- Author: Brenda Dawson
Reporter Amina Khan with the LA Times profiled husband-and-wife entomologist team Christina and Mark Hoddle of UC Riverside (Mark is also a UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist). The pair travel the world seeking parasitoids that can serve as biological control to invasive California pests and then test the results at the Center for Invasive Species Research at UC Riverside. "Bugs don't take weekends," Christina Hoddle told the reporter, "so neither do we."
- Author: Brenda Dawson
An article by Ching Lee in today's Ag Alert focused on the effects of budget cuts on agricultural student programs at California universities. "Budget cuts have had a profound effect on all areas of the campus," Diane Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs at UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, told the reporter. She explained the college faces challenges keeping agricultural production facilities, instructional equipment and technologies updated to deliver hands-on education — even though the office has seen student applications increase by 70–80 percent.
- Author: Brenda Dawson
Reporter Laurie Lucas covered UC Riverside's turfgrass field day for The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise. Approximately 200 homeowners, park managers, water experts, scientists, nursery professionals and golf course supervisors attended the event. One of the 13 projects highlighted at the Turfgrass Research Facility's event examined water-efficient groundcover, including rosemary, thyme and iceplant. UC Cooperative Extension specialist Donald Merhaut commented on the plants' response to reduced water. "Most of the 18 species we grew with limited irrigation did...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Riverside Press-Enterprise published an eight-page special report about UC Riverside in the Sunday newspaper, calling the institution "The Idea Factory."
"Not only students graduate to the real world. Ideas do, too," the report's introduction says.
One of the articles in the special report focuses on industry support of agricultural research at UC Riverside. The story traces the roots of UC Riverside's agricultural programs from its establishment as a citrus research station in 1907 through a history of accomplishments in plant breeding, insect pest and disease...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Yearly per capita consumption of grapefruit has been on a steady decline since the late 1970s, according to an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. To boost the fruit's popularity and keep the industry in business, growers in Southern California have organized a cooperative and hired PR expert Kari Birdseye to put together a marketing program.
In 1976, Americans ate almost 9 pounds of grapefruit per year. As a late-baby boomer, that doesn't come as a big surprise to me. The popular "grapefruit diet" was one of the first weight-loss fads I can remember. By 2007, per capita consumption dropped to 2.76 pounds, the article...