Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Chickens coming home to roost
Kind-hearted Californians resoundingly supported Proposition 2 last November, which, among other things, requires farmers to provide the state's egg-laying hens with room to spread their wings. One of the concerns discussed before its passage - that unaffected producers from other states and Mexico will flood the California market with their cheaper eggs - would be mitigated by passage of Assembly Bill 1437, according to a Sacramento Bee story, which also appeared in the Merced Sun-Star.
The proposed law, which passed in the Assembly by a 65-12 vote, was written by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. It is likely to be heard next in the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, one of Huffman's co-authors on the bill, the story said.
The new law would require that all eggs sold in California be from cage-free hens. Reporter Jim Downing contacted the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, for perspective on the prospective regulation.
Cage-free systems add a penny or two to the cost of producing an egg, according to a UC study last year titled Economic Effects of Proposed Restrictions on Egg-Laying Hen Housing in California. However, the retail cost of a dozen cage-free eggs is currently about $1 more than conventionally produced eggs. "If cage-free eggs were the only type available in California, that spread would likely narrow to roughly the difference in production costs," Downing paraphrased Sumner.
Purple rain
Stories about blueberries are still trickling in. Today, the Visalia Time-Delta reported on the fact that 35 percent of California blueberries are produced in the newspaper's Tulare County circulation area.
For the story, reporter Hillary Meeks spoke to Steve "Doc" Blizzard, a local blueberry farm manager. He said the company started growing blueberries with encouragement from Manuel Jimenez, the UC Small Farm Program farm advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Tulare County.
Jimenez recently arranged for several Central Valley growers interested in the crop to take a tour of the Lagomarsino blueberry farm, the article said.
"In terms of growing, if you have the right conditions, boy do blueberries grow in Tulare County," Jimenez was quoted.
A chicken on every lot
Raising backyard chickens for food and fun was the highlight of a Contra Costa Times story published over the weekend that was based on a Point Reyes Station 4-H workshop held last week.
UC Cooperative Extension Marin County director Ellen Rilla told reporter Rob Rogers that the growing interest in chickens seems to be tied to enthusiasm for the "slow food" movement, which embraces traditional methods of producing food.
"I think a lot of people have become interested in local food production," Rilla was quoted. "People like to know where their food is coming from."
The chickens were said to be productive - each generating about an egg a day - plus easy to care for and entertaining. Workshop participants learned that feeding chickens oyster shells provides calcium for their own egg shells and that chicken's egg color can be judged by their earlobes. (Earlobes? I'm skeptical.)
Another bit of practical information came from workshop speaker John Pellham of Western Farm Center in Santa Rosa.
"My advice is don't name your chickens," the story quoted Pellham. "Things happen to them. It's hard, but that's part of nature."
I wish I had heard that word of warning before bringing home a chicken as a family pet (and for organic snail control.) "Amber" drowned in a neighbor's pool just a few weeks later.
4-H chicken project.
The making of a blueberry story
Los Angeles Times freelance writer David Karp sent a response today to last week's ANR News Blog post about his May 27 blueberry production story. The nicely written article covered the introduction of a crop usually associated with the Northwest, Michigan and Maine into California; it didn't go into UC's role.
Karp wrote in his e-mail that he agonized over what to include in the article, given the amount of space he would have in the newspaper. He interviewed more than 40 sources, but only had room to cite two.
"If I had room to cite the contribution of three or four persons, and explain what they did, I would certainly have cited (UC Small Farm Program farm advisors) Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell)," Karp wrote. "I'm quite aware of their very substantial contributions to California's blueberry industry."
Karp mentioned that he spent two months of his life and thousands of dollars of his own money to research the article because, "I'm passionate about writing about fruit only when I really know what I'm talking about."
In conclusion, he said, "I apologize to Manuel (Jimenez) and Mark (Gaskell), Ben (Faber) and Gary (Bender) and others, but I'd like to think that they understand that in telling a shortened version of the full story for a newspaper, writers face difficult choices."
Mo' better blues
On Saturday, the Fresno Bee published its take on the Valley's burgeoning blueberry industry. Writer Robert Rodriguez, well acquainted with UC Cooperative Extension, spoke to farm advisor Manuel Jimenez for perspective on producing a crop whose value climbed from zero at $30 million in less than 10 years. Jimenez's home county, Tulare, is the state's leading grower, producing a blueberry crop valued at $17 million.
"We have nearly every level of production right now from small plots to large commercial plantings of more than 1,000 acres," the Bee story quoted Jimenez.
Rodriguez noted that Valley farmers have spent years researching and experimenting with different varieties to find the ones best suited to the region's climate and soils, "with Jimenez's help."
Jimenez holds annual blueberry meetings at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier to discuss new varieties and growing methods.
"But it's not easy having those field days, because growers don't always want to share," Jimenez was quoted.
Blueberry field day.