UC Blog
Associated Press runs with California Agriculture stories
Last Friday, the Associated Press picked up and ran with the climate change stories in the current issue of California Agriculture journal. Reporter Tracie Cone opened her widely published article with the prediction that rising temperatures could make pears, peaches, pistachios and other crops that need winter chill unsuitable for California farms, and others crops would suffer lower yields.
Cone went on to write that articles in California Agriculture "predict temperatures in California will increase by 7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2095." That wasn't the conclusion I reached when I looked over the Cal Ag stories, so I checked with the journal's editor, Janet Byron.
She and the journal's executive editor Janet White reviewed Cone's story and compared it to information in the new issue.
"We don't know where (Cone) got the exact '7 degrees by 2095' figure," Byron said. "But if you look at the scenarios . . . from the IPCC, it's pretty clear that 7 degrees would be the average predicted increase by 2099. Every scientist quoted in our issue says that climate change is inevitable, and they cite ranges in the IPCC report. So I don't think she was exactly correct - a range would have been more accurate - but I don't think she was wrong either."
Pulling information from a news article in the journal written by Byron, Cone noted in the AP story that about 15 percent of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is related to food production, with livestock-produced methane and nitrous oxide leading the way, followed by the breakdown of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, transportation, heat used to operate greenhouses and the decomposition of waste.
"We are developing information so that major food suppliers, food service professionals and retailers, as well as consumers, can figure out where to focus to make the biggest impact on climate change," the Cal Ag news article and the AP story alike quoted Gail Feenstra of the UC Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.
A diversity of media outlets shared the AP story with their readers either online or in print editions, including the San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, Modesto Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Merced Sun-Star, Monterey Herald, Lodi News-Sentinal, Visalia Times, Fort Mills Times, KTVU.com, KCBS.com and many other online news sites from Alabama to New Jersey.
The current issue of California Agriculture.
Risk for produce contamination by wildlife is probably low
Wildlife is not a primary source of E. coli 0157:H7, according to a press release distributed last week by the California Department of Fish and Game. The release reported preliminary results of ongoing research aimed at understanding the risk of fresh produce contamination by wildlife on the Central Coast. The research was prompted by the deadly and well-publicized 2006 E. coli contamination incident in spinach.
From 2007 through 2008, the research team collected 866 wildlife samples, including 311 black-tailed deer, 184 wild pig, 73 birds, 61 rabbits, 58 tule elk, 52 ground squirrels, 51 coyotes, 24 mice, 19 raccoons, 17 opossums and 16 striped skunks. (No animals were harmed in conducting this research; the samples are scat.) Of the 866 animals sampled, 862 tested negative. The four positive samples included: one wild pig, one coyote and two tule elk.
The study's leader, USDA-Agricultural Research Service microbiologist Robert Mandrell, said scientists are less than halfway through the study. (Mandrell was identified in the news release as team leader of the Produce Microbiology and Safety Research Unit, UC Davis. University of California scientists are working with Fish and Game and ARS on the research.)
"The small number of positive animals suggests the risk for produce contamination by wildlife is probably low, and following good agricultural practices should minimize the public health risk," Mandrell was quoted in the release.
The story also appeared on YubaNet.com.
UC generates climate change news
Coincidentally, two news releases were distributed yesterday with information from UC Ag and Natural Resources about climate change.
One news release announces the current issue of California Agriculture journal, which is devoted to news and research on climate change and how it will alter California’s environment and landscape, agriculture and food quality. The cover of the magazine says climate change is "unequivocal," a word pulled from the 2007 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level," the IPCC report says.
Articles in the journal -
- Summarize the predicted changes to California’s climate, weather, growing conditions, pollution, sea level and other factors
- Explain why initial increases in crop production due to “CO2 fertilization” decline rapidly, a finding with important implications for hunger and nutrition worldwide
- Predict that the numbers and kinds of invasive insect pests will increase because of rising temperatures
- Demonstrate how alternative agricultural practices such as cover cropping can have a significant impact on the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted from fields
The second climate change news release was generated by the UC Berkeley news service. It says climate change will bring about major shifts in worldwide fire patterns, and that those changes are coming fast, according to an analysis led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Texas Tech University.
"This is the first attempt to quantitatively model why we see fire where we see it across the entire planet," the news release quotes study author Max Moritz, assistant cooperative extension specialist in wildland fire at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and co-director of the UC Center for Fire Research & Outreach. "What is startling in these findings is the relatively rapid rate at which we're likely to see very broad-scale changes in fire activity for large parts of the planet."
Media mark the passing of ag giant J.G. Boswell
J.G. Boswell, the founder and head of the enormous family-owned farming concern J.G. Boswell Co., passed away last week at the age of 86. As an innovative cotton farmer in the San Joaquin Valley and influential advocate in land and water resource policy, Boswell's path often intersected with UC Cooperative Extension.
Boswell inherited the company when he was 29 from his uncle, also named J.G. Boswell, according to an obituary published today in the Los Angeles Times. His farm spans 150,000 acres near the San Joaquin Valley town of Corcoran. In addition to farming, the company conducted an innovative research and development program, producing more productive seeds and making technological improvements to his gins that boosted their capacity to 400 bales of cotton a day.
UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Howitt told the Times that Boswell was also an innovative water user, one of the first to employ lasers to level fields so that water flowed evenly and efficiently. Careful water management, including employing agronomists to determine when and how to water, allowed Boswell's farms to produce more cotton with less water than competitors, Howitt told Times reporter Jerry Hirsch. Many of Boswell's techniques were later adopted by other farms.
J.G. Boswell was a friend to UC Cooperative Extension. His company's foundation is listed as a major contributor to the 4-H program and it provided land for UC research projects, such as a study underway in the late 1990s to determine whether agricultural drainage water can be cleaned using flow-through wetlands, as described in this UC Cooperative Extension news release. These weren't his only philanthropic endeavors. In fact, the former country director for UC Cooperative Extension in Kings County, Bruce Roberts, is now an agronomy professor in the J.G. Boswell-endowed chair in plant science at California State University, Fresno.
Google News lists 51 media outlets including a news obituary about J.G. Boswell's death, including:
- Fresno Bee: Titan of Valley agriculture Boswell dead at age 86
- Visalia Times-Delta: Local grower J.G Boswell II dies
- San Jose Mercury-News: JG Boswell II, king of Calif. cotton, dies at 86
Media cover UCCE budget issues
An article in the Martinez News-Gazette said "vocal lobbying by the Contra Costa 4-H members and their parents" influenced the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors to maintain its funding support for UC Cooperative Extension until June 30.
Indicators had been that funding would end immediately. The board's decision gives the program time to seek “other funding mechanisms," wrote reporter Greta Mark, attributing the comment to "4-H officials."
Mark wrote that supervisor Gayle Uilkema told the newspaper the board planned to discontinue its "$352,000 in annual funding to the 4-H in an attempt to close the county’s $50 million budget deficit." (It seems the writer confuses the umbrella UC Cooperative Extension organization with 4-H, perhaps because it is UCCE's most visible component in this urban county.)
“The Supervisors provided us a window of opportunity,” the article quoted farm advisor Janet Caprile. “We’re hopeful, but at the same time we know it’s very serious, we don’t know if we can find funding.”
Uilkema said the county would maintain a minimal contract with UCCE and provide services in kind, such as gas and buildings, the article said.
“We’re trying to keep 4-H on life support,” Uilkema was quoted. “So that as opportunities evolve with time, we have not abandoned youth-oriented county programs and we can resuscitate it and bring it to a ramped-up level when things change.”
An article in the Hanford Sentinel had better news for UC Cooperative Extension. This story focused on state funding for the program. Reporter Seth Nidever spoke to the vice president of UC ANR, Dan Dooley, who grew up in the area served by the Hanford Sentinel and attended Hanford High School.
Dooley told the reporter that the current state budget looks better for UCCE than it did during the 2003 state budget crisis.
"We're not expecting major reductions," Dooley was quoted.
However, the story noted that UCCE hasn't quite recovered from earlier slashed budget allocations, which cut the number of advisors to 230, down from nearly 400 that were employed at its peak in 1990.