- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
COVID-19 does not currently pose major threats to overall global food security because adequate stores of staples — like wheat and rice — remain available. But the sustainability of California specialty crops may face greater hurdles, reported Laura Poppick in Scientific American.
Poppick spoke with two UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) scientists for perspective on the future of California agriculture considering the market and production constraints posed by measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“Everybody...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Agricultural advances draw opposition that blunts innovation
(Science) Anne Q. Hoy, June 29
Scientists are using technology to expand global food production and ease its environmental impact, but advances are being challenged by claims that lack scientific evidence and raise public distrust and concern, a leading agricultural scientist told an American Association for the Advancement of Science audience.
Alison Van Eenennaam traced the advent of campaigns against agricultural innovations related to areas from cattle and chicken production systems to plant biotechnology. The impact such efforts are having on agricultural advances was the focus of the ninth annual AAAS Charles Valentine Riley...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Unprecedented Study Discovers what Urban Coyotes Really Eat
(Care2) Laura Goldman, March 30
Hiking boots, avocados, candy wrappers and fast-food containers. These aren't a few of my favorite things, but they are some of the items found inside the stomachs of dead urban coyotes in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
…Since the study began over a year ago, the researchers, led by Dr. Niamh Quinn, the human-wildlife interactions advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension, have discovered that cats make up only about eight percent of a coyote's diet.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A popular foodie trend is to "buy local," but use of the term is rarely enforced, reported Robert Anglen in the Arizona Republic. The story was published on USAToday.com.
"The word 'local' is chic; it sells things," said Cindy Fake, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Placer and Nevada counties. "So, it's used by everybody and anybody."
Fake said "local" has no...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new working group has been formed in Plumas and Sierra counties to find ways to enhance and strengthen the ag sector of the region's local economy, according to the Plumas County News.
The group's planning meeting last week was facilitated UC food systems analyst Gail Feenstra and UC Cooperative Extension community development specialist David Campbell, who led a discussion about local resources — natural, human, governmental and physical — for which products and markets could be created or...