- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
It was widely reported by the news media -- such as in this piece from the Washington Post -- that installing the 1,100-square-foot vegetable garden on the White House south lawn cost about $200, not including labor. For the President and First Lady, that's probably petty cash. But the cost might deter America's low-income families from gardening.
UC Cooperative Extension can help Californians cut the cost of home-grown food. The UCCE Master Gardener program offers free gardening advice in many California
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Reports about climate change in the current issue of California Agriculture journal are taken with a brave face by Kings County farmers and officials, according to a story published in the Hanford Sentinel. Reporter Sean Nidever provided highlights in the newspaper of the research presented in the UC ANR's 50-page publication titled "'Unequivocal' How climate change will transform California."
Despite the fact that Nidever reported that the county's agricultural industry could face "tough times," Kings County farmers and agricultural officials...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An article in the Marin Independent Journal today focuses on the merger of two oyster farms on California's north coast. For background on the state of the industry, reporter Rob Rogers turned to director of UC Cooperative Extension Sea Grant Extension Paul Olin.
The story said the industry has been plagued by a bacterium - Vibrio tubiashii - that has killed the larvae oyster growers use to replenish their supply. While a few of the county's oyster growers raise their own larvae, most depend on out-of-state hatcheries that have been decimated by the bacterium.
"The bacterial contamination of hatcheries, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, has...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Bay Area National Public Radio affiliate KQED posted "reporter's notes" on the Quest portion of its Web site yesterday featuring comments from UC Berkeley fire ecology specialist Max Moritz about recently published research that predicts changes in world wildfire patterns due to climate change. Quest is a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment and nature.
In the written notes, reporter Craig Miller explained that Moritz and a team of researchers found that climate change won't cause a rise in wildfire everywhere in the world.
In audio interview excerpts,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last Friday, the Associated Press picked up and ran with the climate change stories in the current issue of California Agriculture journal. Reporter Tracie Cone opened her widely published article with the prediction that rising temperatures could make pears, peaches, pistachios and other crops that need winter chill unsuitable for California farms, and others crops would suffer lower yields.
Cone went on to write that articles in California Agriculture "predict temperatures in California will increase by 7 degrees Fahrenheit by...