- Author: Ricky Satomi
New Online Facilities
Cancelled
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Additional
- Ownership or operator changes at Tracy Biomass(now Greenleaf)
- Operation of Shasta Renewable, Rio Bravo (Rocklin, Fresno, Jasmin and Poso), and Chinese Station has been taken over by IHI Power Services Corporation
Non-Operational
For the most current facility information, please refer to our Biomass Power Map. We will continue to update as more information become available, and always welcome firsthand updates of new biomass developments that have been missed.
/table>- Author: Penny Leff
The University of California Small Farm Program, UC Cooperative Extension and collaborating partners will host a Statewide Agritourism Summit for everyone involved in California agritourism on Wednesday April 8, 2015 at the Heidrick Agricultural History Center in Woodland.
“The public is excited about California agritourism. Many California agricultural producers host great opportunities for enjoyment and education for the public and are ready for visitors, but challenges persist in most regions,” said Holly George, leader of the UC Nature and Agricultural Tourism Workgroup and UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Plumas/Sierra Counties. “Groups working on agritourism are thriving in some locales and struggling in other areas. We hope this one-day Agritourism Summit will encourage and strengthen regional and cross-regional working relationships among agritourism operators, organizers, regulators, educators and general tourism promoters throughout California,” said George, one of the Summit organizers.
People who should attend include: Agritourism operators and associations, agritourism regulators, agricultural associations and educators, tourism, marketing and economic development professionals, county and state staff and elected officials, and anyone else involved in California agritourism.
This will be a participatory all-day session (8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) with lunch provided. Participants are invited to bring marketing and organizational information to display and share. The goals of the summit are to:
- Build awareness and understanding of successful local and regional networks that benefit agricultural producers and communities, and connect agritourism operators, the larger tourism community and county staff and officials
- Promote sharing of successful agritourism activities and marketing efforts
- Encourage and assist agritourism producers to collaborate with others in their region
- Expand the reach of regional efforts to market agritourism to the public statewide
- Generate a voice for agritourism at a legislative level
- Initiate plans for a statewide framework for agritourism communication and collaboration
This project is funded in part by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Specialty Crop Block Grant program. Additional sponsors are Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) for California, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and California Rangeland Conservation Coalition.
Funding is available through these generous sponsors to assist with travel costs for a limited number of agricultural producers and agricultural educators who could not otherwise attend the Summit. For information about travel assistance, please contact Penny Leff, paleff@ucdavis.edu, 530-752-7779
Agenda and additional information
Registration fee: $20.00 pre-registration (until April 3, 2015) or $30.00 at the door.
/span>- Author: Robert W. Sams
In keeping with my theme in this blog, I found an interesting paper asking some fundamental questions about problems with current copyright, with special attention to education. Here's a snippet....
In this article, we explore how the technological, social, cultural, and legal developments of the digital age challenge educators and students who seek to make use of copyrighted material for educational purposes and offer educators strategies for dealing with today’s copyright challenges. This article is from Innovate, an online magazine. Citation information is at the end of the article and yes, I checked very carefully to make sure I could post it here. There are a number of references to new legislation and other initiatives that aim to adapt copyright law to the digital age. How this will sort out is anyone's guess, but one step we can all take is to do our best to know and to follow current law. Bob
What's Wrong with Copyright- Educator Strategies for Dealing with Analog Copyright Law in a Digital World
- Author: Rose Hayden-Smith
For food policy and public health wonks, the summer of 2008 will go down in the books, and California is leading the way. On July 27th, I blogged about the state's newly passed legislation requiring restaurants to cook without artery-clogging trans fats. http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=532In
On July 29th, the Los Angeles City Council approved a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles, a move that was not without controversy. And just yesterday, August 7th, Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mike Antonovich announced a proposal that will require fast food and chain restaurants to provide calorie counts for their menu items. While the legislation would only apply to unincorporated areas of the county, it would affect millions of residents. It comes to a vote next week, and is anticipated to receive a strong endorsement from the Los Angeles City Council.
Is this good public policy? Or do these measures represent the worst aspects of what some term the "nanny state?"
I don't claim to have the answers to these difficult questions, but I have reviewed a variety of statistics in the last two days. And after considering these statistics, I do understand why Los Angeles policy makers and legislators are feeling compelled to make some changes.
According to Los Angeles County Public Health statistics, the percentage of obese adults in the county increased from 14.3 percent in 1997 to 20.9 percent in 2005. So what does this mean?
This figure represents a lot of people. Per some sources, Los Angeles County is the most populous in the nation, with more than 10 million residents. (To give you an idea of the bigness of that figure, 27% of California's 38 million residents live in LA County).
It's got a young population, too: 28% of LA County residents are under the age of 18, and nearly 40% of the population is under the age of 24. About 15% of the county's population lives below the poverty line. (And that number is conservative: it doesn't reflect the alarming increase in families being pushed below the poverty line as the price of food and fuel skyrockets). 1 in 4 children living in the county are included in that sad statistic. And a significant percent of the county's population is uninsured; per the County's Public Health Department, 1 in 4 Los Angeles County children lack health insurance.
And many of those children desperately need medical care, because the childhood obesity rate in Los Angeles County is high. Based on California Physical Fitness testing assessments mandated for 5th, 7th and 9th graders, more than 1 in 5 of the county's students are obese. An excellent community survey conducted by the County's Department of Public Health http://lacounty.info/omd/q3_2007/cms1_077502.pdf showed a strong correlation between childhood obesity and economic hardship. This means that if you are a child living in poverty in Los Angeles County, you are more likely to be obese, for a number of reasons.
Will banning trans fats, providing moratoriums on fast food in poorer neighborhoods and requiring menu labeling help solve these problems?
I don't know, but it bears watching.
In the meantime, I've seen little legislation that promotes school, home and community gardening. That bears watching, too. Because banning "bad" foods is not the real solution. Providing healthier choices is...healthier choices like the fruits and vegetables that can be grown in a school, home or community garden.
"A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."