- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Modesto Bee ran a story over the weekend with a headline that proclaims, "Experts positive about effect of grazing on land." It is remarkable, in my opinion, because scientists are so rarely "positive" about anything and are very adept at using conditional wording, such as seemingly, may be, could be, almost, nearly, etc.
On the other hand, the headline writer may have been using the meaning of "positive" as merely the opposite of "negative."
The story was based on reporter John Holland's take on a recent Tuolumne County Resource Conservation District seminar, in which participants learned that grazing...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A news release about UC Cooperative Extension's involvement this year in "Operation: Military Kids" was picked up by the News Blaze, a northern California community newspaper. The story said UCCE's 4-H Youth Development program has teamed up with the Operation: Military Kids once again this summer to host camps throughout California for the children of military men and women deployed all over the world.
Operation: Military Kids was launched in April 2005. Since its inception, OMK has touched 88,000 military children. The summer camp is just one part of a support system for military youth. Camp participants are enrolled in 4-H and local 4-H...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Changing the way people look at food was one of the goals of this month's Symposium On Sustainable Agriculture at UC Davis, an event covered by Sacramento ABC affiliate News 10. The report included an interview with conference participant Lia Huber of the Nourish Network. Huber pointed out that people interact with food at least three times a day.
"People in our rushed society try to get through meals as quickly as possible. When we garden, or go to a farmers market, we have these personal interactions with the land and people who are producing our food. There are ways to connect with food to make the experience much richer," Huber...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Most consumers like their strawberries bright red and juicy through and through, but some seek fruit that is a little bit green, at least in the ecological sense. Fresno Bee food writer Joan Obra ran a front-page column in the paper's food section yesterday that makes it easier to find the local low-input strawberries.
To determine why strawberry stands are scarce in Fresno, Obra turned to UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Richard Molinar. He said Fresno County's strawberry acreage has dropped from about 500 to 100 acres in the past nine years. Only about 25 local strawberry farmers are left.
"The processors aren't paying a premium,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
At its Earth Day celebration today, the USDA will share expanded plans for a People's Garden at the department's Washington Mall headquarters that will encompass all of the facility's grounds, according to an article in the Washington Post. The plan includes a 1,300-square-foot organic vegetable garden, ornamental flower gardens and bioswales (mini-wetlands designed to reduce pollution and surface water runoff).
According to the Post story, written by Jane Black, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack got the idea to include the entire six-acre facility in his plans on one of his daily runs on the Mall. Originally, he...
