Young children and adults in care programs will now receive meals with more whole grains, a greater variety of vegetables and fruits, and less added sugars and solid fats. These changes please Lorrene Ritchie, Ph.D., RD, director of the Nutrition Policy Institute in the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR).
“I applaud USDA's decisions to increase servings of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, cereals low in sugar, and healthy beverages, including breastfeeding,” said Ritchie, who has devoted her career to the development of interdisciplinary, science-based...
- Author: Melissa G. Womack
Whether in containers, raised beds in your backyard or community garden space or integrated into your landscape, growing edibles can be a rewarding experience if done properly. Oftentimes it is easy for gardeners new to growing edibles to become frustrated and give up after one or two attempts because their experience was less than desirable or overwhelming.
There are several ways to overcome these gardening pitfalls to help ensure you have a successful warm-season vegetable gardening experience.
Plan, plan and stick with your vegetable garden plan!
Planning is a key component to having a successful vegetable garden, but is frequently forgotten or overlooked. Planning includes selecting an...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
For low-income Californians who can't afford to purchase fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables, the suggestion to simply grow their own is well-intentioned, but overly simplistic advice.
UC Cooperative Extension in Riverside County is bringing together students, agencies, nutrition educators and gardening experts to work alongside families to grow produce in garden plots at a community facility.
“Many people don't know how to get started gardening,” said Chutima Ganthavorn, the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UCCE and manager of its local UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program. “Gardening takes space, water, resources like seeds and...
- Author: Aubrey White
For many years, a key international strategy to ending hunger has been to grow more food: push for higher yields, develop ways for farmers to intensify their farming, focus on technologies that drive both. But that focus may be shifting towards another strategy that better accounts for the environment and human well-being – agroecology.
Barbara Gemill-Herren, a retired officer from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, spoke recently at UC Davis of the ongoing process at the United Nations to determine an international strategy for agricultural development.
For many, a new paradigm needs to strike a balance between supporting small-scale farmers, supporting healthy ecosystems, and bringing in...
- Author: Brenda Dawson
In many developing countries, more than half of all fruits and vegetables are never eaten, but instead are lost, damaged or spoiled after harvest. These “postharvest” losses can mean that farmers need to sell their fresh produce as soon as it is harvested for whatever price they can get, before they lose the crops that represent investments of labor, water, and agricultural inputs. Improving how fruits and vegetables are handled after harvest can significantly prolong freshness — and cooling is key.
“The three most important aspects of postharvest handling are: temperature, temperature, temperature,” said Michael Reid, UC Cooperative Extension...