Posts Tagged: sustainable

4-H teaches kids environmental awareness at inaugural camp

Twenty-five schoolchildren learned what it means to be “sustainable” at the inaugural 4-H Sustainable You! Summer Camp at the UC Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville, reported Michael Dukes in the Imperial Valley Press.

The environmental impact of humans is something children need to be aware of, said Shanna Abatti, UC ANR 4-H Youth Development Program representative. The camp was designed to provide new or different perspectives on how to save water, recycle, use renewable energy and understand the benefits of buying local food.

Preparation for the camp began last July, the article said. Abatti called upon 15 4-H high schoolers to help run and coordinate activities. 

“Being the first year, it was a lot of work," said recent Central Union High School graduate and camp council president Natalie Gonzalez. "The camp was originally (designed) for Utah, so we had to change a lot of the games to fit the Valley and what we have here, the weather we have here, the crops that we grow."

The first day centered on recycling, composting, and how waste effects planet earth. The campers did activities on landfills and took home worm composting bins. Day 2 focused on air, with campers learning about air quality and the impact of pollutants. The campers finished the day by harvesting fresh vegetables at the research center. Day 3 the campers learned about food packaging, food origins, and the importance of buying local or regional food. The campers visited a local dairy. Day 4 was focused on energy, with activities involving wind turbines and a solar oven. The campers took part in an (indoor) "camp out" and glow-in-the-dark nature walk. The camp ended with a session on water. Campers tried out water quality testing and took a virtual tour of wetlands. Each of the campers had perfect attendance.

The camp was made possible by support from the Vesper Society.

New sustainable ag major is a return to UCD’s roots

A new bachelor’s degree program at UC Davis is meant to gives students an understanding of the social, economic and environmental aspects of farming and food systems, reported Cory Golden in the Davis Enterprise. Some of the lessons taught in the program will harken back to the interdisciplinary courses that have been taught at UCD’s Student Farm for more than three decades.

Effective pest control for indoor citrus nursery production
Cary Blake, Western Farm Press

California and Arizona citrus nursery growers are shifting production of critical plants from the outdoors to ‘indoor protective structures’ to gain protection from the Asian citrus psyllid insect and its primary vectored disease Huanglongbing. The change will require growers to adjust to new pest control techniques. “You’ll likely find extra pests indoors that you haven’t dealt with outside including mites and thrips,” said Jim Bethke, UC Cooperative Extension floriculture farm advisor in San Diego County. “It’s very hard to exclude mites with screening material. The screen can exclude the Asian citrus psyllid, but will not keep out thrips.”

Mark Van Horn, director of the Student Farm, gives a UC Davis class a tour of the farm's market garden.

UCD scientist helps farmers turn waste into electricity

Brothers Steve and David Gill, co-owners of Gill Onions in Oxnard, credit a UC Davis researcher for helping them turn a liability - millions of pounds of onion waste - into an asset.

The brothers wrote in an article published last week in The Business Journal that their fresh-cut onion processing firm used to truck onion leftovers to surrounding farm fields and plow them into the soil as compost. But as the company grew and produced up to 1.5 million pounds of onion waste each week, the solution became too costly and environmentally unsustainable.

UC Davis bioenvironmental engineering professor Ruihong Zhang determined that onion juice was very good food for methane-producing microbes. With her research data, the company's engineers and contractors developed an anaerobic digester system that turned leftover onions into electricity.

This year, the system will save the company $700,000 on power bills and $400,000 on trucking costs, the article said. The leftover onion pulp is a high-quality cattle food.

"Thanks to Professor Zhang, our waste problem is now an energy source and new product line. We expect to make back our $9.5 million capital investment in six years," the brothers wrote.

The Gill Brothers used their opinion piece to support UC Davis' $1 billion fundraising campaign, launched two weeks ago.

Onion waste can be turned into electricity.

Consumers look for the sustainable label

Responding to consumer demand, grocery retailers are pushing growers to practice "sustainable farming," according to a feature in the Fresno Bee.

"This is not an issue that is going away, and it's one that more retailers will likely adopt," the story quoted Gail Feenstra, food systems coordinator with the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program at UC Davis. "It is best that farmers get out ahead of the game to the extent that they can."

Examples of sustainable marketing include:

Farmer John Diener

Diener is a UC research collaborator and a member of the UC Agricultural Sustainability Institute advisory board.

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

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