UC Blog
Pollinators are in the news
The insects and animals that bustle from blossom to blossom collecting food while inadvertently pollinating plants are responsible for helping produce some of the healthiest food on the planet. Any threat to pollinators, therefore, is a threat to human health, according to a study published this week in the online journal PLoS ONE.
The study was carried out by an international team that included scientists from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. It stemmed from a working group at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said a UCSB news release.
The research team showed that, globally, "animal-pollinated crops contain the majority of the available dietary lipid, vitamin A, C, and E, and a large portion of the minerals calcium, fluoride, and iron worldwide. The yield increase attributable to animal-dependent pollination of these crops is significant and could have a potentially drastic effect on human nutrition if jeopardized," the release said.
This isn't the only news about the animals that pollinate crops important to the human food supply. In the UC Green Blog yesterday, UC Berkeley writer Ann Guy reported that a UC Berkeley study credited wild bee species with pollinating California crops to the tune of $937 million to $2.4 billion per year. Many of those pollinators are wild bees that live on rangelands – chiefly ranches that graze cattle.
"As it turns out, the farmer and the cowman should be friends," wrote Guy, quoting lyrics from the classic "Oklahoma!" song.
Non-native species, many that serve as hard-working pollinators, were also lauded in a news release distributed this week by writer Kathy Keatley Garvey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. The release was based on a recent article, published in the journal Nature, titled “Don’t Judge Species on Their Origins." The garden-variety honeybee is a non-native species in the United States.
“Nativeness is not a sign of evolutionary fitness or of a species having positive effects,” the journal article says.
For stunning photos of a variety of pollinators, see Garvey's Bug Squad post on National Pollinator Week.
Female wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) heads for lupine at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Agriculture welcomes summer
Temperatures across California's Central Valley pushed past the century mark in conjunction with the official arrival of summer yesterday. The warming weather is, for the most part, being welcomed by the agriculture industry, though some wished the warm-up hadn't been so sudden, Capital Press reported.
CP reporter Tim Hearden spoke with UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Rick Buchner about almond, walnut and prune orchards, which he said are holding up well, although gradual warming would have been better.
"We haven't found a whole lot of problems at this point," Buchner was quoted. "We've seen some pretty good prune and walnut crops."
The Capital Press story summarized USDA's National Agriculture Statistics Service National Crop Weather Report. It said:
- Alfalfa growers have been getting cuttings throughout the state in June
- Sunflower seed, corn and bean planting continued
- Blueberry harvest has gone into full swing
- Strawberry picking continues, while strawberry nursery planting is about finished
- Carrots have been harvested in Kern County
- Onions and garlic in Fresno County are maturing to harvest
- Processing tomatoes are starting to grow after the cool weather held them back
- Non-irrigated pasture and rangeland are in good condition
The cool spring slowed grape growth and caused mildew and fungus problems.
Recommended budget approaches sent to EWG
Senior UC leaders have established budget targets to absorb a $500 million reduction in state funding for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Office of the President has preliminarily assigned ANR a $6.2 million reduction for FY 2011-12. The exact amount will not be certain until final action on the State budget and action by the Board of Regents.
VP Dooley appointed an ad hoc budget committee to develop principles to guide the implementation of the $6.2 million reduction and, where appropriate, to make specific recommendations to achieve the budget target.
The committee recently completed their task by reporting their information to ANR Program Council and ANR’s Executive Working Group. In their short time span, 18 days, the committee developed a set of recommended guiding principles for application in the budget decision process. These principles included:
· Layoffs will be resorted to last.
· To the maximum extent possible, preserve the academic reversion pool for hiring of new academics.
· Support academics equitably across all program areas.
· Make decisions that can be enacted immediately.
· All programs and all units are “on the table.”
· When program funding is reduced, give the director the ability to determine how best to enact the reduction.
· Consider elimination of some programs/program areas rather than eroding funding for all programs. If a proposed reduction results in inadequate support for program development or delivery, then program should be considered for elimination.
The Committee also identified four approaches to reaching the $6.2 million target reduction:
· Reductions of programs and units
· Program elimination
· Maximizing the use of endowments
· Revenue enhancement
The committee concluded that it will take a blend of these approaches to meet the target budget reduction rather than any one approach.
The committee concluded their work by applying the guiding principles and a blend of approaches to develop a budget reduction scenario. All of the information developed by the committee and the comments and recommendations made by Program Council following the committee’s presentation have been provided to ANR’s Executive Working Group. VP Dooley expects to make budget decisions as soon as is prudent, taking into consideration state budget developments.
The ANR Update announcing appointment of the budget committee with the list of committee members is at http://ucanr.org/sites/anrstaff/?blogpost=4903&blogasset=643.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Silicon Valley investors to focus on Central Valley ag
Silicon Valley venture capitalists will focus on investment opportunities in Central Valley agriculture during a conference at UC Davis this summer, Grow-California.com announced yesterday. The California Agriculture Innovation Conference takes place in Freeborn Hall July 20 and 21.
Conference participants will meet with policymakers such as California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross and USDA Rural Development State Director Glenda Humiston. and “game changing” agriculture companies, the Grow-California news release said. LA Times reporter P.J. Huffstutter and Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters are also on the agenda. Other prominent speakers include the president of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and a deputy editor of Forbes magazine.
Conference organizers believe that by bringing the venture capital community together with the agricultural community, there will be potential to create an innovative technology hub for agriculture in the Central Valley as was done in the Silicon Valley for high tech.
Grow-California was formed in April 2011, a spin-off of Golden Capital Network, the website said. The new company aims to foster job and wealth creation by connecting innovative entrepreneurs, growth companies and market leaders with capital, talent, academia, customers and partners.
Grow-California plans two other conferences this year, a Clean Tech Innovation conference in Oakland Sept. 14 and 15 and a Web & IT Innovation conference in Pleasanton November 16 and 17.
Online registration for the Agriculture Innovation Conference is available on the GrowCalifornia website. Registration for the two-day conference is $245. One day registration is $125. There is a $75 charge for the VIP dinner on July 20.
Could food irradiation prevent deadly infections?
In the wake of a catastrophic E. coli outbreak in Europe - blamed for more than 36 deaths - public dialogue about food irradiation has resumed in earnest. The recent European food safety epidemic, which linked a virulent strain of E. coli with bean and seed sprouts, was the worst in recorded history, according to Food Safety News.
An article in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend considered whether food irradiation could prevent such deadly infections. Food irradiation - which has been around for more than 100 years - involves exposing food to low-dose X-rays, electron beams or gamma rays. The high-energy particles kill disease-causing pathogens. The particles also break up water molecules in the food, releasing free radicals that can kill bacteria and parasites.
Times writer Elena Conis spoke to the director of the UC Davis Center for Consumer Research Christine Bruhn about the process. She said no radioactive materials end up in the food itself, even though, in the case of gamma rays, the source is radioactive cobalt. Electron-beam and X-ray irradiation involve no radioactive elements.
Critics of food irradiation raise a number of objections. They say that irradiation:
- Reduces the level of nutrients
- Is less effective against viruses, which are responsible for more cases of food-borne infections than bacteria
- Does not eliminate all bacteria from treated foods
- Doesn't prevent food contamination in the first place
Proponents argue that, while not foolproof, irradiation can be an effective food safety tool. The Times quoted a 2001 analysis in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases which found that irradiating half of the meat and poultry consumed in the U.S. would prevent more than 880,000 cases of illness, 8,500 hospitalizations and 352 deaths a year. Similar studies for produce irradiation, the article said, have not been done.
Bruhn maintains a webpage with detailed information about food irradiation, including arguments in favor and opposed, irradiation history and popular myths.
Christine Bruhn believes food irradiation is a safe technology with numerous advantages for the consumer and the agricultural industry.