- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
With 5,700 small-scale farms, San Diego County bills itself as having the state's largest concentration of small farms, reported Tatiana Sanchez in the San Diego Union-Tribune. About 4,000 of the farms are from 1 to 9 acres in size.
"We have 3 million consumers in San Diego County and maybe 17 to 18 million consumers in Southern California. It makes an opportunity for someone to find a niche and find a place to succeed in this world and sell their product," said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources has an...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A behind-the-scenes battle is raging in the Senate over how to regulate small and organic growers without ruining them - and still protect consumers from contaminated food, according to a story published yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The crux of the legislation gives the Food and Drug Administration greater authority to regulate how products are grown, stored, transported, inspected, traced from farm to table and recalled when needed.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A brief article in this month's issue of San Joaquin Magazine gave readers a glimpse of one of the more unusual research plantings at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center by UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Richard Molinar and his assistant Michael Yang.
The publication, which the title page claims "is found in affluent homes of Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Ripon, Manteca, and Mountain House," said "evocatively-named" herbs Siberian motherwort, Vietnamese...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A plot of Southeast Asian medicinal and culinary herbs at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center made an appearance in a Fresno Bee food story published yesterday.
The article centered on "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America," a cookbook for Americans who wish to try the exotic cuisine introduced by Hmong immigrants. A large population of Hmong settled in the San Joaquin Valley after the Vietnam War. The Hmong collaborated with the CIA during the conflict and were promised protection in the event of a loss. They were ultimately relocated to enclaves in California, Minnesota and other areas.
Writer Joan Obra says...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Add to that the dismal economics of milk production, and you have a recipe for dispair.
Those are the feelings of Marc Duivenvoorden, who was recently profiled in the Redding Record-Searchlight. He owns a dairy on the border of Tehama and Shasta counties with 25 producing Jersey and Holstein cows.
Processors are required to pay farmers for milk using formulas set by state regulators and...