- Author: Liz Sizensky
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
He has been called the “Elvis of E. coli” and the “Sinatra of Salmonella,” and now Carl Winter, a UC Cooperative Extension food toxicologist for 32 years, will rock and roll his way into retirement on July 1, 2019.
Based at UC Davis, Winter researches the detection of pesticides and naturally occurring toxins in foods, how to assess their risks and how to use science in the regulatory decision-making process.
His most recent work includes investigating the relationship between allowable levels and safety levels for pesticide residues on food crops. Author of numerous journal articles, books and book chapters, he has testified before the U.S. Congress on four occasions and has given nearly 1,000 scientific presentations and more than 1,000 media interviews over the course of his career.
The internationally respected food-safety expert is equally known for using humor and music to communicate important messages about food and agriculture.
“Dr. Winter has been a strong and reassuring voice for consumers about the safety of produce and a positive influence on fruit and vegetable consumption,” said Teresa Thorne, executive director of the Alliance for Food and Farming. “He has been an invaluable resource for media, consumers, his students and the produce industry because of his ability to make complex issues understandable. He has set such a high standard and his voice will be missed.”
Winter, who is an accomplished musician, also studies how to improve educational activities by incorporating music into food safety curricula. His humorous musical parodies about food safety aim to educate through entertainment. Accompanying himself on keyboard and guitar, Winter covers Will Smith's “Gettin' Jiggy Wit It,” as “Don't Get Sicky Wit It,” and The Beatles' “I Want to Hold Your Hand” becomes “You'd Better Wash Your Hands.”
The food safety musician has performed songs at nearly 300 scientific conferences and meetings in 37 states with his own lyrics, such as “Hey, Salmonella, did you think I'd lay down and die?” for Gloria Gaynor's “I Will Survive.” He has distributed 30,000 audio CDs and animated DVDs and his YouTube page has received more than 1 million views. Winter's food safety videos can also be seen at http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/html/video.html.
Winter, who was vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology for the past six years, also served as a member of UC Agriculture and Natural Resource's Program Council from 2015 through 2019.
In retirement, he plans to continue playing keyboard and guitar for the Northern California bands Petty Jack Flash, Keep on Truckin', and Elvis and the Experience, as well as travel throughout the world with his wife, Robin.
- Author: Wendy Powers
I stand corrected; only a couple of SI Leaders pulled together the information for the Federal report. Thanks go out to Cheryl Wilen, Doug Parker, Clare Gupta, Neil McRoberts, David Lile, Chris Greer, and Yana Valachovik for their work! I met with Katherine Webb-Martinez, and we talked about all the many uses for the information provided. It is exciting to think about the opportunities to share your stories and successes.
Now that Cheryl Wilen has rotated off serving as an SI Leader, I don't see her every month for Program Council. She made a special appearance this month to attend a musical performance by Carl Winter, following the Program Council meeting last Tuesday. Carl shared with the Davis ANR building some of his parodies that he developed as a novel method of teaching food safety principles to students. A few years ago, he was awarded a USDA competitive grant to create and deliver the songs. I suspect he may have been disappointed a bit in his stoic audience, but everyone enjoyed the performance and our opportunity to experience both his musical talent and his creativity. We can talk about Mark Bell's dancing in a different post.
Carl's demonstrated his creativity following a Program Council ideation activity. Program Council members worked in small teams to brainstorm ideas that would position UC ANR for the future. Then we slept on it and reconvened on Wednesday to share out our thoughts and think about ‘who would get behind the idea' and ‘what would make the idea work'? The goal wasn't to move forward with the ideas themselves but to get to the development of guiding principles for making decisions going forward. This would include program reviews and resource allocation decisions. It had been a while since the guiding principles had last been reviewed (2009, I think). Like many of the Program Council members, I left thinking as much about the ideas I heard and ‘what if' as I did thinking about the guiding principles. What sunk in with me was that any single idea might be a challenge to implement but the combination of several of the concepts, while identified independently, could come together and forge a path forward. The other thing that stuck out was that those ideas that were the most innovative tended to be the ones that would be the most difficult to implement, often due to internal or external resistance, reinforcing the sentiment that change is hard. Carl commented that one of the challenges he continues to face is that often colleagues don't see him as a serious scientist. And yet, his approach to teaching is not only evidence of his scholarship and creativity, but far more impactful as far as learning and behavior change adoption, than most peer-reviewed journal publications could ever achieve.
/span>S. Kaan Kurtural joined UC ANR as a Cooperative Extension viticulture specialist in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis on Nov. 16.
Prior to joining UC, Kurtural was the inaugural Bronco Wine Company Research Chair in Viticulture at California State University, Fresno. From 2005 to 2008, Kurtural was a Cooperative Extension viticulture specialist at the University of Kentucky. His research focuses on improving production efficiency, fruit quality and pest management in vineyards.
Kurtural has done extensive research on mechanization of crop load management for optimizing grape yields and composition in the San Joaquin Valley.
Kurtural is part of a team recently awarded a $6 million, four-year USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant for precision vineyard management. Kurtural leads the variable-rate crop load study in winegrapes, juice grapes and tablegrapes. He is also planning field trials to look at different rootstocks under different irrigation regimes to evaluate them for drought tolerance, water-use efficiency and rooting systems. One rootstock trial with red grape varieties is planned at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, and a rootstock trial with white grape varieties will be conducted on the UC Davis campus. He also expects to work with other researchers on fertilizer use and efficiency and its effects on grape flavonoids, red blotch virus and training systems for mechanical production efficiency.
Kurtural, a native of Turkey, earned his B.S. in plant and soil science, M.S. in pomology and Ph.D. in plant biology, all at Southern Illinois University.
Based at the Oakville Station, Kurtural can be reached at skkurtural@ucdavis.edu and (707) 944-0126.
To read more about Kurtural, visit http://news.bftv.ucdavis.edu/ven/index.html?display_article=1349.
Theodore Grantham joined UC ANR on Dec. 1, 2015, as a Cooperative Extension specialist in climate and water in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the relationships between hydrological and ecological processes in studies relevant to the management of water resources. Through applied, cross-disciplinary investigations that employ hydrological and hydraulic modeling, empirical field studies, geospatial analysis and ecological statistics, his work aims to inform sustainable, cost-effective water management policy and practice in California.
Prior to joining UCCE, Grantham was a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Fort Collins Science Center. He also spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher with the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis and one year as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Barcelona.
He has over 10 years of experience investigating California water management challenges, working in partnerships with research institutions, government agencies and NGOs. His previous research has largely focused on understanding ecosystem water needs and identifying strategies to incorporate ecological principles in water management practices, policy and decision-making.
Grantham completed a Ph.D. in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley and a B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University.
Grantham, who is located in Berkeley, can be reached at (510) 664-4664 and tgrantham@berkeley.edu.
Aparna Gazula joined UC ANR on Jan. 4, 2016, as a UCCE area small farms advisor in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo and San Benito counties.
Prior to joining UCCE, Gazula had been a Cooperative Extension agent in commercial horticulture since 2009 at University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension in Alachua County, where 97% of all farms in the county are small farms. She was responsible for planning, delivering and evaluating educational programs for the vegetable, fruit, nursery and landscape management industries. Gazula, who speaks Hindi and Telugu, has worked with peppers, tomatoes, watermelons, strawberries, Asian vegetables and microgreens. She conducted variety trials for peppers and fresh market tomatoes and has studied drip irrigation, nutrient management and pest management.
Gazula earned her B.S. in agriculture from A.N.G.R. Agricultural University, India, an M.S. in horticulture and crop science from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in horticulture from University of Florida.
Based in San Jose, Gazula can be reached at (408) 282-3127 and agazula@ucanr.edu.
Carissa Koopmann Rivers joined UC ANR Cooperative Extension on Feb. 1, 2016, as a livestock and natural resources advisor in Siskiyou County. Rivers is a fifth-generation partner in her family's cow/calf operation in the Alameda County town of Sunol. She and her husband also manage their own set of commercial and registered Red Angus cattle.
Prior to joining UCCE, Rivers was a junior specialist in the Rangeland Watershed Laboratory at UC Davis and from 2011 to 2015 was a land manager for the National Audubon Society. She specializes in livestock grazing systems, rangeland ecology and management, livestock management and wildlife and livestock interactions.
Rivers earned her Master of Agriculture degree in integrated resource management from Colorado State University and her B.S. in animal science, livestock production management, from California State University, Fresno.
Based in Yreka, Rivers can be reached at (530) 842-2711 and ckrivers@ucanr.edu.
Lenya Quinn-Davidson is the new UC ANR Cooperative Extension area fire advisor for Humboldt, Trinity, Mendocino and Siskiyou counties beginning March 1.
Since 2011, Quinn-Davidson has been a staff research associate II with UCCE in Humboldt County. During her time there, she has focused on fire science outreach as the coordinator for the Northern California Region of the California Fire Science Consortium, and worked on various research projects with her UC colleagues. She is passionate about oak woodland ecology and restoration, and recently led the development of a successful $2.6 million grant for oak woodland restoration in the North Coast. She is also the director of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council.
Quinn-Davidson earned a B.S. from UC Berkeley in conservation and resource studies, and an M.A. in social science from Humboldt State University (from the Environment and Community Program).
Based in Eureka, Quinn-Davidson can be reached at (707) 445-7351 and lquinndavidson@ucanr.edu.
Lucas Frerichs joined UC ANR as government affairs and community relations manager on Jan. 4.
“I am excited to use my experiences working in state and local government to assist UC ANR in building more effective relationships with local and state elected officials and community leaders throughout the state of California,” said Frerichs, who has served as a Davis city councilman since 2012.
Frerichs brings to UC ANR a decade of experience working in the California State Assembly in Sacramento. Most recently, from 2010 to 2015, he served as legislative director for Assemblyman Rich Gordon, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee, advising Gordon on agriculture, housing, natural resources, energy and the budget process.
Frerichs spent his childhood in upstate New York and Alaska, but has been active in the Davis community since graduating from Davis High School. In addition to the city council, Frerichs serves as vice chair for the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (Amtrak California), and as board member for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Yolo County Transportation District (Yolobus) and the Yolo Habitat Conservancy. He is also an appointed member of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. On environmental matters, Frerichs is a board member for the Yolo Basin Foundation, which oversees the management of 16,000 acres of wetland habitat in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
Based in the ANR Building in Davis, Frerichs can be reached at (530) 750-1218 and lfrerichs@ucanr.edu.
IFT honors German and Winter
Both will receive their awards in a ceremony of the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Exposition in Chicago on July 16, 2016.
For a full list of the Institute of Food Technolgists' 2016 Achievement Award recipients, visit
http://www.ift.org/membership/awards-and-recognition/award-recipients.aspx.
The Lone Star Ranch, owned and operated by the Moore Family in Kneeland, was recognized as the North American winner of the 2016 Society for Range Management's Excellence in Range Management award. The sustainable way the Moores manage livestock, silviculture and vegetation is supported by the work of Jeff Stackhouse, UC ANR Cooperative Extension livestock advisor in Humboldt County. The ranch was recognized regionally by the Society for Range Management for Excellence in Range Management last fall, then advanced to win the national award.
The award was based upon the positive impacts of the Moore family's efforts in environmental stewardship, community support and inter-agency collaboration.
Dina Moore serves on the UC President's Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The ranch employs numerous business enterprises, including, but not limited to: sustainable beef grazing and timber harvest, goat grazing for vegetation management, and a heavy equipment business to install restoration projects and improve roads. Sediment reduction in streams from road runoff is one of the greatest successes of the Lone Star Ranch and the Yagger/Van Duzen Environmental Stewards (YES), a landowner non-profit organization headed by Dina Moore.
Winter is a food toxicologist located at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science on the UC Davis campus. He is the director of the FoodSafe Program and is a member of the Food Safety Workgroup. Prior to coming to UC Davis in 1991, he was a Cooperative Extension toxicologist at UC Riverside from 1987 to 1991 and science writer for the Richmond-Times Dispatch newspaper in 1985. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental chemistry and a B.S. in environmental toxicology, both from UC Davis. His research and outreach work focus on pesticide residues and naturally occurring toxins in foods, food chemical and microbiological risk assessment, and food-safety education using music. We look forward to his many talents: he is known as the “Elvis of E. coli” and the “Sinatra of Salmonella,” and has been providing entertaining, educational and humorous presentations for a wide variety of clients over the past two decades (http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu).
For more information about Carl Winter, see http://carlwinter.com. To see the Program Council roster, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/Divisionwide_Programs/Program_Council.
Bill Frost
Associate Vice President
Program Council Chair
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
"Everyone smells the petrochemicals in the irrigation water," said Blake Sanden, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension advisor in Kern County. "When I talk to growers, and they smell the oil field crap in that water, they assume the soil is taking care of this."
The farmers trust that organisms in the soil remove toxins or impurities in the water. However, the trust may be misplaced.
Microoganisms in soils can consume and process some impurities, Sanden said, but it's not clear whether oil field waste is making its way into the roots or leaves of irrigated plants, and then into the food chain.
It's unlikely that petrochemicals will show up in an almond, for example, he said, "But can they make it into the flesh of an orange or grape? It's possible. A lot of this stuff has not been studied in a field setting or for commercial food uptake."
The reporter also spoke to Carl Winter, a UC ANR Cooperative Extension specialist based at UC Davis. He said some plants can absorb toxins without transferring them to the leaves or the flesh of their fruit.
Still, he said, "it's difficult to say anything for sure because we don't know what chemicals are in the water."
A visiting scholar at UC Berkeley who is a researcher analyzing hydraulic fracturing for the California legislature said the issue is "one of the things that keeps me up at night."
"You can't find what you don't look for," he said.