Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Climate change reports don't panic Kings County farmers
Reports about climate change in the current issue of California Agriculture journal are taken with a brave face by Kings County farmers and officials, according to a story published in the Hanford Sentinel. Reporter Sean Nidever provided highlights in the newspaper of the research presented in the UC ANR's 50-page publication titled "'Unequivocal' How climate change will transform California."
Despite the fact that Nidever reported that the county's agricultural industry could face "tough times," Kings County farmers and agricultural officials "declined to panic," the story said.
"Really all that we can say is that farmers would have to adapt, like with any other issue," the article quoted Diana Peck, Kings County Farm Bureau executive director.
One result of climate change predicted in the journal is that more precipitation will fall in California as rain, overwhelming reservoirs and forcing water to be released at times when agriculture can't use it. At least two local growers said that makes a good case for building more reservoir capacity.
"If their projections are correct and the climate is indeed warming, then this report makes the best argument I know of in favor of building water storage, reducing regulatory barriers on agriculture and investing in genetic technology," dairy operator Dino Giacomazzi told the reporter.
Nidever also wrote a separate article, published yesterday, that touched on another issue raised in the journal, dairy greenhouse-gas emissions. The reporter apparently spoke to the journal article's author, UC Davis Cooperative Extension livestock air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner, who told him dairies will soon face regulation for greenhouse gases under California's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law passed in 2006.
Possible solutions to the dairy air emission problem presented in the Sentinel article are the development of specially engineered food and probiotics that will reduce the amount of methane cows belch and capturing dairy cow emissions to generate energy.
UCCE's Sea Grant a source on shell fish pest
An article in the Marin Independent Journal today focuses on the merger of two oyster farms on California's north coast. For background on the state of the industry, reporter Rob Rogers turned to director of UC Cooperative Extension Sea Grant Extension Paul Olin.
The story said the industry has been plagued by a bacterium - Vibrio tubiashii - that has killed the larvae oyster growers use to replenish their supply. While a few of the county's oyster growers raise their own larvae, most depend on out-of-state hatcheries that have been decimated by the bacterium.
"The bacterial contamination of hatcheries, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, has significantly reduced the baby clams and oysters available," Olin was quoted. "Hatchery management technology has been effective in overcoming that problem, but getting out of the woods has been a real difficulty."
Paul Olin
Max Moritz speaks to KQED about fire and climate change
The Bay Area National Public Radio affiliate KQED posted "reporter's notes" on the Quest portion of its Web site yesterday featuring comments from UC Berkeley fire ecology specialist Max Moritz about recently published research that predicts changes in world wildfire patterns due to climate change. Quest is a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment and nature.
In the written notes, reporter Craig Miller explained that Moritz and a team of researchers found that climate change won't cause a rise in wildfire everywhere in the world.
In audio interview excerpts, Moritz himself says that different climatic variables -- such as precipitation patterns and temperatures -- around the world mean climate change will have different effects on wildfire patterns. Most places, including California, will see increases in wildfire activity; other areas, like the Pacific Northwest, may see fewer, less intense fires.
"(The fact) that just in the next couple of decades we’re going to see very extensive and rapid shifts in fire activity, I think that’s a bit of a surprise," Moritz said.
Max Moritz
Associated Press runs with California Agriculture stories
Last Friday, the Associated Press picked up and ran with the climate change stories in the current issue of California Agriculture journal. Reporter Tracie Cone opened her widely published article with the prediction that rising temperatures could make pears, peaches, pistachios and other crops that need winter chill unsuitable for California farms, and others crops would suffer lower yields.
Cone went on to write that articles in California Agriculture "predict temperatures in California will increase by 7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2095." That wasn't the conclusion I reached when I looked over the Cal Ag stories, so I checked with the journal's editor, Janet Byron.
She and the journal's executive editor Janet White reviewed Cone's story and compared it to information in the new issue.
"We don't know where (Cone) got the exact '7 degrees by 2095' figure," Byron said. "But if you look at the scenarios . . . from the IPCC, it's pretty clear that 7 degrees would be the average predicted increase by 2099. Every scientist quoted in our issue says that climate change is inevitable, and they cite ranges in the IPCC report. So I don't think she was exactly correct - a range would have been more accurate - but I don't think she was wrong either."
Pulling information from a news article in the journal written by Byron, Cone noted in the AP story that about 15 percent of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is related to food production, with livestock-produced methane and nitrous oxide leading the way, followed by the breakdown of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, transportation, heat used to operate greenhouses and the decomposition of waste.
"We are developing information so that major food suppliers, food service professionals and retailers, as well as consumers, can figure out where to focus to make the biggest impact on climate change," the Cal Ag news article and the AP story alike quoted Gail Feenstra of the UC Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.
A diversity of media outlets shared the AP story with their readers either online or in print editions, including the San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, Modesto Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Merced Sun-Star, Monterey Herald, Lodi News-Sentinal, Visalia Times, Fort Mills Times, KTVU.com, KCBS.com and many other online news sites from Alabama to New Jersey.
The current issue of California Agriculture.
Risk for produce contamination by wildlife is probably low
Wildlife is not a primary source of E. coli 0157:H7, according to a press release distributed last week by the California Department of Fish and Game. The release reported preliminary results of ongoing research aimed at understanding the risk of fresh produce contamination by wildlife on the Central Coast. The research was prompted by the deadly and well-publicized 2006 E. coli contamination incident in spinach.
From 2007 through 2008, the research team collected 866 wildlife samples, including 311 black-tailed deer, 184 wild pig, 73 birds, 61 rabbits, 58 tule elk, 52 ground squirrels, 51 coyotes, 24 mice, 19 raccoons, 17 opossums and 16 striped skunks. (No animals were harmed in conducting this research; the samples are scat.) Of the 866 animals sampled, 862 tested negative. The four positive samples included: one wild pig, one coyote and two tule elk.
The study's leader, USDA-Agricultural Research Service microbiologist Robert Mandrell, said scientists are less than halfway through the study. (Mandrell was identified in the news release as team leader of the Produce Microbiology and Safety Research Unit, UC Davis. University of California scientists are working with Fish and Game and ARS on the research.)
"The small number of positive animals suggests the risk for produce contamination by wildlife is probably low, and following good agricultural practices should minimize the public health risk," Mandrell was quoted in the release.
The story also appeared on YubaNet.com.