Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Gardening portends patriotism
Donning a flag lapel pin, attending the Veterans' Day parade and flying the Stars & Stripes are ways to display love of country. A growing group of experts say gardening should be added to the list.
"These days, digging some holes and planting a little lettuce or a few beets is a political act," wrote Los Angeles Times reporter Mary MacVean in the opening paragraph of her recent story on Victory Gardens, which also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
For the article, MacVean spoke to Ventura County UC Cooperative Extension Director Rose Hayden-Smith and LA County UCCE Master Gardener Coordinator Yvonne Savio. She used background information from Hayden-Smith about the benefits of gardening, and used a quote from Savio.
"People want to have more connection with their own world," Savio was quoted. MacVean noted that Savio is the manager of the Los Angeles County UCCE Common Ground Garden Program, which aims to help poor people grow food.
The article mentioned efforts to convince President Obama to jump on the bandwagon by replacing some of the White House lawn with a food garden. The story links to "Eat the View", a Web site where an online petition is gathering support for an organic garden on "the First Lawn." It's worth clicking through to Eat the View just to see a great (Photoshoped) photo of the president balanced on a shovel in front of the White House.
Talking weather on inauguration day
It's cold in Washington, D.C., where the bulk of today's excitement lies, but since this is the ANR News Blog, I'm writing about the unseasonably warm weather in California. We can't really pin this unimaginably delightful January on global warming since many parts of the nation have been shivering under an Artic blast. But perhaps it is a harbinger of things to come if, indeed, scientists' predictions about global warming come to fruition and warm January days become the norm.
Warm winter is nice for picnics and the beach, but winter warmth can reduce crop yields later, according to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Writer Robert Krier spoke to UC Cooperative Extension horticulture advisor Vincent Lazaneo, who said some fruit-bearing trees need cold weather during the winter dormancy period or they will produce less in the spring or summer.
Deciduous trees can be more prone to damage as well.
“If the tree is not actively growing, it's not running as much water through the bark and it's easier for it to (sun)burn,” Lazaneo was quoted. Without leaves to give shade, cracks can form in the bark, and that opens the tree up to further decay.
Pests can compound problems. Most insects are cold-blooded and develop faster during warm weather, Lazaneo told the reporter.
The Manteca Bulletin reported last Friday that the warm January weather is going to make California's ongoing drought worse.
January — typically the wettest month of the year for the critical Sierra watershed — is shaping up as possibly the driest on record, the paper said.
Will Obama be gardener-in-chief?
President-elect Barack Obama has a few things to attend to in the coming months - wars, health care, education, poverty, to name a few. Many green thumbs would also like to see him tending a White House garden, or at least authorizing one.
A campaign encouraging Obama to plant a garden, launched by Roger Doiron, an organic gardener from Scarborough, Maine, has 20,000 supporters, according to an opinion piece in the Huffington Post. In the column, writer Paula Crossfield referred to an article by UC Cooperative Extension county director Rose Hayden-Smith, a history expert who is actively supporting a movement to re-introduce Victory Gardens in America. She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post's "Civil Eats" section.
Victory gardens, Hayden-Smith is quoted in the article, "helped the family budget; improved dietary practices; reduced the food mile and saved fuel; enabled America to export more food to our allies; beautified communities; enabled every American to contribute to a national effort; and helped bridge social, ethnic, class and cultural differences during a time when cooperation was widely needed."
Crossfield concluded her column a bit skeptically about the prospects of a garden at the Obama White House. She wrote, "(Obama) has been a little tone deaf on ag policy so far." Yikes. Criticism already.
Obama's official White House portrait.
Good news
Economic woes have been widely publicized in recent months, so they've made lots of appearances in this news blog. Today, we interrupt this trend to bring a tidbit of good news. The USDA announced with a press release yesterday it will award a $400,000 grant to UC Riverside for water quality research.
The award is administered through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service’s National Research Initiative Water and Watershed competitive grants program.
The funds going to UC Riverside will develop cost-efficient treatment strategies that harness natural ways to eliminate bacterial pathogens from agricultural runoff. It is one of 17 grants going to 16 universities around the country that amounts to $5.3 million in all, acccording to the release.
Dairy operators crying over surplus milk
California's dairy operators are struggling with a bleak bottom line as the commodity price for milk has tumbled. According to a story over the weekend in the Fresno Bee, milk prices dropped 50 percent in the last six months, from about $20 for every 100 pounds to about $10. The overall cost to produce milk in California is estimated at $19 per 100 pounds, the story reported.
Bee ag reporter Robert Rodriguez spoke to UC Davis dairy specialist Leslie "Bees" Butler for his perspective on dairies' dismal numbers. He blamed the drop in milk value to dramatic changes in the export market. Australian producers are recovering from a recent drought that had boosted world milk price, the U.S. dollar is stronger and the global recession has reduced demand.
"The export market was booming, literally booming, expanding by 30% to 40%," Butler was quoted. "But all of a sudden that market has dried up."
Milk demand in the U.S. is also declining, Rodriguez wrote.
"And it's not like we are talking huge percentage points. But it does not take a lot to change dairy prices," Butler was quoted.
Dairy cow.