Food & Health

UC Davis ag economist comments on ag labor in national press

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies held a telephone news conference yesterday featuring UC Davis agricultural economist Phil Martin, who has written a paper titled "Farm Labor Shortages: How Real? What Response?" The paper examines workers' wages, farmers' earnings and the prospects of mechanization.

A handful of newspapers reported on the story, including the Sacramento Bee, Central Valley Business Times, and the San Antonio Express-News.

According to the media reports, Martin pointed to three indicators supporting his conclusion that there isn't a farm labor shortage:

• Fruit and vegetable production is rising
• The average earnings of farm workers are not going up extraordinarily fast
• The retail cost of fresh fruits and vegetables hasn't increased

Farmer and labor groups, however, dispute Martin's findings.

The immigration reporter from the Express News, Hernán Rozemberg, reported that the farm lobby was quick to dismiss the report as "flawed" and "superficial."

An immigration reform advocate quoted in the article says: "Dr. Martin's 'analysis' is extremely superficial. His 'study' ignores ... data that clearly point to a severe shortage of legal U.S. agricultural workers and raise troubling public policy questions."

Click here for Martin's paper.

UCCE's Steve Quarles quoted about house-eating fungus

A Bay Area television station called on UC Cooperative Extension wood durability advisor Stephen Quarles to comment for its story about "house-eating" fungus found in an East Bay home.

CBS TV-5 produced a story for yesterday's broadcast and Web site about the "rare fungus attack." Poria, the report said, is most common in the Gulf states, but it has attacked more than 200 homes in Northern and Southern California.

For the story, the TV station gave Quarles the title "fungus detective."

"You'll see them often behind a door you don't open so often," Quarles told the station. "The feeling that you're always dusting, always cleaning, there's always dirt."

This fungus gets into the home from the soil beneath, providing it's own water supply. According to the report, the only way to get rid of the fungus is to dig it out -- and the roots can grow up to 25 feet long. There are no chemical treatments.

The East Bay homeowner expects that ridding his home of the fungus will run $10,000 and is not covered by insurance.

California can't afford not to fund UC

The Fresno Bee ran an op-ed piece in Sunday's paper by Selma farmer Carol Chandler, a former UC Regent and UC Davis graduate, and Huron farmer Stuart Woolf, a UC Berkeley graduate. They made the case that California can't afford to not fund the UC system. They noted that a recent government report on "Investment Planning in the 21st Century" raises the possibility of eliminating all state funding for the UC system.

In their article, the writers said the proposal doesn't make sense to them. "If the recommendations in the report are implemented, UC Merced, and the other nine campuses that make up the world's greatest public research university, will be at risk," the article says.

The piece goes on to explain the many benefits Valley residents have realized due to University of California agricultural research and extension, a new local campus and UC health care contributions.

The article concludes: "The University of California is a public trust, and our legislators should help the Valley grow by reaffirming their commitment for sustained and substantial funding for our public university."

UCCE workshop covered in LA Times

UC Cooperative Extension natural resources advisor Sabrina Drill planned a Santa Clarita Valley workshop on fire resistant vegetation long before the Southern California firestorm of 2007, but the severity of the disaster brought increased attention to her work.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Deborah Schoch covered the Nov. 3 event for the Sunday paper and quoted Drill extensively about fire hazards introduced when plants have been brought to Southern California from other locales.

Some of the non-native plants, unaccustomed to LA's hot summers, dry up and become fire hazards, Drill said, according to the article. Others, like eucalyptus, contain flammable oil. Some introduced plants overrun meadows and canyons, crowding out native vegetation.

Drill and other speakers at the workshop urged homeowners close to wild areas to avoid invasive species and to remove flammable vegetation from 100 feet or more around their homes, according to the article. They should remove dead leaves and other debris promptly.

"Think about maintenance, maintenance, maintenance," Drill said.

The article closed with a notation that the UCCE "Safe Landscapes" workshop will be repeated Nov. 17 in Malibu and Dec. 1 in Rolling Hills Estates. More information is at http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/Natural_Resources/Wildland_Fire.htm

Sabrina Drill

For the record

The value of UC ANR expertise in matters related to wildfire has been confirmed in the number of news outlets that have sought comments and information from UC scientists. For the record, here is a list of coverage to date that we are aware of:

• In the Line of Fire with UC Berkeley fire ecologist Max Moritz and UC Riverside fire ecologist Richard Minnich - Los Angeles Magazine
• Fight the Embers Not Just the Fuel with UCCE wood durability advisor Stephen Quarles - Voice of San Diego
• S.D. County growers begin to tally losses from wildfires, winds with UCCE farm advisor Gary Bender - San Diego Union Tribune
• Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone with Minnich - New York Times
• Regional: UC Hotline and Web sites created for fire awareness, reprint of UC news release - CBS5, Bay City News Wire
• Empire on fire with Minnich - San Bernardino Sun
• Wildfire scars may prove to be permanent with Minnich - Long Beach Press Telegram
• Home building in fire zones under scrutiny with Minnich - Long Beach Press Telegram
• Fires chase critters from homes with UC Riverside biologist Greg Ballmer - North (San Diego) County Times
• Advice for homeowners with Quarles
• NPR's All Things Considered with Moritz on lessons in prevention and control from the southern California fires
• In the Ashes, Californians Ask How to Defeat the Santa Anas with Moritz - New York Times
• Flurry of questions, second-guessing on the southern California fires with Moritz - USA Today
• The burning question with Moritz, Minnich and UC Davis plant ecologist Michael Barbour - Salon.com 
• Video report on the Fire Information Engine Toolkit
• UC wildfire resources (including Spanish language resources) - CBS 5 article
• Beetle damage and wildfire with Moritz - ABC 7 text /video
• Southern California fires with UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens - ABC 7 text / video
• Use of technology for fire detection/fighting with Moritz - Computerworld.com
• Southern California Fires Threaten Homes with Stephens - Daily Californian 
• Prepare, stay, defend with Stephens - ABC 7 text /video

Help us find additional news coverage with UC ANR expertise by adding a comment to the blog if you notice something missing.

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