Posts Tagged: USDA
UC Davis to lead $15 million research into climate-change resistant wheat
The project will also train plant breeders for the future
Wheat products account for roughly 20% of what people eat every day around the globe. As climate changes, wheat crops must adapt to new weather patterns to keep up with demand.
The University of California, Davis, is leading a five-year, $15 million research project to accelerate wheat breeding to meet those new climate realities, as well as to train a new generation of plant breeders.
“Everything is less stable,” said Jorge Dubcovsky, a plant sciences distinguished professor who is leading the grant research. “Everything is changing so you need to be fast. You need to be able to adapt fast.”
The grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture will create a coordinated consortium of 41 wheat breeders and researchers from 22 institutions in 20 states. Researchers from Mexico and the United Kingdom are also participating.
Breeding needs to speed up
“Breeding crops for the future will require new traits, breeding platforms built for quick transfer of traits to elite cultivars, coordination of breeding efforts in public and private domains, and training for current and future plant breeders and researchers,” NIFA said in an announcement about this grant and others related to breeding.
The program involves on-the-ground research, identifying molecular markers and data analysis from multiple institutions to determine genes that will help wheat crops mitigate the effects of climate change. Plant breeding will follow to prove out those findings.
Wheat is unlike other crops in that 60% of the plant varieties — generating about $4 billion in annual production — are developed by public breeding programs rather than private corporations. In many states, wheat growers tax themselves to support basic breeding efforts at public institutions like UC Davis.
Increased coordinated research
The NIFA grant money will lead to more coordinated, sophisticated research. “This grant allows us to do breeding at a level that a good, modern company would do,” Dubcovsky said. “This grant is essential to maintain modern and effective public breeding programs in the U.S.”
The consortium will bring together data and research from across institutions, allowing for more expansive analysis while reducing redundancies. “We can take advantage of the data from everybody,” he said. “By doing that we don't need to duplicate efforts.”
A team in Texas will analyze plant images taken from drones at each institution to extract information about plant growth, water use, nitrogen levels and other data. “Using technology, we can see beyond our human capabilities,” Dubcovsky said. “You can extract a huge amount of information from every plant variety.”
The data from those images will allow researchers to document the plants throughout the life cycle and determine which plants fare better under certain conditions. Genotyping will help researchers obtain information about the plant genome. The combination of these two types of data could speed up breeding cycles, helping wheat crops adapt to a changing environment.
“If we can breed fast, we can adapt to change,” Dubcovsky said. “We are trying to make sustainable improvements in time.”
Training the next generation
The project will also train a cohort of 20 plant Ph.D. students in active breeding programs where they will participate in fieldwork, collect data from drones and DNA samples, and learn to integrate that information to accelerate wheat breeding. The students will participate in online and face-to-face workshops, as well as educational events and national scientific conferences.
Colorado State University, Cornell University, Kansas State University, Michigan State University, Montana State University, Oklahoma State University, Purdue University, South Dakota State University, Texas A&M University, University of Idaho, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin, Utah State University, Virginia Tech, Washington State University, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service branches in North Dakota, Washington, Kansas and North Carolina are also participating in the consortium.
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h2>Citrus threat target of $7 million multistate research project
UC ANR part of team led by Texas A&M AgriLife combating huanglongbing disease
Citrus greening, or huanglongbing disease (HLB), is the most devastating disease for orange and grapefruit trees in the U.S. Prevention and treatment methods have proven elusive, and a definitive cure does not exist.
Since HLB was detected in Florida in 2005, Florida's citrus production has fallen by 80%. Although there have been no HLB positive trees detected in commercial groves in California, more than 2,700 HLB positive trees have been detected on residential properties in the greater Los Angeles region.
“It is likely only a matter of time when the disease will spread to commercial fields, so our strategy in California is to try to eradicate the insect vector of the disease, Asian citrus psyllid,” said Greg Douhan, University of California Cooperative Extension citrus advisor for Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties.
Now, a public-private collaborative effort across Texas, California, Florida and Indiana will draw on prior successes in research and innovation to advance new, environmentally friendly and commercially viable control strategies for huanglongbing.
Led by scientists from Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the team includes three UC Agriculture and Natural Resources experts: Douhan; Sonia Rios, UCCE subtropical horticulture advisor for Riverside and San Diego counties; and Ben Faber, UCCE advisor for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
$7 million USDA project
The $7 million, four-year AgriLife Research project is part of an $11 million suite of grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, NIFA, to combat HLB. The coordinated agricultural project is also a NIFA Center of Excellence.
“Through multistate, interdisciplinary collaborations among universities, regulatory affairs consultants, state and federal agencies, and the citrus industry, we will pursue advanced testing and commercialization of promising therapies and extend outcomes to stakeholders,” said lead investigator Kranthi Mandadi, an AgriLife Research scientist at Weslaco and associate professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The UC ANR members of this collaboration will be responsible for sharing findings from the research with local citrus growers across Southern California, the desert region, the coastal region and the San Joaquin Valley.
“In addition to the ground-breaking research that will be taking place, this project will also help us continue to generate awareness and outreach and share the advancements taking place in the research that is currently being done to help protect California's citrus industry,” said Rios, the project's lead principal investigator in California.
Other institutions on the team include Texas A&M University-Kingsville Citrus Center, University of Florida, Southern Gardens Citrus, Purdue University and USDA Agricultural Research Service.
“This collaboration is an inspiring example of how research, industry, extension and outreach can create solutions that benefit everyone,” said Patrick J. Stover, vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
HLB solutions must overcome known challenges
An effective HLB treatment must avoid numerous pitfalls, Mandadi explained.
One major problem is getting a treatment to the infected inner parts of the tree. The disease-causing bacteria only infect a network of cells called the phloem, which distributes nutrients throughout a tree. Starved of nutrients, infected trees bear low-quality fruits and have shortened lifespans.
Treatments must reach the phloem to kill the bacteria. So, spraying treatments on leaves has little chance of success because citrus leaves' waxy coating usually prevents the treatments from penetrating.
Second, while the bacteria thrive in phloem, they do not grow in a petri dish. Until recently, scientists wishing to test treatments could only do so in living trees, in a slow and laborious process.
Third, orange and grapefruit trees are quite susceptible to the disease-causing bacteria and do not build immunity on their own. Strict quarantines are in place. Treatments must be tested in groves that are already infected.
Two types of potential HLB therapies will be tested using novel technologies
The teams will be working to advance two main types of treatment, employing technologies they've developed in the past to overcome the problems mentioned above.
First, a few years ago, Mandadi and his colleagues discovered a way to propagate the HLB-causing bacteria in the lab. This method involves growing the bacteria in tiny, root-like structures developed from infected trees. The team will use this so-called “hairy roots” method to screen treatments much faster than would be possible in citrus trees.
“Even though a particular peptide may have efficacy in the lab, we won't know if it will be expressed in sufficient levels in a tree and for enough time to kill the bacteria,” Mandadi said. “Viruses are smart, and sometimes they throw the peptide out. Field trials are crucial.”
The second type of treatment to undergo testing is synthetic or naturally occurring small molecules that may kill HLB-causing bacteria. Again, Mandadi's team will screen the molecules in hairy roots. A multistate team will further test the efficacy of the most promising molecules by injecting them into trunks of infected trees in the field.
A feasible HLB treatment is effective and profitable
Another hurdle to overcome is ensuring that growers and consumers accept the products the team develops.
“We have to convince producers that the use of therapies is profitable and consumers that the fruit from treated trees would be safe to eat,” Mandadi said.
Therefore, a multistate economics and marketing team will conduct studies to determine the extent of economic benefits to citrus growers. In addition, a multistate extension and outreach team will use diverse outlets to disseminate project information to stakeholders. This team will also survey growers to gauge how likely they are to try the treatments.
“The research team will be informed by those surveys,” Mandadi said. “We will also engage a project advisory board of representatives from academia, universities, state and federal agencies, industry, and growers. While we are doing the science, the advisory board will provide guidance on both the technical and practical aspects of the project.”
Project team members:
—Kranthi Mandadi, Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
—Mike Irey, Southern Gardens Citrus, Florida.
—Choaa El-Mohtar, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Citrus Research and Education Center.
—Ray Yokomi, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Parlier, California.
—Ute Albrecht, University of Florida IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center.
—Veronica Ancona, Texas A&M University-Kingsville Citrus Center.
—Freddy Ibanez-Carrasco, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Department of Entomology, Weslaco.
—Sonia Irigoyen, AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco.
—Ariel Singerman, University of Florida IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center.
—Jinha Jung, Purdue University, Indiana.
—Juan Enciso, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Weslaco.
—Samuel Zapata, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Department of Agricultural Economics, Weslaco.
—Olufemi Alabi, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Weslaco.
—Sonia Rios, University of California Cooperative Extension, Riverside and San Diego counties.
—Ben Faber, University of California Cooperative Extension, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
—Greg Douhan, University of California Cooperative Extension, Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties.
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Grow it: Gardening tips and resources
Gardening is fun…and it's an important activity. What we grow in school, home and community gardens can improve our health, and the health of our families and communities. What we grow can increase the resiliency of food systems in our communities. And what we grow, ultimately, can connect us more closely with the earth that sustains us. There are valuable lessons in gardening…too many to list here.
Even if you live in a small apartment, you can grow food. If you have a yard, you can grow quite a lot of food. View the transformation of a front yard in an urban area…from lawn to lush, productive food garden in only 60 days. You'll love the progression photos, and the simple explanation about how the garden came together.
Need more inspiration? Roger Doiron, founder of SeedMoney, talks about his (subversive) garden plot in this remarkable TedX talk. Roger created and led the social media campaign that called for a garden at the White House. This campaign ultimately led First Lady Michelle Obama to plant a vegetable garden at the White House. (And it may have also inspired the People's Garden at the USDA, which broke ground on Abraham Lincoln's birthday 10 years ago. Lincoln referred to the USDA as the “People's Department,” so it makes sense that the USDA would refer to its garden as the “People's Garden.”)
Need practical advice? The UC Master Gardener program has more than 5,000 certified volunteers ready to assist if you live in California. UC has also created a California Garden Web portal that provides a treasure trove of gardening resources for all parts of the state. It's not too early to begin planning your Fall garden, and you'll find information about that, too.
If you're interested in school gardens, read this brief history, written by UC ANR's UC Food Observer.
Happy gardening!
Summer safety: Tips to avoid foodborne and heat illnesses
Happy summer! It's time to get the barbecue grilling and the pool party started. To keep your summer healthy and fun, UC ANR offers some important safety tips.
Food safety
Food poisoning is a serious health threat in the United States, especially during the hot summer months. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 6 Americans suffer from a foodborne illness each year, resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.
Both the CDC and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggest four key rules to follow to stay food safe:
- Clean: Clean kitchen surfaces, utensils, and hands with soap and water while preparing food. Wash fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water.
- Separate: Separate raw meats from other foods by using different cutting boards. And be sure to keep raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs away from other items in your refrigerator.
- Cook: Cook foods to the right temperature; be sure to check internal temperature by using a food thermometer.
- Chill: Chill raw and prepared foods promptly.
Here are some additional tips from the USDA. Be sure to check out the CDC's comprehensive food safety website, which also has materials in both Spanish and English. For food safety tips in real time, follow USDA Food Safety on Twitter.
Summer also means more outside grilling, which can pose unique food safety concerns. Before firing up the barbecue, check out these five easy tips from UC Davis.

Handling food safety on the road
Before you take off on a road trip, camping adventure or boating excursion, don't forget to consider food safety. You'll need to plan ahead and invest in a good cooler.
Remember, warns the USDA, don't let food sit out for more than one hour in temperatures above 90 degrees F. And discard any food left out more than two hours; after only one hour in temperatures above 90 degrees F.
If there are any doubts about how long the food was out, it is best to throw it out!
Get more food safety tips for traveling from the USDA.
Avoid heat illness
“Summer can be a time for fun and relaxation, but in warm climates, we need to stay aware of the signs of heat illness and help keep our family members and co-workers safe,” says Brian Oatman, director of Risk & Safety Services at UC ANR.
“UC ANR provides comprehensive resources on our website, but it's designed around California requirements for workplace safety.” But, Oatman notes, much of the information applies.
“The training and basic guidance – drink water, take a rest when you are feeling any symptoms and having a shaded area available – are useful for anyone at any time.”
To increase your awareness of heat illness symptoms – and to learn more about prevention – Oatman suggests a few resources.
“Our Heat Illness Prevention page has many resources, including links for training, heat illness prevention plans, and links to other sites. One of the external sites for heat illness that I recommend is the Cal/OSHA site, which spells out the basic requirements for heat illness prevention in the workplace. It's also available in Spanish."
For those on the go, Oatman also recommends the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) mobile heat safety app.
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Alimentación escolar: respaldando la salud de los niños y el sistema alimentario local
El servicio de alimentos escolares representa una industria multimillonaria que tiene un impacto en las vidas de más de 30 millones de estudiantes (en su mayoría) de bajos recursos. Esta industria provee dos terceras partes de las comidas estudiantiles (desayuno y almuerzo) y bocadillos, durante todos los días de la semana y con frecuencia, también durante el verano, contribuyendo con una porción grande a los nutrientes que los niños y jóvenes consumen durante su niñez. Para ser elegibles a almuerzos gratuitos, una familia de tres debió ganar menos de 26,208 dólares durante el año escolar 2016-17.
Los directores del servicio de alimentos escolares tienen una gran responsabilidad en sus manos: alimentar a los menores todos los días cumpliendo con muchos requisitos y con muy poco dinero. La tasa de reembolso actual por los alimentos provistos a los estudiantes en California es de 3.31 dólares, la cual requiere que se incluyan al menos media taza de frutas o verduras y la opción de elegir un alimento de grano integral, una proteína y leche baja en grasa o descremada. Los niños de primaria de hogares con mayores ingresos pagan alrededor de tres dólares por las mismas comidas.
Así que, cuando las mandarinas enlatadas de China son más baratas que una mandarina local, ¿cómo afecta esto las decisiones del director de servicios alimenticios al hacer elecciones sustentables y saludables?
De acuerdo con Erin Primer, directora de servicios de alimentos del Distrito Escolar Unificado de San Luis Coastal, los directores de servicios de alimentos cuentan con mucho poder para hacer elecciones saludables (o no muy saludables). Primer es una campeona en alimentos escolares, a la cual llaman “la mejor dama del almuerzo”. La primera incursión de Primer en el servicio de alimentos institucional fue en la industria privada y banquetes. Allí aprendió a llevar a cabo las cosas, ser competitiva y finalmente, cómo servir mucha comida que la gente apetezca comer.
Primer le da crédito a su experiencia por permitirle ver las cosas de una forma más creativa.
“Debido a mi experiencia con los banquetes, nunca me vi limitada con lo que la escuelas dicen que no podemos hacer con los alimentos. "Nunca dejé que eso me abrumara. Cuando vine a trabajar con los alimentos escolares, me encantó el tener la libertad de resolver problemas y conectar todos los puntos con todos los requisitos y luego alimentar a los niños”.
¿Cómo se alimenta a los niños con comidas sanas y, a la vez, se toma en consideración el amplio impacto de las decisiones que se hacen al comprar los alimentos? Primer dice que todo se reduce a la participación, es un juego de números. ¿Cuántos estudiantes y familias seleccionarán comidas escolares en un cierto día? Para Primer, eso representa tres mil almuerzos y dos mil desayunos al día – un número que le gustaría ver crecer.
¿Cuáles son algunas de las estrategias para incrementar la participación para que más niños consuman los almuerzos escolares? Para Primer y muchos directores de servicios de alimentos que están aceptando el reto de alimentar a nuestra próxima generación, se trata de servir buenos alimentos. Es muy fácil quedar atrapado en las malezas del ambiente regulatorio de los alimentos escolares y aunque seguir las reglas es increíblemente importante, también es importante pensar sobre los alimentos que se sirven. Primer asegura que le gusta pensar sobre el plato completo y lo que realmente tiene sentido servir a los niños. Tienes que seguir preguntándote: “¿se lo comerán los niños?” y “¿tiene sentido?”.
“Empezamos por preguntarnos a nosotros, ¿sabe bien? ¿Es de buena calidad? ¿Envía el mensaje que deseamos enviar? Y si no es así, no lo hagamos”, expresó Primer.
Una de los cambios más grandes que Primer hizo a sus menús fue, primero, deshacerse de la comida chatarra. En el mundo de las comidas escolares, puedes encontrar donas de chocolate y cereales de canela y azúcar que cumplen con las regulaciones del programa de comidas escolares del USDA. En muchos casos, las compañías procesadoras de alimentos han reformulado productos alimenticios populares para cumplir con los requisitos. Al agregar granos integrales o reducir el contenido de azúcar, grasa o sodio a un producto, pueden venderlos en las escuelas, aun cuando nunca se pueda encontrar esta misma versión del producto en las tiendas. Cuando los estudiantes ven estos productos en la escuela, eso puede enviarles mensajes encontrados sobre qué es lo que debe incluirse como parte regular de una dieta saludable.
El siguiente cambio que llevó a cabo y continúa haciéndolo fue incrementar la compra de alimentos producidos localmente y eliminar alimentos que no pueden obtenerse localmente. Ella puede incluir en el menú, carne de ganado local alimentado en pastizales en una “hamburguesa mixta” la cual incluye champiñones para hacerla más grande, darle más sabor y económicamente factible. También se convirtió en una de los primeros directores de servicios alimenticios en usar granos locales, como el farro, cultivado en una granja localizada a menos de quince millas de su oficina. Además, ha levantado algunas olas al reemplazar los plátanos en su menú con otras frutas locales, como el kiwi.
Cuando se vive en la costa central de California, se encuentra uno con una abundancia de alimentos locales disponibles la mayoría de los meses del año. Sin embargo, “local” no necesita ser una barrera para los directores de servicios alimenticios. Definir lo que es “local” o “regional” depende de cada distrito o institución, el cual debe tomar en consideración el paisajismo agrícola que le rodea y los alimentos que están disponibles de manera confiable.
El último paso, pero muy importante, es que Primer está trabajando en contar su historia. Trabaja con socios de forma creativa y para vender los alimentos escolares a todas las familias de su distrito sin importar sus ingresos. Su meta es preparar comidas que todos los niños quieran comer y los padres comprar. Ha colocado fotografías en sus camiones de entrega promoviendo los alimentos locales que sirven todos los días y habla con personas importantes, maestros, padres y miembros de la junta escolar en cada oportunidad que tiene.
¿Qué le estamos dando de comer a nuestros niños? ¿De dónde proviene? ¿Qué impacto tienen en nuestro mundo nuestras decisiones de compra?
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