- Author: Aubrey White
* - Updated 8/6/2012
As the local food movement scales up and consumers demand information about where their food comes from, more grocers and institutions are seeking wholesale access to local produce. To make the connection between producers and retail sellers, distribution networks are taking on an increasingly important role in the local food system. More and more, farmers are becoming part of values-based supply chains and ‘food hubs’ to pool their product with that of other farmers and move food more easily to market and complete the chain from farm to fork (*).
New reports released by the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) show that, while food hubs help close...
- Contributor: Ann King Filmer
- Author: Pat Bailey
An ambitious effort to sequence the genomes of 100,000 infectious microorganisms and speed diagnosis of foodborne illnesses has been launched by the University of California, Davis, Agilent Technologies, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Bart Weimer, professor in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, serves as director of the 100K Genome Project and co-director of the recently established BGI@UC Davis facility, where the sequencing will be done. Other collaborators include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S....
- Author: Alec Rosenberg
I have limited cooking skills, so I’m lucky that my wife is a great cook and an even better baker – lemon bars, anyone?
But there’s one dish she prefers that I prepare: guacamole. I was thinking about this when I was reviewing our recent photo shoot at UC ANR’s South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine, which included images of strawberries, citrus and avocados.
UC’s nine research and extension centers support about 350 research projects, including avocado studies at South Coast. UC’s research is critical to keeping California’s $460 million avocado industry competitive....
- Author: Eve Hightower
On an unusually cool July morning at the UC Davis Student Farm, students are harvesting tomatoes and other produce for the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) membership program. The CSA baskets are pre-sold to members of the campus community and are among the ways students participate in the campus food system.
“It’s more than a way to sell food. It builds community, and that’s a powerful thing for students to learn,” said Raoul Adamchak, who coordinates the CSA and the Market Garden where the produce is grown.
Over the years, those involved in UC campuses’ food systems have garnered powerful lessons from...
- Author: Ann Brody Guy
Soy is now everywhere in the American diet. Tofu has become a more mainstream ingredient, soy milk crowds dairy cases, and soy fillers and additives can be found in processed foods from soups to meat and vegi-burgers to flavorings like cheese powders. The ubiquitous bean’s high levels of estrogen-mimicking compounds, called phytoestrogens, have long been a topic of scientific study and the nation’s ongoing conversation about nutrition and health. Does eating soy impact our sexual development? Harm women’s reproductive health? Minimize the symptoms of menopause? In a confusing matrix of news reports over the past decade, it’s been reported to both encourage some cancers and protect against others.
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