Author Archives: Office of Public Affairs

http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/07/28/2927254/valley-farmers-help-save-tricolored.html Shortly before harvest this spring, thousands of rare birds suddenly flocked to a Tulare County wheat field and nested — setting the stage for a vast killing field with baby birds. But the dairy farmer who was growing the … Continue reading →

Cotton bolls in the field Heather Ingram/Flickr Genetically modified Bt crops get a pretty bad rap. The pest-killing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteria protein these plants are bioengineered to make has been accused of harming monarch butterflies, honey bees, rats, and … Continue reading →

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/foie-gras-goes-underground-at-california-duckeasies-.html Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images A Foie gras dish is prepared at a restaurant in California.   On July 15, about a dozen people walked into a cozy San Francisco restaurant with a window sign reading “private event” to savor foie … Continue reading →

 http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/07/us-declares-largest-natural-disaster-area-ever-due-drought/54479/ The blistering summer and ongoing drought conditions have the prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare a federal disaster area in more than 1,000 counties covering 26 states. That’s almost one-third of all the counties in the United States, … Continue reading →

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-triumph-of-the-family-farm/8998/ We buried my grandfather last spring. He had died in his sleep in his own bed at 95, so, as funerals go, it wasn’t a grim occasion. But it was a historic one for our small rural community. My … Continue reading →

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/06/26/world/europe/26reuters-wine-plague.html A wine plague spread by lice destroyed vines in France in the 19th century but a small area in the Pyrenees, which contains plants up to 200 years old, was spared and is being classified as a national heritage … Continue reading →