UC Blog
Placer welcomes mandarin lovers
Having skirted damage from last week's freeze threat, Placer County is now ready to welcome visitors from the valley to buy foothill mandarins, said an article in the Sacramento Bee.
Mandarins are a signature crop in Placer County, where the climate and soil produce particularly flavorful fruit, according to a UC Cooperative Extension mandarin information page. Mandarins are more cold tolerant than all other citrus except kumquats.
The Mountain Mandarin Association's website says the first mandarin orange trees were planted in Placer County in the 1880s. According to the agricultural commissioner's crop report, Placer County citrus fruit was valued at $1,223,545 in 2009.
The association website offers maps to the county's 30 producers, an attraction guide, nutrition information and recipes.
Mandarins make lovely holiday gifts.
UCCE blends exercise with healthful eating
UC Cooperative Extension nutrition educators brought a bicycle-powered blender to two Tulare County elementary schools yesterday to present lessons on physical activity and eating right, according to an article in the Visalia Times-Delta.
As a student pedaled furiously, the children suggested ingredients to add to the blender whirring above the back wheel.
UCCE nutrition educator Julie Cates and Network for a Healthy California physical activity specialist Starr Cloyd also demonstrated yoga moves they called "the standing carrot-stick," "the folding quesadilla" and "the apple tree."
"[We] try to teach people how to be active without going to the gym," Cloyd was quoted.
The nutrition and physical activity lesson is offered in schools where 50 percent or more of the students live in households with income at or below the federal poverty level, the story said.
A bike blends nutrition and physical activity lessons.
Strategic initiatives, leadership changes
Sharon Junge returns to retirement in March
Sharon Junge, interim statewide 4-H Youth Development Program director and Healthy Families and Communities (HFC) Strategic Initiative leader, will end her recall from ANR retirement in March. In addition to a distinguished ANR career, Junge has provided critical leadership to ANR and spearheading organizational shifts and transitions including the newly created Youth, Families and Communities (YFC) statewide program, serving on Program Council and leading the development and organization of the HFC strategic plan and conference. After a year with EFNEP in Sacramento, Junge became the 4-H Youth Development and Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences advisor for Placer and Nevada counties in 1972. She became county director for those counties in 1985. Junge has served as interim director for the statewide 4-H Youth Development Program since 2007.
Dave Campbell named HFC initiative leader
Dave Campbell, director of the California Communities Program and panel member of the HFC Strategic Initiative, has been appointed as the new HFC initiative leader beginning January 1. As HFC initiative leader, Campbell will serve on Program Council. He will also serve as the associate director of Research in Families and Communities and a member of the leadership team in the recently announced Youth, Families and Communities (YFC) statewide program. Recruitment for the director of the YFC program is currently under way.
Constance Schneider joins YFC leadership team
Constance Schneider, nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor, has been appointed as chair of the leadership council of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), effective December 1. Schneider will provide leadership and oversight to three EFNEP advisory committees including program development and curriculum, program delivery and communications, and program evaluation and compliance. In this role, Schneider will be responsible for program implementation, outcomes, and compliance and will represent EFNEP on the new YFC leadership team.
Strategic Initiative transitions
In addition to the departure of Sharon Junge, Ian Gardner, Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases and Joe DiTomaso, Sustainable Food Systems are stepping down as initiative leaders. Gardner has accepted a position at University of Prince Edward Island as Canada Excellence Research Chair in Aquatic Epidemiology and will be leaving ANR in the early spring. DiTomaso has resigned as initiative leader to focus on his successful weed research and extension program. Replacements for these two initiative leaders are currently being considered by ANR senior leadership and will be announced at a later time.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Academic positions & competitive grants
By the time the statewide call for proposals for new advisor and specialist positions closed on Nov. 15, the strategic initiative leaders, associate deans of the colleges, county directors and workgroup chairs had submitted 138 position proposals. On Dec. 8, the county directors will review the proposals and provide input for Program Council’s consideration. Program Council will begin reviewing the proposals in December and will provide recommendations to ANR Vice President Dooley by March. The top priority positions selected for recruiting will be announced in April. At present, ANR expects to be able to fund approximately 20 new positions. As previously announced, hiring of the new advisors and specialists will occur over an 18- to 24-month period.
Planning is also under way for a call for competitive grants to be issued in March. Program Council is developing recommendations for this call and additional information will be announced as it becomes available.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Organic farming gets more research dollars
The 2008 Farm Bill gave organic agriculture a significant boost by increasing funding for organic research from $2 million a year to $20 million, according to an article in the New York Times.
Reporter Jim Robbins outlined some of the research that is underway across the country, opening with work at the UC Davis student farm, where native sunflowers provide a "bed-and-breakfast" for beneficial insects, according to farm director Mark van Horn.
Robbins also described the work of UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Rachael Long, who has studied bats' role in battling codling moth in walnut and apple orchards. According to her research, bats eat their weight in bugs every night.
“They eat a ton of insects,” Long was quoted. “They also eat cucumber beetles and stink bugs, which affect tomatoes.”
Scientists are continuing their research to identify a blend of systems that will grow food and support the natural ecosystem on the farm and beyond.
“That’s the holy grail,” Van Horn told the reporter. “An agricultural system that mimics a natural system.”
Bats help organic farmers by feeding on crop pests.