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UC Riverside calculations help demonstrate food safety
Robert Krieger, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Riverside Department of Entomology, calculated that a child could consume hundreds or even thousands of servings of many popular fruits and vegetables in one day and still not experience any negative health effects from pesticide residues.
To make the Pesticide Residue Calculator, Krieger analyzed the highest residue levels found on fruits and vegetables by the USDA and calculated the number of servings which could be eaten in one day without any negative health effects from the pesticide residues that may be present, according to a news release by the Alliance for Food and Fiber.
"At the end of the day, I think it's the responsibility of all parents and all adults to encourage children to eat their fruits and vegetables to help ensure they have long and productive lives," said Carl Keen, professor in the Department of Nutrition at UC Davis.
The Alliance for Food and Farming is a non-profit organization that works to provide a voice for farmers to communicate their commitment to food safety and care for the land, according to the organization's website.
The goal of the Pesticide Residue Calculator is to assure parents it is safe to serve children as many fruits and vegetables as they will eat, whether they are conventional or organic.
Food safety specialist addresses cantaloupe guidelines
Trevor Suslow, UC Cooperative Extension food safety specialist at Davis, was told by the farm owner that they believed the postharvest system used in conjunction with the outbreak was an improvement over their previous methods — though Suslow disagrees. He acknowledges, however, that the FDA does not make a definitive statement in its growing guidelines on the safest method of cleaning, cooling or packing cantaloupe.
Agricultural program helps keep youth out of gangs
An Associated Press article by Gosia Wozniacka profiles volunteer work by Manuel Jimenez, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Tulare County. The article was published by news outlets such as the Fresno Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, ABC News, Fox News, CBS News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others.
He and wife Olga teach life skills and farming techniques to youth on a 14-acre garden in Woodlake, Calif.
"We want to grow kids in our gardens, because we've seen what violence, drugs and alcohol can do," Jimenez told the reporter.
The article also includes comments from youth volunteers in the program, past and present.
"Everything Manuel did was interesting to me," said Walter Martinez, who is now a UC Cooperative Extension field assistant and also served as a volunteer at the garden through middle and high school.
Listeria outbreak renews call for federal regulations
UC food safety expert Michele Jay-Russell said federal officials should draw inspiration from the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement when they finalize the new regulations. California and Arizona put the agreement in place after the 2006 spinach E. coli outbreak, the article said. It includes a wide range of food safety metrics, from how often to test irrigation water to the optimal method of composting and proper use of animal manures.
Jay-Russell also said research into animal biology could help identify new strategies to prevent or treat listeria. Unlike other pathogens such as E. coli, listeria can sicken both humans and animals. Because sheep, goats and cattle develop similar symptoms to humans, she suggests studies of this parallel animal disease could lead to a better understanding of human illness.
Every day is Food Day
Cathryn Couch, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Sonoma County is blessed with a rich agricultural heritage and a strong local food culture. Today, growing interest and concern is merging with strong support from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and new opportunities for collaboration. Among the highlights of "exciting food happenings" listed in this article was the first county-wide Food Forum presented in January by the Sonoma County Food System Alliance. The alliance, together the Board of Supervisors and UC Cooperative Extension, gathered nearly 300 stakeholders to explore what’s working and identify what’s needed to create a healthy food system for all.
Resident, farming scientist outraged by city’s pruning job
Eiji Yamashita, Hanford Sentinel
UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Bob Beede is outraged by the way three ornamental Bradford pear street trees near his home were pruned by the City of Hanford.
“They came in and butchered all of my lower foliage off my trees. If you talk to professional arborists, they’d tell you this is the wrong way to prune an ornamental tree,” Beede said.
Beede is a veteran farm advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Kings County. He works closely with farmers in the area to improve their fruit tree production, the newspaper reported.
'Locavore' movement likely to spur food safety policies
The increasing popularity of buying locally produced foods directly from farmers is accompanied by a parallel rise in concerns about keeping local consumers safe from the same pathogens responsible for nationwide outbreaks of salmonella, listeria and E. coli, according to the second in a three-part MSNBC series about food safety.
According to the story, Richard Molinar, small farm program advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Fresno County, thinks the local food movement will put pressure on local farms to develop food safety plans.
“Certainly more people are wanting to buy fresh and buy local; that doesn’t mean that they’re not concerned about food safety,” said Molinar, who helps small farmers develop scaled-down food safety manuals. “When you go to swap meets or farmers markets, I think at some point consumers are going to want to see or know if those farmers have some kind of policy in place.”
Richard Molinar, center, and his assistant Michael Yang, left, with a local farmer.
UC helps small scale farmers ensure food safety
Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez spoke to the owner of an eight-acre Fresno County farm.
"We have been farming for 40 years and have never had a problem, but now we have to document, document, document. I almost burned out my copy machine," the farmer was quoted.
To help growers develop written food safety plans, UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Richard Molinar is holding training seminars in English, Spanish and Hmong.
"We knew that the retailers were asking the packinghouses and wholesalers for the food-safety documents and they were beginning to start asking it from the farmers," Molinar was quoted. "They wanted to see written policies in place."
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