Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Lack of water is killing Kern County ag
The Bakersfield Californian reported that it isn't just the listless economy ravaging Kern County agriculture. The industry's woes are pinned on water.
Reporter Courtenay Edelhart spoke to the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, about the national economic downturn's impact on ag. With the exception of the dairy industry, Sumner said, agriculture prices haven't been that bad over the past year.
The state of California has, however, suffered three years of drought - with implications that even last month's series of storms cannot reverse. The Bakersfield area had 5.10 inches of rain between July 2008 and June 2009, and only 2.38 inches during the same period a year earlier, the article said.
But even more significantly, recent court and government actions regarding water allocations are not satisfying southern San Joaquin Valley agriculture's thirst.
- In 2008, a federal judge restricted pumping into agricultural canals from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect Delta smelt
- The California Department of Water Resources said it will only be able to deliver 5 percent of requested State Water Project water this year to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California, although that figure may be updated next month
- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation allowed only a 10 percent allocation for agriculture south of the delta.
The result: 40,000 acres of Kern County farmland aren't being farmed and, in December 2009, Kern County had 1,400 fewer farm jobs compared with December 2008.
Irrigating young cotton.
Are Americans losing their taste for grapefruit?
Yearly per capita consumption of grapefruit has been on a steady decline since the late 1970s, according to an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. To boost the fruit's popularity and keep the industry in business, growers in Southern California have organized a cooperative and hired PR expert Kari Birdseye to put together a marketing program.
In 1976, Americans ate almost 9 pounds of grapefruit per year. As a late-baby boomer, that doesn't come as a big surprise to me. The popular "grapefruit diet" was one of the first weight-loss fads I can remember. By 2007, per capita consumption dropped to 2.76 pounds, the article said.
Birdseye told Press-Enterprise reporter Leslie Berkman that one of the cooperative's goals is to extend the appeal of grapefruit to the younger set. In the U.S., it seems to be eaten by people who are middle-aged and older.
Another issue is that warning labels on some drugs for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure say they should not be taken with grapefruit juice. Birdseye said she is enlisting scientists at UC Berkeley to review the research that has been done on the interaction of grapefruit with drugs and on the nutritional benefits of grapefruit, such as in fighting obesity, Berkman reported
"The first step is to do a comprehensive review of the scientific literature to determine what health benefits can be authentically claimed and to see where there might be some holes where more research is required," Birdseye was quoted. "Let's get the science behind us."
According to the article, Birdseye is planning to meet with Thomas Baldwin, dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside, to find ways UCR experts can help grapefruit growers, such as by breeding grapefruit varieties to enhance existing health benefits.
Tracy Kahn, curator of the UCR citrus variety collections, noted in the story that one reason for the growing popularity of pink grapefruit is that the pigment that makes it rosy, lycopene, is very healthful.
Pink grapefruit (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Master Gardeners help school kids grow veggies
An inner-city Los Angeles school has a small vegetable garden that is overseen by a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener, according to a story published yesterday in the Daily Breeze.
"This may be the only place they can have access to nature," the story quoted Master Gardener Kris Lauritson. "It's an outdoor classroom."
The school serves primarily Latino students; about 80 percent qualify for free and reduced lunches.
The program teaches students about healthy diets and gives them a chance to taste fresh foods they may not normally have at home. Students eat what they grow - turnips and broccoli, lettuce and spinach, soybeans, potatoes and cabbage.
Alice Acevedo, a school office worker observing the students as they worked in the garden, told reporter Douglas Morino the kids won't touch fresh fruits and vegetables put out in the cafeteria at lunch.
"But once they grow it themselves, they can't get enough. They're taking pride in what they're doing," Acevedo was quoted.
Los Angeles County's 181 Master Gardeners volunteered 9,272 hours in 2008, serving 87,376 low-income gardeners at 28 community gardens, 46 school gardens, 15 shelter gardens, 5 senior gardens and 13 fairs and farmers markets. For more information on the program and its services, see the LA Common Ground Web site.
It's worth clicking through to the Daily Breeze to see the photographs that accompany the school garden story. The off-axis, vivid and creative images are uncommon in photojournalism. I asked ANR Communications Services media services manager Mike Poe about the trendy garden art.
He said a lot of hip, cool, current video is shot that way.
"The photos are emulating that style to appeal to a young audience or indicate the subject is young," Poe said. "It's a technique I'd use very judiciously."
The school garden story and photos also appeared in the Pasadena Star-News.
LA's 2008 Master Gardener graduates.
UC labs get $1 million to study exotic pests
USDA announced last week that UC Davis and UC Berkeley are among 13 research universities across the country that will receive funds to develop ecologically and economically rational strategies for management, control or elimination of weedy or invasive species.
Nearly $500,000 will go to the Davis laboratory and $500,000 to a UC Berkeley laboratory. The 13 university recipients are sharing $4.6 million in all.
"Invasive plants and animals are a major threat to food and fiber production, costing U.S. producers between $7 billion and $27 billion per year, but by doing research on controlling and managing weedy and invasive species we help protect the productivity of America's farmers and ranchers," a USDA news release quotes agriculture secretary Kathleen Merrigan.
The other grant recipients are:
- Auburn University, Auburn, Ala., $494,000
- University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, $494,000
- University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, $149,911
- Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $124,962
- Idaho State University, Moscow, Idaho, $199,704
- University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., $493,000
- University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., $491,000
- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $454,000
- Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $494,000
- Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $91,423
- Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore., $125,000
Light brown apple moth is an invasive species in California.
UC Davis expert scoffs at alpaca trade
Alpacas are praised as mild-mannered, fluffy camelids; their fleece lustrous and silky. But UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Sexton called business ventures aimed at selling the highly prized wool "hopeless" in a feature published today in the Chico News and Review.
Alpacas - native to Peru and Chile - look something like long-haired small llamas, but they were bred for their fiber, not as beasts of burden. Writer Alastair Bland reported in the article that cleaned, unprocessed alpaca fiber sells for about $3.50 per ounce. The average alpaca will produce seven pounds of fleece annually for 15 to 20 years, amounting to a grand total of about $6,000 of fiber in its lifetime.
“These animals are fundamentally worthless,” Sexton was quoted. “It’s a sad situation because many people dumped big money into a terrible investment.”
Prices for alpacas rise and fall with the economy, but today run about $6,000. Plus they must be fed and their medical needs met. Sexton compares the alpaca industry to a pyramid scheme.
“The only way for these people to recover the money they’ve invested is to convince others to enter the industry and believe in the value of the animals,” he said.
Local breeders interviewed for the story say their industry has a bright outlook. But Sexton believes Peruvian alpaca fleece on the American market will always be cheaper, so owning alpacas will never pay off.
Alpaca headshot (Wikipedia Creative Commons.)