- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Los Angeles Times yesterday ran a story about an exotic pest that is knocking on Southern California's door -- the Asian citrus psyllid. The pest was found in Tijuana backyard trees just blocks from the border. California citrus growers fear the psyllid's ability to spread citrus greening disease from tree to tree. Citrus greening causes trees to produce small, discolored and bitter fruit; and then eventually, the tree dies. There is no known cure.
Stephanie Klunk of the UC IPM program distributed a release on the threat two weeks ago. Both articles included comment from UC...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The first indicator cited in a San Jose Mercury-News story about the 2008 drought is the number of phone calls coming into the local UC Cooperative Extension office.
The second paragraph of the article says the "unusual number of calls" are from people asking why their camphor trees and liquid ambars are wilting.
"This year we've had so little rain that for trees that are not adapted — and even those that are — there is simply no moisture in the ground except for (what) we are applying," the Mercury-News quoted Bethallyn Black, UCCE urban horticulture advisor in Contra Costa County.
She said some...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, indicated that declining agricultural research is contributing to a hike in global food prices, according to an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
There has been a decline in investments in agricultural research and development at the federal and state levels and worldwide, with more resources diverted to improving efficiency, the story paraphrased Sumner.
"It's a long-running phenomenon I think we ought to pay a lot more attention to," he was quoted.
The Chronicle story, by George Raine, also attributed the spike in food prices to:
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- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The current issue of the Almond Board of California's newsletter "The Handle," which is e-mailed to about 100 almond processors monthly, opens with a warm letter from its chief executive officer, Richard Waycott, about UC ANR's new leadership.
The letter says Waycott and ABC's production research head Bob Curtis recently met with ANR vice president Dan Dooley and associate vice president Rick Standiford. Waycott wrote that Dooley wants to position agriculture front and center at the Regents’ table, crafting a long-term plan for
The letter noted that Dooley plans to complement this...
/st1:state>/st1:place>- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The debate over Proposition 2 is beginning to heat up. The proposition, which will appear on the November ballot, was designed to regulate treatment of farm animals. So far, voters seem to be in favor of the idea. According to a story in today's San Jose Mercury-News, a field poll found that two-thirds of California voters will mark their ballots in favor of the initiative.
Among other things, Prop 2 would end the common practice of housing egg-laying hens in cages in California starting in 2015. A new study released today by the UC Agricultural Issues Center found that nearly all of the $330 million