Friday is a good day to wrap up the loose ends, so here are a variety of news articles in which UC Cooperative Extension wasn't a major part of the story, but in which UCCE academics made contributions.
Great Park
If you don't live in Orange County, you may not have heard of the "Great Park," a planned public facility on an old marine base to be double the size of New York's Central Park. Orange County UCCE director John Kabashima was at a recent planning meeting covered by the Orange County Register. The story said Kabashima offered help in planning and using food grown at the park to feed underprivileged people.
Indoor air pollution
An article in The Union reported that poor quality indoor air can cause cancer and respiratory and heart diseases, according to the EPA. The story plugged the Healthy Home program, which is administered in California by Sacramento County UCCE director Gloria Barrett.
Salinas ag tech center
The Monterey County Weekly ran a story about the need for a Salinas Valley ag technology innovation center to support entrepreneurial ventures in growing crops for alternative energy and pharmaceuticals. Monterey County UCCE director Sonya Varea-Hammond commented in this story. “Having an ag tech center would really be the catalyst to do so much more,” she is quoted. “What we are really looking for is technological innovation enterprises that could not only sell to local companies, but they could sell to whoever."
Salad safety
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about new rules for leafy green vegetables that are aimed at preventing food safety outbreaks like the fresh spinach fiasco of fall 2006. Some of the rules, the article says, are costly, scientifically unproven and environmentally harmful. Toward the end of the very lengthy story, UC Davis researcher Linda Harris is quoted as saying "we will never eliminate food-borne illness entirely." UC Davis WIFFS director Michael Payne commented on the conflicts between farmers, agencies and environmental groups. "I see both sides digging in their heels. What's needed here is common sense and individualized risk assessment for a particular farm. ... Some practices are no-brainers, and others we don't have research on," the article quotes Payne.
SOD "roars back"
UC Cooperative Extension advisor Steven Swain comments in the Marin Independent Journal on the desperate and frustrating experiences of homeowners whose beloved oak trees are susceptible to Sudden Oak Death. He said a recent wave of oak deaths is yet to crest. "We haven't really seen the beginning of the true coast live oak mortality as a result of the rains of 2005 and 2006," Swain is quoted. The reporter also spoke to UC Davis plant pathologist David Rizzo. He said many of the trees now dying were infected in 2005. "My guess is we're going to see just as much next year with trees that took two years to die after the 2006 episode," Rizzo is quoted.