Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Riverside won't use treated water to irrigate citrus
Reversing course, the City of Riverside has decided it will not supply treated wastewater to irrigate citrus trees in a green belt and on the UC Riverside campus, according to a story that ran over the weekend in the Riverside Press-Enterprise.The idea was dropped after grower Andy Wilson raised objections to the plan saying the reclaimed water contains trace amounts of boron and sodium, which could accumulate in the soil and eventually kill trees. Instead, the city will sponsor a 10- to 15-year UC Riverside study to learn how boron affects trees and fruit.
According to the article, written by David Danelski, UCR soil chemistry professor Christopher Amrhein said Wilson had good reason to be concerned about the city's plan divert fresh water from the Gage and Riverside canals and replace it with the recycled wastewater from the city's sewage treatment plant.
"We basically told (city officials), 'We can't take your reclaimed water,' " Amrhein was quoted.
The city has used UC Davis agricultural engineering professor Mark Grismer as a consultant to counter arguments by UCR citrus experts that recycled water would harm the trees. The city's recycled water project is still in the works. The reclaimed water will be used to irrigate Martha McLean Anza Narrows Park, Fairmont Park and the future Tequesquite Park, and could also be used to recharge aquifers.
Irrigating citrus.
ANR is part of a new global health institute
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources will play a role in the new University of California Global Health Institute, a program that addresses global health education, research and partnerships, according to a UC Riverside announcement today.The Institute provides for the creation of three centers, which were selected in a competitive application process. Those centers are:
- One Health: Water, Animals, Food, and Society, led by UC Riverside and UC Davis
- Migration and Health, led by UC San Diego and UC Davis
- Women’s Health and Empowerment, led by UC San Francisco and UC Los Angeles
One Health partners, UCR and UCD, have strong agricultural roots, including Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station faculty, "which will enable the center to address the agriculture-water-health nexus in its action-oriented research program in a way that no other global health school in the country can," the Riverside news release quoted Anil Deolalikar, the associate dean of the UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and co-director of One Health.
One Health will focus on reducing the rate of disease and death resulting from malnutrition, unsafe water, and animal- and vector-borne diseases with the aim of designing, implementing and evaluating health interventions at the national, regional, community and household levels.
“This has tremendous implications for California,” Deolalikar was quoted. “A lot of global health problems are very relevant to California – food, proximity to animals, water contamination, water scarcity, and how the combination of these factors leads to illnesses. It’s a very California problem, particularly with agriculture being such an important part of the state’s economy.”
The creation of the UC Global Health Institute was announced today in San Francisco at a conference on the importance of global health to California, according to a UC San Francisco news release. The Global Health Institute was already credited with a report on the importance of global health to California.
The report says an estimated $49.8 billion is generated annually by California companies addressing global health needs and an additional $8 billion in tax revenue for the state, or roughly 7 percent of total state taxes.
The study, conducted by UC Riverside researchers, also found that the global health sector supports 350,000 high-quality jobs in California and provides $19.7 billion in wages and salaries, generating two dollars of business activity for every dollar invested by the state into global health.
Capital Press proclaims the promise of biofuel
An article in the agribusiness newspaper Capital Press about how much money is being spent on research around California to develop alternatives to fossil fuels was picked up from a UC ANR news release touting the most recent issue of California Agriculture journal.
Writer Tim Hearden's story, however, refers in the third paragraph to "the study," when in fact the release reported that more than two-thirds of a billion dollars coming from corporate and government sources are funding dozens of studies taking place at five research locations, according to Janet Byron, managing editor of California Agriculture.
"I'm grateful for the Capital Press story, but it's interesting to see how our material was used," Bryon said.
Also somewhat perplexing was Hearden's use of quotes from UC Davis news service public information representative Sylvia Wright. I tried to contact Wright to find out how the interview came about, but she is not available today.
Much of Hearden's material came directly from the release, so his story serves as another avenue for spreading word about UC research efforts to build better biofuels and help California reach its ambitious goal of a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020.
California farmers, forests and landscapes could produce 30 million tons of renewable biomass for electricity generation, biofuels and industrial processing, the equivalent of 2 billion gallons of gasoline annually, according to Bryan Jenkins, director of the UC Davis Energy Institute.
The Oct.-Dec. 2009 issue of California Agriculture journal
City folk get a look at local ag
When 250 people climbed aboard buses for an annual tour of North Sacramento Valley agricultural operations this week, among them was Chico Enterprise reporter Heather Hacking to document the trip for the newspaper's readers who couldn't attend.The tour's five stops included a Mediterranean food producer, a pistachio orchard, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.'s new rail shipment yard, a prune orchard and a walnut farm. At the latter two stops, UC Cooperative Extension researchers explained their work.
In photos accompanying the story, UCCE farm advisor Allan Fulton is shown discussing stress testing trees and farm advisor Richard Buchner is shown explaining the use of pheromones for coddling moth control.
Hacking noted she was aboard Bus 4, in which farm advisor Joe Connell manned the microphone and "chatted up the local farm scenery and answered questions from bus passengers."
A perhaps unfair but fun part of writing this blog is pointing out amusing errors that reporters make.
At a pistachio farm north of Chico, Hacking reported on growers John and Sue Roney's description of their operation.
"The pistachio trees are wind-pollinated and require one male bee for every 25 trees, John Roney told the groups of visitors," Hacking wrote.
Now that would be one busy bee! Actually, I'm pretty sure Roney said that 25 (female) pistachio trees require one male tree for pollination.
UC farm advisor battles the San Diego gnat attack
San Diego County officials are calling on a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor once again to help solve a pesky problem with gnats, according to an article in today's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Last year, residents of the north San Diego County community of Jacumba were plagued by gnats and believed their source was a local organic farm. UCCE farm advisor Jim Bethke confirmed their suspicions and began working with the farmer to find an environmentally sound way to control the pests.
Now the problem has spread to Escondido, Fallbrook, Rainbow and Oceanside, the article said.
"This (gnat problem) has become a trend. There is something happening in Southern California," Bethke was quoted. "It may be associated with the drought or a type of agriculture, but there are more gnats this year in general in all areas. I also think that the problem in Jacumba has made people more aware of it -- that they can complain about it."
An article in the same newspaper last January said Jacumba residents couldn't enjoy their outdoor patios and that local schools provided fans to keep gnats off children eating their lunches outside, as reported in this ANR News blog post.
Reporter Angela Lau wrote in today's story that Bethke believes farms, creeks, rivers and lakes in Escondido and Fallbrook are the breeding grounds for the north county's troublesome gnats. He is working with scientists at UC Riverside to find solutions that would allow residents and organic farms to comfortably co-exist.
"A lot of people don't believe the problem can be solved unless the farm is gone," Bethke was quoted. "I don't believe that. The problem can be solved."
gnat