- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Californian of southern Riverside County covered the concerns of farmers over water cutbacks. Reporter Jeff Rowe said farmers are turning to science and ingenuity to try to save county agriculture - and help keep food prices down.
The story highlighted one farmer who plans to use water absorbing polymers on a watermelon farm and another farmer who is working to secure grants to build a plant to extract salts from water discharged from sewage-treatment plants.
For the story, Rowe spoke to UC Riverside Cooperative Extension vegetable crops specialist Milt McGiffen about the possibility of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Bad news for pistachio farmers, processors and consumers alike - yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that consumers avoid eating pistachios and products made from pistachios because of reports of Salmonella contamination. The story was reported in numerous media outlets, including US News & World Report.
The contamination came to light when Kraft Foods "Back to Nature" trail mix was found to be tainted with Salmonella. Kraft traced the contamination to Setton Pistachio in Terra Bella, Calif. The company immediately stopped distributing...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California bees got busy last year, producing 35 percent more honey than they did in 2007, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee over the weekend. The bee story cited USDA figures.
Despite the good news, the nation's beekeepers aren't out of the woods. Cases of what has been called Colony Collaspe Disorder are still reported, "but in most cases, here (in California), things are better," the story quoted UC Davis entomologist Eric Mussen.
Researchers are still trying to figure out what caused bees to abandon hives en masse two years ago, when honey production fell to its lowest point in 20 years.
Another factor that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
I can't resist a story that places any good light on climate change. It gives me hope for my children and children's children. One example, covered by the Times Online of the United Kingdom a few years ago, was a report that residents of Greenland will now be able to grow their own vegetables, rather than import everything from Europe, because of warmer, shorter winters.
A second story on climate change the involves a bit of good news for California appeared in the Stockton Record last week. The story said efforts to battle...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new UC Berkeley study that is getting lots of media attention notes that the incidence of obesity in high school students is greater when there is a fast food restaurant within 530 feet of the campus. Nearby fast food resulted in a 5.2 percent increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths, according to coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Scientists said the correlation is "sizable."
Reporter Jerry Hirsch sought comment from the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, Brenda Roche. She said she wasn't...