21 October 2010
California Winegrowers Get $2.3 Million
Federal Farm Bill funds research and marketing programs
By: Kerry Kirkham, Wines & Vines

California has the most recipients for the latest round of grant awards from the Agricultural Marketing Services Specialty Crop Block Grant Program approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Posted by Pinar Aybar at 9:33
09 September 2010
Every year one million acres of farmland are lost to development

The Last Crop tells a personal tale of a family caught in the middle of a delicate interplay between urban and agricultural space in California’s Central Valley. Annie and Jeff Main own a 20-acre organic farm that serves the Sacramento/San Francisco communities. After 30 years of farming, they are finding it harder to remain viable in a rapidly changing highly competitive environment.
The evening will consist of a 20 minute screening of the film followed by a panel discussion. The panel will discuss some of the current issues of being viable and sustainable as a small scale farmer.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Pacific Film Archive
2575 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA
Question:
Continue reading "Every year one million acres of farmland are lost to development" » | Permalink
Posted by Pinar Aybar at 2:09
20 August 2010
We can farm on Mars!
By: Rebecca Boyle, Wired Science Magazine

photo by: Nasa
If we ever decide to colonize Mars, it might be fairly simple to grow crops in that red soil, according to a new study. Mars’ reduced gravity could let us use less water and fertilizer than we do on Earth.
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Posted by Pinar Aybar at 9:35
09 August 2010
GM Plants Escape Into American Wild
By: Jessica Marshall, Discovery News

Genetically modified canola plants have been found growing wild in the U.S., in some cases far from fields of cultivated genetically modified canola.
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Posted by Pinar Aybar at 0:01
26 May 2010
John Casazza Returns from a Volunteer Assignment in the Republic of Georgia

John Casazza, an agribusiness management consultant from San Francisco, CA as well as the Alumni Association Board President at the College of Natural Resources, recently returned from a volunteer assignment in the Republic of Georgia where he advised a farm on how to improve their asparagus growing techniques. Casazza’s trip was part of a project with CNFA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people and enterprises in the developing world. Casazza, who owns and manages his own agribusiness consulting company, contributed his expertise in agribusiness management and sustainable agriculture to his host’s farm in the Village of Koda. His host, the owner of the large, multi-crop farm, was eager to begin growing asparagus to increase his profits. Even though Casazza found that the soil and climactic conditions in Georgia make it difficult to grow asparagus, he discovered that the native wild varieties that his host was using were adapted to these conditions.
Upon arriving at the farm, Casazza was surprised to find that the available equipment was of a lower standard than he had expected. However, both volunteer and host were eager to achieve their objectives. In fact, the host had even done his own research and proposed a few ideas that he needed Casazza’s help to realize. Casazza recalls that throughout his former experiences in developing countries, he has found himself in similar situations where resources are scarce or unavailable; he proposes that “you just have to be creative, fortunately my host in Georgia was like that too.†Casazza made suggestions that would not require sophisticated equipment and his host eagerly adapted his techniques, a sign of a “good farmer†according to the volunteer. Casazza describes himself as “adaptable to local culturesâ€, as a result of having lived and worked with farming communities in many different countries. He finds that he can “relate to rural farm life and how it works, especially how rural farmers think.†For instance, a former assignment in Tanzania where farmers are mostly engaged in low-level subsistence agriculture opened Casazza’s eyes to the situation of agriculture in developing countries. He realized that where people lack resources, “they become very resourceful and bank on the experiences and teachings
of past generations.â€
Continue reading "John Casazza Returns from a Volunteer Assignment in the Republic of Georgia" » | Permalink
Posted by Pinar Aybar at 4:25
13 May 2010
Professor Awarded Prestigious BREAD Grant

The National Science Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have awarded Professor Brian Staskawicz a BREAD Program grant. Staskawicz is the current chair of the department of plant and microbial biology at the College of Natural Resources. He is one of 15 grantees in the US being funded by the NSF-Gates partnership. He will receive a $1.3M grant to support his project on the bacterial blight disease of cassava.
BREAD is a new five-year program jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The two entities are partnering to support innovative scientific research designed to address key constraints to smallholder agriculture in the developing world.
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Posted by Eva St. Clair at 0:39
14 March 2002
New Approach to Improving Crop Yields in Africa
Continue reading " New Approach to Improving Crop Yields in Africa" » | Permalink
Posted by Eva St. Clair at 3:20
02 January 2003
Nature's Filter: Wetlands Clean Selenium From Agricultural Runoff
by Sarah Yang
Berkeley - Researchers from the University of California have found a natural detox program for selenium-contaminated farm runoff in the form of wetland vegetation and microbes.
Results from a two-year study by UC Berkeley researchers show that man-made wetlands in the state's San Joaquin Valley were able to remove an average of 69.2 percent of the selenium in agricultural drainage water. More significantly, some plant populations showed remarkable promise at converting selenium into a harmless gas consisting primarily of dimethyl selenide. That means less of the selenium would end up in sediment or plant tissue.
The new study, published online Wednesday, Jan. 1, in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, follows previous research at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, Calif. The researchers found that wetland ponds built in Richmond could take out as much as 89 percent of the selenium from millions of gallons a day of refinery discharge, preventing it from reaching San Francisco Bay.
"We thought that if wetlands could filter selenium from oil refinery wastewater, then they could probably be used for agricultural runoff," said Norman Terry, professor of plant biology at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and principal investigator of the study. "We're basically learning that some of the best, most efficient filters for pollutants can be found in nature."
Terry said the entire wetland ecosystem is acting as a bio-geo-chemical filter. "Everything is working in concert to take the selenium out of the drainage water," said Terry. "The extensive root system of the plants slows down the water flow so the selenium gets trapped in the sediment. The plants also provide a source of fixed carbon to fuel microbes, which metabolize the selenium into non-toxic gas. It is truly an amazing process."
The UC Berkeley research is part of a larger project funded by the UC Salinity/Drainage Program. The program involves researchers from the UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis and Riverside, and from the Tulare Lake Drainage District in Corcoran, Calif., who have been studying ways to provide irrigation for Central Valley farmers while mitigating ecological risks.
The toxic effects of selenium made headlines in 1983 when high levels from polluted farm water were found at the Kesterson national wildlife refuge in the San Joaquin Valley, part of the Central Valley. The soil on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley is naturally rich in selenium, which leaches into the shallow groundwater of the region. Excessive agricultural irrigation accelerates this leaching process.
A large quantity of selenium-polluted agricultural drainage water was being discharged into the reservoir in the early 1980s. The selenium was linked to severe deformities suffered by birds and other wildlife at the Kesterson refuge.
"Kesterson lacked proper environmental monitoring and management, so the selenium continued to build up, becoming concentrated over time through the food chain," said Zhi-Qing Lin, lead author of the study and former post-graduate researcher with Terry at UC Berkeley.
The discovery of selenium in the reservoir put the brakes on the construction of a drain that would have carried irrigation water from the Central Valley to the Delta. Farmers say the disruption of the irrigation drain, however, allowed salt to build up in the soil, leaving their land fallow.
The situation was bad enough that, last month, the federal government agreed to pay $107 million to San Joaquin Valley farmers for 34,000 acres of salt-poisoned farmland.
To test the effectiveness of wetlands in cleaning selenium out of agricultural drainage water, researchers from the UC Salinity/Drainage Program built 10 separate wetland ponds in the Central Valley at a site in Corcoran. The ponds, or "cells," contain a single plant species - such as cordgrass, saltmarsh bulrush and rabbitfoot grass - or a combination of plants. One pond was left unplanted as a control. Separate pipes brought water in and out of the ponds, which are roughly the size of two basketball courts.
Continue reading " Nature's Filter: Wetlands Clean Selenium From Agricultural Runoff" » | Permalink
Posted by Eva St. Clair at 3:04
06 February 2003
Genetically Modified Cotton Crops Produce Greater Yields, Reduced Pesticide Use in India
by Sarah Yang
Berkeley - Cotton crops in India that were genetically modified to resist insects produced dramatically increased yields and significantly reduced pesticide use compared with non-bioengineered crops, according to the results of farm trials reported by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Bonn in Germany.
The study, published Friday, Feb. 7, in the journal Science, holds particular promise for small-scale, low-income farmers in developing nations, said the researchers. These farmers, especially those in tropical regions, regularly risk large, pest-related crop losses because they cannot afford to use the pesticides available to larger farms.
"Many critics have questioned whether genetically modified crops would be economically and environmentally beneficial to farmers in developing countries," said David Zilberman, UC Berkeley professor of agricultural and resource economics and co-author of the study. "Our research indicates that transgenic crops should be a viable option. This is the first paper to show such a substantial increase in yield for bioengineered crops."
The researchers reported the results of field trials conducted on 157 farms in three major cotton-producing states in India during the seven-month cotton season that began in June 2001. The field trials were initiated by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco), which has been studying Bt hybrids in India since 1997.
The farm sites contained three adjacent plots that measured 646 square meters each. One plot was planted with cotton bioengineered with a gene from the insecticidal bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), the second with the same hybrid of cotton but without the Bt gene, and the third with a cotton hybrid traditionally grown in the local area.
The Bt cotton, produced by the Monsanto Company and Mahyco, is resistant to the three species of bollworm that plague crops in India. Prior studies in India show that crop damage from bollworm attacks averaged 50 to 60 percent.
In the study, the researchers found that average yields for Bt cotton were a remarkable 80 percent greater than their non-Bt counterparts, and 87 percent greater than the local cotton hybrids. In addition, the Bt cotton crops were sprayed against bollworms three times less often than both the non-Bt and local cotton crops.
For the sucking insects - such as aphids, jassids and whitefly - that Bt does not protect against, there were no significant differences in pesticide applications among the three types of crops.
Continue reading "Genetically Modified Cotton Crops Produce Greater Yields, Reduced Pesticide Use in India" » | Permalink
Posted by Eva St. Clair at 3:00
17 September 2005
CNR Celebrates 75th Anniversary of the Construction of Giannini Hall
On September 16, 2005, the College of Natural Resources celebrated Amadeo Peter Giannini's foresight and his generosity to the University of California and to agriculture in California and throughout the world.

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Posted by Eva St. Clair at 0:34
20 September 2009
Lifetime Achievement Award Presented for Research in Groundwater Hydrology
The Groundwater Resources Association of California has awarded Professor T.N. Narasimhan with its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2009 for his contributions in the field of groundwater hydrology.
"This award is presented annually to individuals for their exemplary contributions to the groundwater industry and for contributions that have been in the spirit of the Groundwater Resources Association's mission and organization objectives. Individuals who receive the Lifetime Achievement Award have dedicated their lives to the groundwater industry and have been pioneers in their field of expertise," the citation reads.
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Posted by Eva St. Clair at 1:13
09 September 2009
ESPM Grad Named State Director for Rural Development
A recent graduate of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management has been named State Director for Rural Development by the Obama administration.
Dr. Glenda Humiston recently finished her doctoral degree in the Division of Society and Environment. Her dissertation was entitled "Sustainable Agriculture as U.S. Farm Policy: Opportunities and Threats to Reform."
Continue reading "ESPM Grad Named State Director for Rural Development" » | Permalink
Posted by Eva St. Clair at 1:10
25 August 2009
Regulatory Woes Blocked Flow of Agbiotech Innovations
Regulatory changes enacted a decade ago appear to be responsible for dramatically slowing the flow of quality-improving agricultural biotechnology innovations to a mere trickle, reports a team of agricultural economists and biotechnology experts.
Findings from the study, published in the August issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, suggest that the slowdown may have lasting social welfare costs, such as the delay of nutritional improvements, production efficiencies and environmental protections.
"One of the great frustrations in the agricultural biotechnology community has been the failure of many new products with enhanced quality traits -- such as nutritional content, ripening control and processing attributes -- to reach consumers and processers," said Gregory Graff, an agricultural economist now at Colorado State University.
Continue reading "Regulatory Woes Blocked Flow of Agbiotech Innovations " » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 6:34
12 August 2009
Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty
Global forces are challenging the ability of develop ing countries to feed themselves. A number of countries have organized their economies around a competitive export-oriented agricultural sector, based mainly on monocultures.
It may be argued that agricultural exports of crops such as soybeans from Brazil make significant contributions to the national economies by bringing in hard currency that can be used to purchase other goods from abroad.
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Posted by Cyril at 1:10
05 February 2009
Jim Bundschu on the dawn of California's wine revolution
Wine from the Sonoma Valley wasn't always so glamorous. Jim Bundschu recalls his dad hanging out at the kitchen table with California Burgundy jug pioneer August Sebastiani, playing the card game Pedro in the early 1960s. "They'd be drinking wine out of peanut butter jars while my mom made slumgulleon," says Bundschu, who oversees the vineyards of the Gundlach Bundschu estate in the hilly Carneros region of Sonoma. But in 1966, with a stiff new diploma in agricultural economics, Bundschu recognized the potential, maybe not for glamour, but certainly to create something extraordinary.
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Posted by Cyril at 2:08
15 April 2009
From Toxic Goop to Worm Poop
It looks like Thomas Azwell -- a graduate student whose work crosses disciplanary boundaries from Society and Environment, where he is pursuing his Ph.D., to microbial biology, where he works closely with plant biologist Norman Terry -- might be on to something with his army of worms.
Azwell has developed a promising approach to safe disposal of oil spill waste (see 2:00 mark in video.)
Continue reading "From Toxic Goop to Worm Poop" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 6:12
26 May 2009
California Report: Sudden Oak Death
Continue reading "California Report: Sudden Oak Death" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 7:24
12 May 2009
Engineered wheat thwarts pre-harvest sprouting
Scientists from opposite sides of the world have created an improved variety of wheat by discovering how to prevent the phenomenon of premature sprouting, which can wipe out an entire crop.
Continue reading "Engineered wheat thwarts pre-harvest sprouting" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 0:38
13 May 2009
Green leaders from the Bay Area: Chris Somerville

The San Francisco Chronicle recently highlighted plant biologist Chris Somerville, director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, among 10 Bay Area entrepreneurs, scientists and policymakers at the vanguard of a revolution that aims to reinvent the way people use water, power their cars, build their houses and live their lives.
"They might not become household names," wrote the Chronicle, "but their research, policy papers and startups could shape the way many households run in the years to come." The story continues:
As a plant biochemist, Chris Somerville has pioneered the search for clean liquid-fuel sources harnessed from the solar energy stored in nonfood plants. Somerville is director of the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, an ambitious project financed by a $500 million grant from BP, the British oil company. It is the world's largest alliance between industry and academia.
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Posted by Cyril at 8:57
27 February 2009
UC Berkeley researchers explain key mechanism of inheritance that defies Mendel’s first law of genetics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered a key mechanism responsible for a curious type of genetic inheritance that has been one of the great, unsolved mysteries in biology. The new findings, to be published today (Friday, Feb. 27) in Science, help explain the phenomenon of paramutation, in which certain alleles are heritably altered while their DNA sequences remain unchanged.
Continue reading "UC Berkeley researchers explain key mechanism of inheritance that defies Mendel’s first law of genetics" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 1:50
28 January 2009
Video: Honey Bee Pollination Crisis - Professor Claire Kremen at the Commonwealth Club
Monoculture farming leaves us highly dependent on honey bees, whose pollination affects 75 percent of fruits and vegetables and 30 percent of all food production. However, managed hives are being wiped out by colony collapse disorder at an alarming rate.
Professor Claire Kremen discusses how wild bees can boost the effectiveness of managed hives and play a critical role in pollinating the crops that keep California's economy humming.
Watch the video below or download the podcast.
Continue reading "Video: Honey Bee Pollination Crisis - Professor Claire Kremen at the Commonwealth Club" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 1:36
12 December 2008
Study Underscores Impact of Court Imposed Water Pumping Restrictions
A study prepared by Berkeley Economic Consulting, under the direction of David Sunding, professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, outlines the statewide economic and water supply implications of ongoing water pumping restrictions imposed by federal courts in California to protect the Delta smelt. In early December, 2008, environmental and sport-fishing groups filed suit to force the complete and total shutdown of delta water pumping operations.
According to the study, statewide economic impacts can exceed $1 billion per year during drought years such as those currently facing the state, and may well exceed $3 billion should the state enter a prolonged dry period. Additionally, the report documents the severe water supply implications of the Court's orders. Even during average and wet periods the Court imposed restrictions exacerbate ongoing drought conditions by limiting the ability of water managers to replenish water storage facilities and groundwater reserves. The net result is a significant additional blow to the state economy and a greatly reduced ability to respond to severe drought and other emergencies.
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Posted by Cyril at 5:56
12 December 2008
Sustaining the Harvest: Creating Fine Wines on a Warming Planet
On Dec. 11, CNR hosted "Creating Fine Wines on a Warming Planet," a panel discussion on the future of the wine industry in the face of global warming. The panel featured College faculty Miguel Altieri, professor of agroecology, and Kent Daane, CE specialist in insect biology, as well as industry experts David Graves, co-founder of Saintsbury Vineyard, and Caleb Mosley, viticulturist at Ridge Vineyards. The panel discussion was followed by a special wine-tasting event.

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Posted by Cyril at 1:05
13 August 2008
Beahrs ELP 2008
This summer, 40 environmental professionals from around the world once again converged in Berkeley to attend the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). This certificate program in sustainable environmental management links participants to state-of-the-art environmental and natural resource science and policy training.
Participant Liliya Smialkova, of Belarus and Italy, sums up the ELP this way: "They say that in order to make a change, one doesn't need to change the circumstances but to change his or her point of view. I feel that I have new eyes now."
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Posted by Cyril at 5:00
27 May 2008
Addressing Global Hunger & Poverty through Agricultural Development
Continue reading "Addressing Global Hunger & Poverty through Agricultural Development" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 5:59
22 April 2008
Global Food Shortages: A Lasting Problem?
Notice a rise in the cost of a loaf of bread at the supermarket? You’re not alone. Overall, retail food prices in the United States have increased 4.4 percent in the last year. Other parts of the world have been harder hit and extreme food shortages have lead to riots and civil unrest.
Continue reading "Global Food Shortages: A Lasting Problem?" » | Permalink
Posted by Stephanie Ludwig at 4:02
15 January 2008
The Power of Green Algae
Professor Tasios Melis is unlocking the chemical power of green algae to create clean hydrogen fuel that eliminates air-polluting fossil fuels in its production. Check out "Power of Green," a segment from Fueling America, the latest episode of USDA CSREES video magazine.
Continue reading "The Power of Green Algae" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 9:16
26 April 2007
Video: Sudden Oak Death expert on KQED Quest
Devastating over 1 million oak trees across Northern California in the past 10 years, Sudden Oak Death is a killer with no cure. But biologists including CNR's Matteo Garbelotto are looking to the trees' genetics for a solution.
Continue reading "Video: Sudden Oak Death expert on KQED Quest" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 9:30
26 November 2007
Professor Lemaux Awarded Crop Science Fellowship
Peggy Lemaux, professor of Plant and Microbial Biology and cooperative extension specialist, has been selected to be a 2007 Crop Science Society of America fellow.
Continue reading "Professor Lemaux Awarded Crop Science Fellowship" » | Permalink
Posted by Stephanie Ludwig at 0:56
23 October 2007
ARE Professor Co-Directs World Bank Report
by Sarah Yang, UCB Media Relations
A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by Alain de Janvry, professor of agricultural and resource economics and of public policy.
Continue reading "ARE Professor Co-Directs World Bank Report" » | Permalink
Posted by Eva St. Clair at 0:52
16 July 2007
VIDEO: Claire Kremen and Gordon Frankie on Better Bees
California farmers depend on bees to pollinate the state's multi-million dollar fruit and nut crops, but last season thousands of bee colonies disappeared around the country.
The KQED science program Quest recently featured CNR ecologist Claire Kremen, and her research on bee pollination. In addition, an online-only special features the urban bees of entomologist Gordon Frankie.
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Posted by Cyril at 3:28
11 April 2007
Bees keep her busy as a, well, a bee
Public curiosity about bees kept UC Berkeley graduate student Alex Harmon-Threatt on her toes at an annual wildflower festival at the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness, south of Livermore, on April 7. Kids and adults alike peered through her magnifying glass at a collection of native wild bee species on display: bumblebees, mining bees, sunflower bees, leaf-cutter bees, yellow-faced bees — even bees that "land on you lightly and drink your sweat," she told incredulous young visitors.
Continue reading "Bees keep her busy as a, well, a bee" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 4:45
06 April 2007
Increased production of biofuels might help farmers & address climate change, but it could inflate food prices
From the Associated Press:
Increased production of biofuels such as ethanol might help farmers' bottom lines and address climate-change concerns, but it could inflate food prices worldwide, warns a former White House economist.
"Worldwide, especially in developing countries ... food price increases are definitely something we're going to have to come to grips with," said David Sunding, who served on former President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers.
Sunding, an [agricultural resources and economics] professor at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke on March 26 to water experts at a conference at the University of Nebraska.
The combination of rising energy prices and the demand for corn, which is used to produce ethanol, will continue to drive up commodity prices, he said.
Corn prices have already begun to soar. A rush to turn more land into corn production could decrease supplies of other commodities, driving up prices of them as well.
The resulting higher market prices could then dampen the public's support for government subsidies that are designed to help farmers reap profits when markets are down.
Continue reading "Increased production of biofuels might help farmers & address climate change, but it could inflate food prices" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 8:28
07 March 2007
A world without bees is a world without chocolate

From The San Francisco Chronicle [original URL]
By Alison Rood
When Professor Gordon Frankie wants to impress schoolchildren with the importance of bees, he lays out an array of foods such as berries, grapes, pears and chocolate alongside a couple of dried-out tortillas and rice cakes and asks them which foods they prefer.
Continue reading " A world without bees is a world without chocolate" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 3:33
22 February 2007
Auffhammer's "Brown Cloud" study named "Paper of the Year" by PNAS
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has awarded the Cozzarelli Prize to ARE assistant professor Max Auffhammer and his co-authors for their 2006 paper showing that reductions of human-generated
air pollution could create unexpected agricultural benefits in one of the world's poorest regions.
Auffhammer, along with co-authors from UC San Diego, analyzed historical data on Indian rice harvests and found that harvests would have been 20 to 25 percent higher during some years in the 1990s if certain negative climate impacts had not occurred.
Just six papers, out of the 3,300 research articles published in PNAS in 2006, were chosen for the Cozzarelli prize.
Continue reading "Auffhammer's "Brown Cloud" study named "Paper of the Year" by PNAS" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 4:50
16 January 2007
Is peaceful coexistence with biotechnology possible?
Growing genetically engineered (GE) crops in the United States continues to stir debate, but some University of California scientists believe attention should now be focused on how farmers opposed to the technology and those in favor of it can step back from the controversy and successfully produce and market their crops in the way they personally see fit.
Continue reading "Is peaceful coexistence with biotechnology possible?" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 5:17
14 December 2006
Video: Pest Affecting Honeybees, Food Supply
Watch Video
Continue reading "Video: Pest Affecting Honeybees, Food Supply" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 0:18
06 December 2006
Farmworkers: Can't afford the food they grow?
The perception that fruits and vegetables are too expensive helps explain why Fresno County farmworkers eat too few of these foods, according to Christy Getz, a UC Berkeley specialist who focuses on natural resource-dependent workers and communities.
Continue reading "Farmworkers: Can't afford the food they grow?" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 1:33
25 November 2005
Salt of the Earth
Continue reading "Salt of the Earth" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 1:10
05 December 2006
Reducing pollution could increase rice harvests in India
Reductions of human-generated air pollution could create unexpected agricultural benefits in one of the world's poorest regions, according to new research by Maximilian Auffhammer, assistant professor of agricultural resources and economics, and his collaborators.
Continue reading "Reducing pollution could increase rice harvests in India" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 1:06
25 October 2006
Pollinators help one-third of world's crop production
Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide, finds a new study published Oct. 25 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and co-authored by a conservation biologist from ESPM.
Continue reading "Pollinators help one-third of world's crop production" » | Permalink
Posted by Cyril at 6:11
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