Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Bee well
UC apiculturist Eric Mussen graciously spoke to Madera Tribune reporter Ramona Frances recently when she sought information about the medicinal properties of honey.
Mussen is known for his expertise on honey bee colony management, pollination, mite control and insecticide damage. Having already logged 30-plus years of honey bee research, Mussen is well-versed on findings that the pollinators produce more than a delicious, amber sweetener.
"Honey is extremely good for burns and wound healing as a whole," Mussen is quoted. "But you are not going to get many medical professionals to say this. If something goes wrong, they would rather avoid a suit."
Mussen also spoke about propolis, a resin bees extract from plants to fill cracks in their hives to stop drafts. In the lab, it has proven anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
"Most people who have ulcers have a bacterium problem," he told Frances. "We didn't know that for a long time; we know that now. We have seen it (honey and propolis) knock out organisms in a petri dish, but what happens in your stomach - we don't know."
Eric Mussen
Media report on value of ag and ag research
As Californians wait patiently today for the state budget vote, scheduled for 4 o'clock this afternoon, it's a good time to review the value of agriculture and agricultural research as it has been reported in the press in recent days.
Last Wednesday, Western Farm Press ran an Almond Board press release about a symposium that took place earlier this summer in Sacramento. At the symposium, UC ANR associate vice president Rick Standiford noted that there has been a 24 percent reduction in UC Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Cooperative Extension staff since 1990.
The story said UC's academic staff is expected to shrink through retirement with 66 percent of UC Extension farm advisors set to retire in the next 10 years.
Almond yields have increased 86 percent over the last two decades largely because of improved horticulture techniques developed through publicly-funded agricultural research and development and extension.
A consequence of a slowdown in growth of public research spending "could be a decline in global competitiveness for California agriculture," the story said.
Last week, AgAlert ran a story on California's agricultural revenue in 2007, which reached $36.6 billion, an increase of 15 percent over the previous year's total of $31.8 billion.
The news about the industry isn't all good, however. Reporter Christine Souza sought comment from the director of the UC Ag Issues Center, Dan Sumner, about farmers' struggle to pay for increased input costs, such as fuel and fuel-based products, water, wages, equipment, government fees and taxes.
"What has everybody worried is that if output prices start coming down they are concerned that the input prices, particularly anything with an oil base or fossil fuels base, will stay high and that includes fertilizer and all of the energies," Sumner is quoted.
Newspaper buyouts hit home
I've written in this blog about the sad news in the print media, with many California and national newspapers cutting staff and shutting their doors. The trend has hit home. Over the weekend, the Fresno Bee's agriculture reporter Dennis Pollock announced that he is one of the paper's staff taking the buyout and retiring.
Pollock marked the change by noting the retirement of UC Cooperative Extension advisors who were frequent sources for his stories over the years.
Pollock wrote in his farewell column:
"'He's retired now,' someone would say when I asked for farm advisers like Harry Andris, Ron Vargas, Bill Peacock, Mario Viveros. And on and on."
Pollock also mentioned a conversation he had with UC entomologist Walt Bentley about the many UC farm advisors retiring after decades-long careers.
"But he quickly added that the new ones coming on are as sharp as they come," Pollock wrote.
Pollock was a champion for UC Cooperative Extension and did much to spread the word about its important work in the San Joaquin Valley. He will be missed.
Riverside turf course well covered
The Riverside Press-Enterprise yesterday ran a nearly 700-word story about a Riverside field day aimed at saving water resources while maintaining beautiful green turf. The article said a new botany professor at UC Riverside, James Baird, joined forces with UC Cooperative Extension to bring back the annual landscape and turf field day after it had been on hiatus a few years.
"Water is only going to get more scarce," Baird was quoted. "And landscaping is one of those areas where we can make major progress first, where we can really work to be good stewards of the environment."
UC research to develop prettier, tougher and drought-resistant turf has focused on developing hybrid grasses, which are created by cross breeding to blend the best attributes of different species into the same grass.
The story quoted a seed company representative at the field day, who said, "You can use 20 percent less water easy with new turf."
True grit
Congratulations to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Neil McDougald. The Fresno-Kings County Cattlemen's Association will name him its 2008 "Friend of Cattlemen" at the CattleWomen's fundraising dinner Saturday, Sept. 13, according to a brief in the Fresno Bee. Twenty other industry leaders will also be honored.
Cattlemen Association president Mark Thompson said the honorees have shown "true grit" in the face of drought, diminishing grazing land and increased operating costs, according to the story.
Neil McDougald