- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When the Contra Costa Times set out to write a story about the plight of landowners in Canyon where oak trees are dying from Sudden Oak Death, the reporter sought information from the California Oak Mortality Task Force, a program established at UC Berkeley that focuses on Phytophthora ramorum, the plant pathogen which causes Sudden Oak Death.
Reporter Elizabeth Nardi interviewed task force public information officer Katie Palmieri for information about removing diseased trees from private and public property. Palmieri said the task force does not have a recommendation on when trees...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A publication called Government Technology went to former director of the Western Center for Food Safety at UC Davis Jerry Gillespie for a story about the ease with which community food and water supplies can be contaminated, accidentally or intentionally.
Gillespie noted that contamination at one processing plant can have widespread implications because food from a single source tends to be distributed widely.
"We've learned that, for example, with the spinach outbreak in Salinas County, it affected more than 18 states," he said. "So in a very quick order, we can have widespread contaminated product."
Agriculture in the United...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Yesterday, UC Davis news service distributed a news release about an audit that found some funds intended for the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program were misspent. While FSNEP is administered at the UC Davis campus, ANR advisors and program representatives in 40 counties deliver the program to the clientele.
The news was widely reported in the media. The Sacramento Bee mentioned in its story the information was released in response to a public records request made by the newspaper. The reporter, Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, spoke to UC Davis news service director Mitchell Benson. He told...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno Bee ran a by-lined obituary about legendary UCCE farm advisor Leslie (Les) Stromberg on Saturday. Mr. Stromberg, who was hired as the Fresno County advisor for "soils and truck crops" in 1951, passed away Nov. 12 at the age of 89. According to the article, Mr. Stromberg sounded early warnings about the danger of San Joaquin Valley soil contamination, and helped growers fight plant disease, increase yield and establish Fresno County as the leading agricultural region in the nation.
The reporter who wrote the obituary, Jim Steinberg, sought comments from Mr. Stromberg's successor in the post of soils and water farm advisor, Dan Munk, and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An article in today's Hanford Sentinel notes that Daniel Dooley hails from the same Hanford high school as his predecessor Reg Gomes.
"It's probably not common that you get people from the same high school following each other in these types of positions," the newspaper quotes Dooley.
In his article about the appointment, reporter Seth Nidever went to UCCE Kings County farm advisor Bob Beede for comment.
"Dan definitely understands the nature of the value and the critical use for agriculture ... and the activities assigned to the UC...
