Biodynamic farming takes organic agriculture one step further. In addition to rejecting synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, the practice involves adding soil and plant amendment "preparations" and even evoking astrological inspiration. As such, the system is considered poppycock to some, indespensible to adherents. Recently, biodynamic agriculture has been in the news. Insidebayarea.com food writer Jolene Thym published a story yesterday about biodynamic farmer Mike Benzinger of Benzinger Family Vineyards in Glenn Ellen.

"In commercial farming, you push nature out to the borders," Benzinger is quoted in the article. "Here, we have invited it...

The director of the UC Cooperative Extension Sea Grant Extension Program, Paul Olin, was cited in a story published today by the Marin Independent Journal. His expertise was sought about a decision made by the Marin County Board of Supervisors to ask Sen. Dianne Feinstein to help one of the county's largest oyster farms stay in business.

National Park officials say the oyster beds threaten an important habitat for harbor seals and shorebirds and damage the growth of native eelgrass.

According to the article, written by Rob Rogers, Olin downplayed the effects of the oyster company on native eelgrass.

"Every farm has impacts, but it also has benefits," Olin said. "In this case, those...

The UC Exotic/Invasive Pests and Diseases Research Program funded a project in which USDA scientists developed a new and faster way to raise natural enemies of exotic weed species, according to a news release written by UC IPM communications specialist Stephanie Klunk.

The process involves the use of an artificial diet that was invented to raise a type of weevil. The USDA scientists found that the same diet is useful when researchers travel to foreign lands to find natural enemies of exotic weeds. They can put larvae found feeding on the plant into vials that contain the diet, where the insect will develop to the adult stage.

For example, scientists were able to use the substance to rear root...

The USDA-Agricultural Research Service news service reported last week that its scientists teamed up with UC Davis plant pathologist Krishna Subbarao to produce lettuce resistant to verticillium wilt, a soil-borne fungus that destroys the plant.

More than a half-dozen companies that produce lettuce seeds have requested seed samples, according to Ryan Hayes, ARS research plant geneticist in Salinas, Calif., the principle investigator of the project.

"Breeding lettuce with natural resistance (to disease) remains the most environmentally friendly, economical and sustainable option for combating the fungus," according to the news release, written by Marcia Wood. In the release, she reported that...