Posts Tagged: Steve Koike

UC Cooperative Extension advisor receives national honor

Steven Koike, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Monterey County, has received the 2013 Excellence in Extension Award by the American Phytopathological Society, reported the Salinas Californian in a lengthy profile article written by D.L. Taylor.

Koike is considered by his grower clients as a problem solver who identifies new plant diseases and controls outbreaks. He is the primary resource person for coastal plant pathology issues.

“Steve’s program provides another service to the university: it is an academic model for outstanding scholarship in the UC Cooperative Extension system,” said Maria de la Fuente, director of UCCE in Monterey County. “His vision and creativity encourage county-based academics to expand our horizons beyond historically limited roles as advisors.”

Koike’s research involves dozens of host crops and many factors that cause plant diseases,  such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, as well as chemical and physical factors in the environment, the article said. For example, following the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak on California spinach, he engaged in food safety research and conducted studies on E. coli and Salmonella ecology and survival under field conditions in the Salinas Valley.

Steve Koike, left, in a broccoli raab field with a USDA plant pathologist. (Photo: USDA)

New environmental chamber to help researchers find cures for vegetable diseases

The Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner, the University of California Cooperative Extension, the Leafy Greens Research Commission, and growers and seed companies are pooling resources to bring a state-of-the-art environmental chamber to the laboratories at the Monterey County Agricultural Center in Salinas, according to the Salinas Californian.

Steven Koike, UCCE advisor in Monterey County, said the chamber "will allow us to ramp up research.” The new acquisition is something like a large refrigerator in which researchers can control temperature and humidity.

“Industry in the Salinas Valley is progressive in funding research,” Koike said. “It’s not afraid to invest in solutions.”

 

Distinguished Service Award winners named

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the 2011 recipients of the ANR Distinguished Service Awards, which are given biennially for outstanding contributions to the teaching, research and public service mission of the Division.

Awards were given in six areas:

• Outstanding Extension – Walt Bentley, area IPM advisor based at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center
• Outstanding Research – Steve Koike, plant pathology farm advisor for Monterey and Santa Cruz counties
• Outstanding New Academic – Jim Bethke, floriculture and nursery advisor for San Diego and Riverside counties
• Outstanding Team – Money Talks. The Money Talks team is composed of Charles Go, workgroup chair and 4-H youth development advisor for Alameda County; Margaret Johns, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for Kern County; Keith Nathaniel,  4-H youth development advisor for Los Angeles County;  Shirley Peterson, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor emeritus; Brenda Roche, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for Los Angeles County; Karen Varcoe, consumer economics specialist based at UC Riverside; Patti Wooten-Swanson, nutrition, family & consumer sciences advisor for San Diego County
• Outstanding Leader – Richard Enfield, county director for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties
• Outstanding Staff – Connie Costello, program representative for consumer economics

Each of the recipients will receive $2,000 and a certificate, except for the team award recipients, who will receive individual certificates and share $5,000.

The 2011 Academic Assembly Council Distinguished Service Award committee was chaired by Rachel Surls and included Jim Bethke, Joe Grant, Scott Oneto and Becky Westerdahl. Although Bethke was on the committee making these awards, he did not participate in any part of the decision-making on the Outstanding New Academic award.

On behalf of ANR, I thank the DSA recipients for providing excellent service to the people of California and congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Spinach safer five years after E. coli outbreak

Salinas Californian reporter Andy Stiny wrote a story on the 5th anniversary of the E. coli outbreak in spinach grown in San Benito County. He reported that Steve Koike, plant pathology farm advisor for Monterey County, said California's spinach industry is rebounding from the setback. Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, executive director for the Center for Produce Safety at UC Davis, is quoted as saying, "A lot of research is going into all produce right now." The center has 54 produce safety projects under way. Christine Bruhn, a food marketing specialist and director of the Center for Consumer Research at UC Davis, said recent surveys show consumers are more concerned about meat products but 30 percent said they are concerned about produce safety. "We advise people to wash their sink and their hands, then wash produce in running water and dry with a clean paper towel," Bruhn told the reporter. "This reduces but does not eliminate bacteria."

UC Berkeley professor appointed to systemwide position

Sybil Lewis, The Daily Californian

UC Berkeley professor Barbara Allen-Diaz has been appointed University of California systemwide vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources, reports the Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley student newspaper.

Scientists perplexed by verticillium wilt in lettuce

UC scientists in the Salinas Valley are trying to figure out why certain varieties of lettuce became susceptible in the 1990s to the fungus that causes verticillium wilt and how the fungus is getting into the soil.

"This is one of the more important diseases facing growers in the county," the Salinas Californian quoted UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Steve Koike. "It has a significant impact and is increasing each year."

Strawberry crops have long suffered from the disease, but lettuce was immune. Strawberry fields are often fumigated to kill fungi, other soil-borne pests and weed seeds, however, the value of the lettuce crop doesn't justify fumigation and methyl bromide, the primary fumigant, is being phased out.

Lettuce farmers must look for other ways to manage fungus-contaminated fields, Koike told reporter Melissae Fellet. Growers can plant crops immune to the fungus, such as broccoli, cauliflower or celery, or they can plant fungus-resistant lettuce varieties.

The scientists, initially mystified about the source of the fungus, recently discovered that spinach seeds from Denmark, Holland, New Zealand and Washington state have been carrying the fungus into Salinas Valley fields, where it persists in the soil for years.

USDA awarded the researchers a $1.5 million grant to investigate how the fungus is transferred from the seeds to lettuce. UC Davis plant pathologist Krishna Subbarao, who is headquartered at the USDA research station in Salinas, is the principal investigator.

Lettuce with verticillium wilt.

Read more