Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
California drought covered by Reuters
Dought continues to be a hot topic. The international news wire Reuters moved a story today about the California drought, which was picked up as far away as New Zealand. The story quoted "state officials" as saying the farming cutbacks because of the drought will cost as many as 95,000 agricultural jobs.
California rainfall and snowfall have been below average for three years, but some people are calling the 2009 crisis a man-made drought because of restrictions on the amount of water that can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the delta smelt, according to Reuters.
Whether the work of Mother Nature or human decisionmaking, UC Davis economist Richard Howitt told the reporter the crisis is sure to prompt action. "If you look at California, things happen with crisis and we are in one right now," he was quoted.
California legislators are considering whether to reinvigorate the state's water infrastructure with new canals and storage facilities, according to an article published last week in the Los Angeles Times. Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) introduced a $10 billion water bond that includes funding for reservoirs and infrastructure.
But the plan is sure to face opposition. President of the Natural Resources Defence Council was quoted in the Reuters story as asserting that agriculture can no longer own the water of California without drastically changing their practices.
The drought debate likely will continue for some time, but amid the doom and gloom, Howitt told Reuters he remains "unfashionably slightly optimistic." He suggested that growers may be able to skirt water problems by switching to higher value crops.
"We can downsize in land area and water use, but because we grow crops that wealthier people like to eat, we can actually offset much of this downsizing by expanding the fruits, nuts and vegetables," he was quoted.
ANR prof wins undergraduate teaching award
Ed DePeters, a professor dedicated to educating the next generation of dairy professionals, has received the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement, according to a news release distributed by UC Davis News Service. The honor comes with a $40,000 teaching prize, funded by the UC Davis Foundation.
DePeters’ research, which has been widely applied in the dairy industry, has focused on how the composition of milk, particularly the fatty-acid content, can be modified by changes in the cow’s diet, and how agricultural by-products such as almond hulls and cottonseed can be converted into nutritious feeds. His research has resulted in more than 120 scientific publications.
Reviews of DePeter's teaching by students are a testament to his effectiveness. Comments include:
- Very enthusiastic
- Really knows his material
- Very approachable
- Incredible teacher
- Funny and gifted
- The most motivated and dedicated teacher
- A great guy and awesome prof
- I love this class; it’s top priority
The release said DePeters knows how to make his college classes fun. He requires students to wear “I Love Milk” buttons during their spring quarter dairy class, passes out specially made “I Want to Be a Nutritionist” pens as rewards, and has students throw darts at a dartboard to select the animal species they will study in their animal feeds and nutrition class. On Fridays during his spring quarter dairy production course, he vies with students to see who has the best cow-themed T-shirt.
Ed DePeters
EFNEP celebrates 40th anniversary
The federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, known as EFNEP, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, notes a news release distributed yesterday by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. The release said a 40th anniversary celebration was held at the University of California Washington Center in Washington, DC, however, I couldn't find mention of the anniversary or the celebration in any online media outlets.
Each year, EFNEP helps more than 500,000 limited-resource family members make sound nutrition and health choices. County extension family and consumer science professionals provide training and supervise peer educators and volunteers who teach EFNEP in their local communities. There are EFNEP programs offered in 16 California counties, which serve 12,000 low-income residents each year.
California families have shared in their evaluations that EFNEP has transformed their lives for the better. Some said they have changed what their family eats on a regular basis, switched to low-fat milk instead of whole milk and have fruit for snacks. Some report eating more vegetables and fruit and thawing meat and poultry in the refrigerator. Some walk daily, others play games with their children. Almost all use store ads and unit pricing to get the best shopping deals.
'Low carbon diet' reduces food's footprint
Every Tuesday, students at the University of San Francisco are presented with "low carbon" diet choices in the school cafeteria, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News. Gone is cheese pizza and hamburgers. Such savory treats are being substituted with options that are equally delicious - like guacamole and cucumber relish - but are produced on farms that release less greenhouse gasses than dairies and livestock operations.
USF is one example of institutions looking at changing food consumption to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases floating into earth's atmosphere. According to the article, the United Nations reported in a 2006 publication, "Livestock's Long Shadow," that the livestock sector is responsible for 37 percent of human-caused methane release, which is 23 times more potent a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. Livestock emit 65 percent of all human-caused nitrous oxide, which is nearly 300 times the potency of carbon dioxide.
Reporter Suzanna Bohen called UC Davis food systems analyst Gail Feenstra to comment on information from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The association's spokeswoman said that critics of beef production's ecosystem effect fail to factor in the environmentally beneficial role of grazing cattle. That includes pastureland absorbing carbon dioxide as it regrows after grazing.
"That's debatable," the article paraphased Feenstra. She is embarking on a project to measure greenhouse gases linked to all aspects of producing agricultural products in California, including feed, fertilizer, energy, transportation and numerous other facets.
Perhaps if cattle were grazing only on unfertilized grasslands, they might provide a net carbon benefit, "however, the proportion of cattle raised in this manner is extremely small," Feenstra was quoted.
A 'Perfect Storm' is not the weather California craves
UC Cooperative Extension director for Tulare County Jim Sullins says a "Perfect Storm" brewing in the San Joaquin Valley is turning the coming spring and summer into a time of uncertainty and challenge about water, according to an article in the Porterville Recorder.
The convergence of three years of below average rain and snowfall with recent court decisions about the fate of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is just one of farmers' concerns.
“It’s almost a perfect storm situation. We have low commodity prices, the economic situation and now the uncertainty that the drought has brought,” Sullins was quoted in the story. “Any one of those things would have made life difficult and now we have all three.”
Reporter Jim Stone provided a breakdown of water availability in Tulare County with information from the Friant Water Authority. A FWA public information consultant told the reporter that a significant amount of Tulare County’s water depends on supplies pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and delivered through the Friant-Kern Canal as a result of a complex set of water exchanges that date back to the 1870s.
The first 800,000 acre-feet of water is allocated to irrigation and water districts that carry Class 1 contracts. Any water over that amount goes to districts with Class 2 contracts. As it now stands, only 25 percent of Class 1 supply is scheduled to be delivered, leaving farmers to rely on more costly alternatives such as pumping groundwater, fallowing acreage or suspending irrigation on crops already planted.
“Some crops that are particularly vulnerable [to drought] are citrus,” Sullins was quoted in the story. “There’s not groundwater available in many of those locations.”