- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A long commentary published today in the Southeast Farm Press warns that agriculture dodged a bullet with the passage of the 2008 Farm Bill, but that doesn't mean the industry will be able to do so indefinitely. The commentary draws liberally from a late-1990s book by UC Davis Cooperative Extension economist Steven Blank.
Blank paints a picture of America without agriculture in The End of Agriculture in the American Portfolio. For the Farm Press article, writer Paul Hollis quotes the publication's first paragraph:
“America’s unsurpassed ability to produce plentiful and inexpensive food is coming to an end. The signals...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A story in the Sacramento Bee paints a lovely picture of local food production in a story under the title "Think globally, eat locally."
"The sun is coming up. Geese fly overhead. Wild turkeys meander amid the fruit trees, as (farmer Lisa) Tollefson picks sunflowers in the golden glow of dawn," goes the story, written by Stuart Leavenworth.
The article's vision of local farming wasn't entirely rose-colored. Indeed, it mentioned that Tollefson's partner, Steve Pilz, disrupted a yellow jacket nest while clearing brush and had to set traps for voracious gophers with his eye swollen by insect stings.
But the real juxtaposition comes in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The cyclical nature of blogs is intriguing. A story in the Freakonomics blog that featured UC Agricultural Issues Center director Dan Sumner’s expertise, and reported on in this ANR news blog entry, takes another turn in the media and technology blog of Alternet.org.
Eating Liberally writer Kerry Trueman asks what the New York Times has against local food and green living in a post focused...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The director of UC Cooperative Extension in Stanislaus County, Ed Perry, provided information to the county board of supervisors about agriculture's multiplier effect and its impact on the local economy, according to a Modesto Bee story by reporter Tim Moran
Moran's story was based on the presentation to the board of the county's 2007 Agricultural Crop Report, which says agriculture has a $2.4 billion commodity value, up more than 10 percent from the previous year.
According to the article, Perry said that agriculture's "multiplier effect" is more than three. Doing the math, that means the total impact of agriculture on the county's economy is more...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Agricultural economics has prompted a lively online discussion on Steven Dubner's New York Times blog "Freakonomics." As of this morning, 71 comments had been posted, which combined with a lengthy Q & A add up to more than 13,000 words, some heated.
This post had its beginnings a week or so ago when Dubner invited his blog readers to send questions for the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner. The blog post included 23 questions and answers touching on such hot topics as organic agriculture, local food production, obesity and farm subsidies. Dubner titled the...
