- Author: Rachel A. Surls
(The Sacramento Bee published an op-ed by Rachel Surls, UC ANR urban agriculture advisor for Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, in its editorial pages today. The op-ed is reprinted below.)
Urban agriculture is in the local spotlight as the Sacramento City Council is expected to vote Tuesday night on allowing farming on city lots and making it easier for residents to sell produce they have grown.
In similar discussions around the state on the desire of residents to raise their own food with fewer restrictions, there is a core issue that should be front and center. In California, where we grow half of the country's fruits and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The cross-pollination of gardening with nutrition is helping UC educators get a message out to youth about healthy eating, according to an article that was published in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
UC Master Gardener Diane King is visiting all first-grade classrooms at Romoland Elementary School to talk about food.
"You are so lucky to be living in California. Do you know why?" King asked the children. "Because California grows so many different types of fruits for the whole country. In California, we can buy fresh fruit all year...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Urban Farming magazine gave its readers a "whirlwind introduction" to a few Los Angeles residents and programs that are working to bring back a modicum of the metropolis' agricultural past. The first vignette in "Urban Farm Road Trip, Los Angeles" featured Yvonne Savio and the UC Cooperative Extension Common Ground Program she coordinates.
Most counties in the country have a Cooperative Extension service that dispenses agricultural, horticultural and nutritional information, the article said. But the program in Los Angeles...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A Los Angeles Times reporter zeroed in on remarks made by the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith, at a conference marking the opening of a new urban garden in San Marino.
Hayden-Smith, a history expert, was quoted in the second paragraph of the story and her name was mentioned five times as a source of historical information about growing food in urban spaces.
It's a present-day craze, but Hayden-Smith said it is not new.
- Ancient Romans tended rooftop gardens
- Early Americans grew...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension county director Rose Hayden-Smith told reporter Virginia A. Smith that the creation of an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn signifies the movement's arrival in the popular consciousness.
"People in national leadership are talking about these issues," Smith was quoted in the story. "I think this is going to be a very enduring feature of...
