UC Blog
USDA to provide $11 million for citrus greening research
The USDA will provide $11 million for scientific research to battle citrus greening disease, according to a USDA news release issued this morning. Citrus greening disease is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, which made its way to California in 2008. When a tree acquires the disease from the pest, nutrient flow is obstructed, the fruit stays green, grows lopsided and tastes bitter.
USDA will invest $2 million this year for research at the U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Ft. Pierce, Fla. The remaining $9 million will be offered in a three-year competitive grants program by the agency's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The news release said USDA will also establish a Citrus Disease Research and Development Advisory Committee with representatives from the grower and scientific communities. The advisory committee, which reports to U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, will provide leadership to citrus disease scientists.
Citrus greening is one of the most devastating diseases affecting any commercial agricultural crop, according to the National Academy of Sciences. More than 250,000 jobs representing key sectors of the U.S. economy are at risk, including harvesting, packaging, processing, transportation, marketing, retail sales, and nursery production.
Citrus greening threatens to destroy over 1 million commercial citrus acres that have an annual production value of approximately $3 billion across the nation. Yearly losses could reach $10 billion if citrus greening is left unchecked.
Asian citrus psyllid was first detected in California in San Diego and Imperial counties. The pest is believed to have been introduced from northern Mexico. Adult psyllids have also been trapped in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The University of California, California Department of Food and Agriculture, USDA and the citrus industry are working closely to quarantine the affected areas and try to eradicate the pest.
The state of Florida first detected the Asian citrus psyllid in 1998 and citrus greening disease seven years later. The pest and disease have been detected in all 30 of Florida's citrus producing counties and in Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina. The states of Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, like California, have detected the pest but not the disease.
Red pins on the Texas Department of Agriculture map show where citrus greening disease has been found. Yellow pins show where Asian citrus psyllid has been found.
Calling 4-H members past and present to California State Fair
July 23 and 24 will be 4-H Alumni Weekend at the California State Fair, and as 4-H prepares for its centennial anniversary, organizers in California are assembling portraits of its members.
At the fair, the California 4-H Foundation will be photographing anyone connected to the program in a portable studio. The studio will open at the 4-H booth from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 23 and 24.
Photographer Christopher Irion will be shooting the portraits. His work can be viewed at www.irionphotography.com.
Alumni can also receive $1 discounts on fair admission that weekend, and a coupon that can be redeemed for a prize at the 4-H booth. For more information, visit www.ca4h.org.
Call The Bee's Max Ehrenfreund, (916) 321-1093.
E-Verify is 'divisive,' says Monterey Herald columnist
Pending federal legislation that would require employers to check worker eligibility using an system called E-Verify is divisive and unrealistic, writes attorney Dirk Stemermen in his Monterey Herald column "On the Job."
"Nothing turns conservative 'growers' into immigrant-rights advocates quicker than obligatory E-Verify use," Stemermen said.
E-Verify, which checks information from an employee's I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification Form against government records to determine U.S. employment eligibility, is already in use in Arizona, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama.
Stemermen said that economists at UC Davis and the USDA released a study last month concluding that such crackdowns on undocumented farmworkers raise labor costs as documented workers demand better wages and working conditions.
The columnist seems to be referring to research covered in a recent UC Davis news story that said immigration reform and stricter enforcement of current immigration laws could significantly boost labor costs for California’s $20 billion fresh fruit, nut and vegetable crops.
“California’s produce industry depends on a constant influx of new, foreign-born laborers, and more than half of those are unauthorized laborers, primarily from Mexico,” the news release quoted Phillip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics and one of the nation’s leading authorities on agricultural labor.
“The cost of hiring these laborers will likely rise as the U.S. government ramps up enforcement of immigration laws by installing more physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and requiring more audits of workers’ I-9 employment verification forms,” Martin says.
Stemermen also raised the issue of farmworker overtime pay in his column. California farmworkers don't receive overtime pay unless they work more than 10 hours in a day or 60 hours in a week.
"Verifying employment eligibility through E-Verify or paying California farmworkers more overtime would lead to higher farmworker wages and create jobs for documented workers. But because farmworkers are so poorly paid for the unwanted, arduous work they perform, perhaps a bit of realism needs to be injected into the immigration debate," Stemermen wrote.
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Farmworkers harvest vegetables in the Salinas Valley.
Solutions to obesity raised on Valley Public Radio program
Even as bad news about increasing rates of obesity nationwide continues to roll in - dismal 2010 data was published by the Associated Press today - there are some encouraging trends that may begin to reverse the problem. UC Cooperative Extension nutrition educator Sara Bosse injected a positive message during a recent Quality of Life broadcast about obesity, aired on Valley Public Radio.
"Those of us who have been working on the issue for a long time are seeing results of our hard work," Bosse said.
Bosse, Quality of Life host Joe Moore, and Fresno State nutrition educator Genoveva Islas-Hooker discussed some of the the reasons so many people are packing on pounds:
- Soda serving sizes have swollen exponentially since the 70s
- Restaurant portion sizes are larger than 10 or 20 years ago
- Parents, concerned for their children's safety, often prefer to keep them indoors
- School fences are locked after hours
Islas-Hooker said educators have been telling people they must do something about their weight, but have neglected to address how environments we have created conspire against them.
Caller Lois in Bakersfield asked whether anything has been done to reduce the advertising of unhealthful food and drinks to children, particularly on TV.
Bosse said experts have been working on this difficult issue.
"We are trying to get (businesses') voluntary agreement to not target kids as much, but it's a real uphill battle," Bosse said. "There is still a lot more advertising to children than is in any way healthy for their well being."
Bosse continued: "We need to, as a society, make our mind up about what's important and what our values are and figure out how businesses can make money and can operate a healthy business that's good for our kids and still be able to survive in a difficult market."
Unhealthy food is cheap and readily available.
CalTrans road project would impact dozens of redwoods
CalTrans' controversial plan to widen a stretch of Highway 101 in Northern California would impact more than the 54 trees the agency will remove, according to an Associated Press story that cited UC Berkeley forestry professor Joe McBride.
CalTrans wants to realign the section of the highway so it can be added to a national system of roads that cater to large trucks. The one-mile section is the only part of Highway 101 from San Francisco to the Oregon border where the large semi-trucks aren't permitted, except by a special exemption, the story said.
A vocal group of North Coast residents have asked a federal judge in San Francisco to stop the project.
McBride studied the site and Caltrans' plans. In a court document filed in support of the project's opponents, McBride said that Caltrans' arborists had not accurately stated the project's potential effects on the old-growth redwoods. McBride's analysis concluded that dozens more trees would die as a result of the work, and that the root systems of seven ancient redwoods would be negatively impacted.
"Substantial irreparable damage would occur to the trees in the project area as a result of the proposed project ... (which) would, in turn, cause negative impacts to the overall health of the forest in the vicinity of the project area," McBride wrote.
The judge's ruling is expected this week.
CalTrans wants to remove six redwoods for road project, but UC Berkeley scientist says more will be harmed.