Posts Tagged: Tom Tomich

More data needed before new fertilizer regulations are imposed

Scientists need more information about how farmers use nitrogen fertilizers before the state imposes new regulations, reported Tim Hearden in Capital Press. Hearden's story was based on a study published in California Agriculture journal.

Nearly 600,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer is sold in California each year, but sales figures are not an accurate indicator of how it is used.

Imposing regulations without supporting data could fail to address the problem while damaging agriculture, said Tom Tomich, co-author of the study and director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.

"One of the other things that's unfortunate about the lack of information is it looks like California farmers have been increasing their nitrogen usage, but if we had better data, farmers would probably look pretty good," Tomich was quoted. "We have a long way to go, just like everyone on the planet. This is one of the biggest challenges facing the 21st century."

See the complete California Agriculture journal article: Nitrogen fertilizer use in California: Assessing the data, trends and a way forward.

Cutting planting slots and placing preplant fertilizer in a two-row strawberry bed.

UC Davis receives $1.57 million grant from Kellogg

A $1.57 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation will create an endowment for the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute to support a network of scholars at 14 universities working to improve children's access to healthy food, said a brief article in the Modesto Bee.

The article was based on press release distributed yesterday by UC Davis.

Tom Tomich

Going beyond the green bag

When the earth is passed on to the next generation, will those who last inhabited the space do so with any regrets? This grand question was asked by the director of UC's Agricultural Sustainability Institute, Tom Tomich, in an op-ed piece published in yesterday's Huffington Post.

Leaving with "no regrets," he wrote, goes beyond cloth grocery bags and compact fluorescent light bulbs. And for the ag community, "no regrets" strategies are particularly important.

"Agriculture is the largest industry in California and is among the most vulnerable to climate fluctuations," Tomich wrote. "Climate's impacts on our farms and ranches directly affect our economy, jobs and our food supply."

Tomich's essay touched on three key areas where agriculture impacts environment:

• Water - Farmers need the technology to produce more food with less water, homeowners and business should continue to increase water efficiency and water should be left over to ensure healthy rivers.
  
  
• Energy and nitrogen fertilizer - Nitrogen fertilizer helped drive spectacular increases in food production, but manufacturing the fertilizer gobbles energy. The nitrogen also holds risks as a greenhouse gas and source of water pollution.
  
  
• Farmland preservation and healthy children - Preservation of farmland could reduce sprawl and perhaps, along with "smart growth," foster walkable communities in the West.

Tomich said the "no regrets" strategies require Americans to raise their awareness about the links between food, agriculture and climate and he praised California's leadership on the issue, which was demonstrated by passage of the state's Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006.

"California's actions can't substitute for a comprehensive global approach," Tomich concluded, "but they are a start we won't regret."

Tom Tomich

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