- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
A great climate comes from happy soil. Could happy soil come from California?
(Popular Science) Ula Chrobak, Aug. 15
…Agencies, especially the Natural Resources Conservation Service, have promoted healthy soil practices for decades, but these actions have only recently become valued for their climate benefit. One that Allison Rowe, climate smart community education specialist at Ventura County's UC cooperative extension offices, is especially excited about is cover cropping. “Cover cropping is one of my favorite topics of all time,” she says. “What I love about cover crops is that they utilize the most ancient, tried-and-true carbon capture and storage technology out there, which...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has formed a work group to find alternatives to the pesticide chlorpyrifos that will help farmers manage insect pests when a state ban on the chemical goes into effect, reported Kerry Klein on Valley Public Radio.
Klein interviewed David Haviland, UC Cooperative Extension entomology advisor and a member of the work group.
“This is an important topic,” Haviland said. “Chlorpyrifos has had a lot of benefits to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A group of trained and dedicated volunteers have been tasting avocado samples at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier to determine whether the GEM avocado variety can stand up to the tried-and-true Hass in grocery stores, reported Dale Yurong on ABC 30 Action News.
Yurong visited the sensory lab at Kearney where nine tasters have been meeting for months to help inform UC and USDA research that may enable commercial production of avocados in the San Joaquin Valley, an area believed to be unsuitable because of hot summers and cold...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Keeping global warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 F) can be achieved only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors, including land and food, said the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a report released Aug. 8, 2019.
The panel of scientists said agriculture, deforestration and other land use - such as harvesting peat and managing grasslands and wetlands - generate about one-third of human greenhouse gas emissions and 44% of methane emissions. The panel suggests that farmland be reduced and forestland increased to keep the earth from getting more than 1.5 degrees C hotter than in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
School teachers take a week each summer for a deep dive into the world of forestry courtesy of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, reported the Times-Standard. Teachers explore redwoods, endangered species and water quality during the Forestry Institute for Teachers training, equipping them to share information with their students on the relationship of forest ecosystems and human use of natural resources.
During the Humboldt County training session, the president of Humboldt State University, Tom Jackson, Jr., joined...
