- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the contribution of UC research in combating world hunger in a speech yesterday honoring the winners of the 2010 World Food Prize.
The president of Bread for the World, David Beckmann, and president of Heifer International, Jo Luck, were honored by the State Department for expanding their grassroots organizations and bringing help to the world's hungry.
Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization that presses lawmakers to support anti-hunger policies. Heifer International brings food and income producing animals to extremely poor families around the globe.
In her presentation, titled...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California farmers would like the 2012 farm bill to provide help for struggling dairies, incentives for reducing air pollution and support for a legal farm work force, according to testimony at a House Agriculture Committee hearing yesterday at Fresno City Hall reported in today's Fresno Bee.
The story, written by Robert Rodriguez, said an almond grower who requested help for purchasing new tractors that meet state air quality regulations heard from Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, that it may be a tough sell in the nation's capital.
"We can't drive public policy on what one state does," he said. "We are going to have to make some...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, issued a news release last week that said four professors in its Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Department are part of nine teams of researchers and educators to receive funding intended to foster collaboration among California’s colleges and universities.
Funding for the nine projects, the release said, "is provided by the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and totals $79,000."
The campuses involved include UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, and CSU campuses at Chico, Fresno, Humboldt, Pomona and San Luis Obispo....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
On Friday, two reporters joined ranchers and UC, Fresno State and US Forest Service academics at the San Joaquin Experimental Range for a field day, presentations and barbecue marking the centennial of the Forest Service's research program. At the event, officials signed a new memorandum of understanding outlining the research goals and administrative arrangements for the 4,500-acre facility.
As part of the agreement, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor and county director for Madera County, Neil McDougald, takes on the role of site manager for the sprawling oak woodland research facility 26 miles north of Fresno.
Dennis Pollock, a freelance reporter for AgAlert, took a guided tour of riparian areas on the station, and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As Californians wait patiently today for the state budget vote, scheduled for 4 o'clock this afternoon, it's a good time to review the value of agriculture and agricultural research as it has been reported in the press in recent days.
Last Wednesday, Western Farm Press ran an Almond Board press release about a symposium that took place earlier this summer in Sacramento. At the symposium, UC ANR associate vice president Rick Standiford noted that there has been a 24 percent reduction in UC Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Cooperative Extension staff since 1990.
The story said UC's academic staff is expected to shrink...