Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
UC asks Californians to watch for citrus pest
The Los Angeles Times reported this afternoon that Asian citrus psyllid has been found in a Los Angeles County backyard citrus tree. Just yesterday, officials confirmed the pest was found in Orange County. These were the first finds outside of San Diego and Imperial counties, where the exotic pest was first captured in California in early 2008.
UC citrus entomologist Beth Grafton-Cardwell is asking Californians to pitch in on the battle against Asian citrus psyllid, which in other parts of the world carries the devastating citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB, or citrus greening disease.)
Anyone with a citrus tree in their yard or apartment complex can look closely at the tender young leaves of the late summer and fall citrus flush, the place where immature stages of Asian citrus psyllid congregate. The small, yellowish-orange nymphs extract sap from the tree as they feed. They excrete honeydew, which can turn leaves and fruit black from sooty mold, and they produce tiny white, waxy tubules.
For more information, see http://ucanr.org/detectingpsyllids. For pictures of Asian citrus psyllid and the symptoms to look for in infested trees, see the accompanying video.
DetectingACP2
One quarantine lifted, another imposed
CDFA announced in a news release yesterday that five Asian citrus psyllids were found in the Orange County community of Santa Ana, triggering the first ACP quarantine north of San Diego and Imperial counties.
The northward movement of the psyllid may raise fears of the state's citrus growers, but there is also some good news about the effectiveness of state-sponsored pest eradication programs. CDFA announced in another news release yesterday that a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation San Diego's Spring Valley has been eradicated.
To eradicate the pest, ag officials released nearly 3 million sterile male Medflies over an 11.2 square-mile zone at the core of the quarantine area. Fertile female flies mate with the sterile males but produce no offspring, eventually eradicating the pest.
Medflies can infest over 260 types of fruits and vegetables, threatening California’s crops and exports as well as urban and suburban landscaping and gardens.
CDFA said the new ACP quarantine in Orange County will restrict movement of plant material at wholesale and retail nurseries within five miles of the find site. In addition, the agency is planning a treatment program and monitoring the area to detect additional psyllids.
USDA's ACP map shows where the pest has been found.
*Insider source* refers readers to UC Web site
A brief blog post on Adventure Travel 101 introduces readers to the concept of agritourism and points them to the UC Small Farm Program's agritourism Web site, http://calagtour.org.
The blog appears on examiner.com, billed as "The insider source for everything local." Writer Dana Nichols, who has the good fortune of working from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., notes that many people have already participated in agritourism without knowing it by visiting pumpkin patches, tasting wine at a vineyard or purchasing fruit at a U-pick farm.
In the post, she quoted the UC Small Farm Program's definition of agritourism: “Agricultural tourism is a commercial enterprise at a working farm, ranch or agricultural plant conducted for the enjoyment or education of visitors, and that generates supplemental income for the owner."
Unfortunately, Nichols perpetuates a common misconception by attributing all the information she gleaned about calagtour.org to UC Davis, an easy thing to do since that's where the Small Farm Program is located. But it doesn't help spread the word about the good work of ANR's specially funded statewide Small Farm Program.
The opening screen of http://www.calagtour.org.
US food production systems take a beating in Time
This week's Time magazine cover feature doubles as an opinionated rant about what ails the US food system. Perhaps some of it should be taken with a grain of salt; but there are plenty of ideas that make sense, even if they aren't scientifically proven.
I confess it is something of a stretch to include it in the ANR news blog, which covers news of ANR activities and experts. (It wasn't until the final page that I found information sourced from the University of California, perhaps from this ANR news release about the health benefits of grass-fed beef.) But the whole concept is so closely tied to what ANR does, I think it has a place here.
The story fills five pages on the Web and includes numerous photo essays and side bars. Since there is so much information, I thought it would be most interesting to present a few of writer Bryan Walsh's incriminations:
- The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans.
- A food system — from seed to 7-Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America's obesity epidemic.
- Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste.
- In CAFOS (concentrated-animal feeding operations), large numbers of animals — 1,000 or more in the case of cattle and tens of thousands for chicken and pigs — are kept in close, concentrated conditions and fattened up for slaughter as fast as possible. . . . But animals aren't widgets with legs. They're living creatures, and there are consequences to packing them in prison-like conditions.
- Work in a CAFO is monotonous and soul-killing . . .
Walsh does have a kind word for farmers and opens the door for the service provided by UC Cooperative Extension. He writes that, "Farmers aren't the enemy — and they deserve real help."
Said organic Bay Area farmer Hahn Niman, featured extensively in the article, "We need to make farming real employment, because if you do it right, it's enjoyable work."
food
Good news gets noticed
The author of an op-ed piece that appeared in the San Jose Mercury-News over the weekend correctly notes that the public probably hasn't heard about the work of Central Coast farmers and environmentalists to improve the quality of water that flows from farms to the sea."There are no headline-grabbing fights, just thoughtful problem solving between partners," wrote Dan Haifley, the executive director of O'Neill Sea Odyssey, a non-profit organization that provides a free education course to fourth to sixth-grades students.
In his article, Haifley explained that Central Coast farmers and environmentalists formed a partnership in 1999 to improve the quality of water that flows from farms to the sea. A few weeks ago, USDA announced that the "Central Coast Irrigation and Nutrient Management Initiative" will receive up to $5.8 million dollars over four years to help area farmers with water quality projects. The funds will go directly to farmers for conservation planning, technical design and financial assistance for irrigation and nutrient runoff prevention.
Haifley mentioned in his article that UC Cooperative Extension was one of the agencies involved in creating this successful initiative.
Strawberries growing on a hillside near the ocean.