- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Fresno Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez opened a story in yesterday's paper about the impending drought with the thoughts of UC Davis pomologist Kenneth Shackel. According to Rodriguez' lead, Shackel is "feeling more like an emergency room doctor than an agricultural researcher."
"It's like triage," Shackel was quoted. "For some, this isn't about controlling diseases or yields, it's about survival."
Shackel was one of several UC experts whose imput was sought on the desperate efforts being planned by farmers to save water and keep their valuable permanent crops alive. Valley growers are already taking...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Interest in using goats to clear unwanted vegetation on rangeland is growing in popularity, according to UC Cooperative Extension livestock farm advisor Roger Ingram. In a Sacramento Bee story published today, Ingram confirmed writer Ramon Coronado's central thesis: Goats can be a green answer to wildfire prevention.
Coronado reported that more than 60 people attended a recent forum where Ingram discussed the pros and cons of using goats instead of machinery, chemicals and weed whackers.
The use of goats for weed abatement has drawbacks, however. Here are some of the concerns:
- Left unchecked, the animals can overgraze,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Author Chris Henke used UC Cooperative Extension in Monterey County as an example of how agricultural science has helped the farm industry respond to problems, but that technology transfer can get stuck in a power struggle.
Henke explained the case study in The World's Fair: All Manner of Human Creativity on Display. From what I can tell, the blog is essentially an Oprah-style book club for high-brow, academic tomes and the posts typically are a transcribed Q&A session with an author. The book featured in the blog today is Cultivating...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno Bee reported over the weekend that the number of female farmers in the United States grew by nearly nearly 30 percent and the number of Hispanic farmers grew by 10 percent over the past five years. The number of Native American, Asian and black farm operators also rose according to the article, written by reporter Robert Rodriguez. The figures are from the recently released 2007 Census of Agriculture.
In the central San Joaquin Valley, the number of female farmers grew by 22 percent in Fresno County, 16 percent in Madera County, 15 percent in Tulare County and 6 percent in Kings County, the story said....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
After the raucous California budget struggle and an impending drought, Californians might enjoy a tidbit from the Early County News in Blakeley, Georgia. The story notes that the world's expert on brown recluse spiders is a UC Riverside scientist and he is certain there are no populations of the frightening aracnid anywhere in California.
UC Riverside entomologist Rick Vetter has actually published a 4,000-word manifesto on the Web about brown recluse spiders titled "Myth of the Brown Recluse: Fact, Fear, and Loathing." At the end of the tirade, he emphatically states in red, all...
