die-offs that have been reported around the world for the past 10 years.
Scientists have pondered whether there is a single cause of Colony Collapse Disorder or whether the phenomena results from a variety of factors,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last weekend, the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith, wrote a note on her Facebook page about the possibility raised by Gov. Schwarzenegger of selling off state-owned assets to ease the budget crunch. The Ventura County Fairgounds is on Schwarzenegger's short list of properties to go on the block.
Positive feedback prompted Hayden-Smith to write out her objections to the idea and post them in her ANR blog. The Huffington Post then picked up the article, titled "Of California, Fairgrounds and Things I Can't Afford to...
- 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
More crime and fewer prosecutions, more unchecked abuse, more untreated disease, more mentally ill people in jail and the virtual elimination of UC Cooperative Extension in Sacramento are the consequences presented to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors of current budget scenarios, according to an article in today's Sacramento Bee.
"Tearful mothers, elderly veterans, disabled residents and others pleaded for the programs and services on which they rely," wrote reporter Robert Lewis of the scene at the Board's second of three budget workshops.
Susan Gallagher, executive director of Mental Health America Northern California, called the cuts...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran an article today about the uncertain future of a popular community garden. The Santee community garden is on the grounds of the community's county-owned Edgemoor Hospital. Patients are being moved from the facility and most of the buildings are slated for demolition.
Two UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners are quoted in the story, 85-year-old Joyce Gemmell, and Judy Jacoby, the co-chair of the San Diego County Master Gardener Association's community gardening committee.
Gemmell, who lives in a mobile home, tends one of the community garden's...