http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/28/4012891/uc-davis-study-questions-link.html

Fast food alone cannot be blamed for high obesity rates among people with low incomes, according to a new UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research study.

The research calls into question stereotypes that have led some cities in Southern California to cite obesity when passing laws limiting or banning new fast-food restaurants in poorer communities.

Nutritionists and food policy experts, however, said that doesn’t let fast food off the hook – and at least one of the UC Davis researchers agreed.

“I’m not a big fan of fast food,” said J. Paul Leigh, lead author of the study, which will be published in Population Health Management in December. “I’m sure that fast food in general has a big effect on obesity. This research does not contradict that.”

It does challenge the notion that those with low incomes eat more fast food than those with higher incomes.

Health economists Leigh and co-author DaeHwan Kim analyzed data from the mid-1990s and compared household income with visits to fast-food and full-service restaurants.

Rather than finding fast-food visits going down with income, they found visits peak at $60,000 in income, before falling slightly.

“They (people with low incomes) are not spending as much on fast food as lower-middle income or middle income,” Leigh said. “Just to say, ‘Fast food is the sole problem,’ that’s not where the sole problem is.”

Others said the study needs more careful analysis.

“It would be a big mistake to look at the results of this report and say the environments people live in don’t matter, because they do,” said Micah Weinberg, a senior policy adviser at the Bay Area Council who works on public health issues.

The study doesn’t cover what else people eat, nor separate out the rural poor, who may not have access to fast-food restaurants.

It’s also important to look at what else people eat and what other foods are available to them, Weinberg said.

“Is your neighborhood full of 7-Elevens or is it full of Whole Foods?” he asked.

The former is dominated by what he called “convenience store foods,” including highly sweetened beverages.

Those drinks are a problem in obesity, agreed Leigh, although that wasn’t specifically mentioned in his paper.

Adjusted for inflation, the price of soda has actually gone down over the past 30 years, and a 2-liter bottle of name brand Coke may be sold more cheaply than the same amount of water, Leigh said.

“I favor some sort of tax on soda pop with sugar,” he said.

To really make a difference, better-quality foods have to be made available in lower- income neighborhoods.

“If you go to places in Sacramento, it’s harder to get anything in the lowest of low- income (communities),” said Judith Stern, a nutrition professor at UC Davis and a nationally recognized expert on obesity.

“I think we need to make food available in low-income neighborhoods,” she said, meaning wholesome, high-quality foods.

She acknowledged the difficulties working people with low incomes have.

“If you could cook at home, it would be cheaper,” she said. “But where do you have the time?”

Leigh and Kim’s study showed other patterns. Among them:

• People with more education were more likely to go to full-service restaurants.

• Smokers were more likely to go to fast-food restaurants.

• People who worked longer hours were more likely to eat out.

• Men were more likely than women to eat out.

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Inedible kitchen grease (IKG), once regarded as a waste product and used primarily as an additive for animal feed, has become an elixir in the booming green economy.  The grease’s value as a biofuel is being increasingly recognized.  IKG is now coveted, which makes it a target for theft.

CDFA has responsibility for regulating IKG transport in California and is concerned that increases in theft is costing legitimate industry millions of dollars in lost revenue every year. In an attempt to reduce these losses, the agency is now teaming with a law enforcement agency in a high-theft area to pull over vehicles transporting IKG, making sure they’re in compliance with state law. The partnership, which is in its very early stages, has already detected violators. CDFA will pursue additional partnerships in other high-theft areas.

A recent newspaper article features more information about this issue:  http://capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=zy1w5awkgid5tq

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross is congratulating the University of California at
Santa Cruz for winning a grant of more than $2.6 million from the USDA for
organic research.  The grant is among $19 million being issued nationally by the
USDA for organic research and marketing.

The UC Santa Cruz project will facilitate a series of seminars, workshops,
newsletters and online resources to share research that will help organic
growers improve environmental sustainability and economic viability.

“With California’s place as the leading agricultural state in the country,
including organic farming, this is an excellent investment of federal
resources,” said Secretary Ross.   “UC Santa Cruz is well positioned to put this
grant to good use by providing targeted research information to our rapidly
growing organic sector.”

The most recent survey of national organic production by the USDA showed
California with 36 percent of all sales of organic commodities, on 470,000 acres
of farmland.  Since the late 1990s, U.S. organic production has seen significant
growth. U.S. producers are increasingly turning to certified organic farming
systems as a potential way to decrease reliance on nonrenewable resources and
compete in high-value markets. Today more than two-thirds of U.S. consumers buy
organic products at least occasionally, and 28 percent buy organic products
weekly.

For more information about the USDA national grant program, please see:  http://www.nifa.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2011news/organic_awards.html

A 75-square mile quarantine is now in place in the Anaheim area of Orange County, due to an Oriental fruit fly infestation. For more information, including a map of the quarantine zone, please visit this CDFA Internet page .

The UC Small Farm Program and UC Cooperative Extension invite agritourism leaders, advisors, promoters and regulators from all over the state to strategize about building better support for California agritourism operators at a statewide agritourism summit to be held November 4 in Stockton.

While California agritourism has so far been primarily organized at the county and
regional levels, other states have organized statewide agritourism associations. At the November summit, experts will help participants explore the relationships and benefits involved in both statewide and local/regional agritourism programs. This gathering will help newer local agritourism associations build stronger connections with more experienced groups and with supportive agricultural, tourism and community development professionals throughout the state.

“We look forward to talking with other California agritourism organizers,” said Tim Neuharth, pear grower and founding member of the new Sacramento River-Delta Grown Agritourism Association. “People from Apple Hill, Sonoma County Farm Trails and Sacramento County Farm Bureau have been very kind in helping us set up our organization. We have big plans for our fledgling group of Sacramento River Delta growers.”

Scheduled speakers include CDFA secretary Karen Ross; Martha Glass, executive director of North Carolina’s highly successful Agritourism Networking Association; and representatives from the Apple Hill Growers Association.

The workshop will include regional breakout sessions for networking, discussion and
planning. Participants will also take away a tool kit of practical ideas, resources, social media tools and starter projects to organize agritourism associations in their own regions.

Conference registration is open now at http://ucanr.org/agtoursummit.2011.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/10/california-cantaloupes-listeria-safe.html

Federal regulators’ pinpointing of a deadly listeria food poisoning to a single packing shed in Colorado provides evidence that the outbreak was an isolated case of poor sanitation practices, according to California’s biggest trade group for fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables.

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration linked the bad cantaloupes to Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo. Water had been allowed to accumulate, providing an ideal environment for the bacteria to grow and spread, the FDA said.

“The recent, tragic outbreak of listeria associated exclusively with a single cataloupe packing facility in Colorado should not have happened,” said Tom Nassif, chief executive of the Western Growers Assn. in Irvine. “We are confident that California and Arizona cantaloupe producers have the controls and preventive pactices in place to ensure the safety of over 45 million cases of canaloupes, 85% of the total U.S. volume, grown in this region.”

Nassif said that Western Grower farmers in the two states follow stringent food-safety rules in all phases of production, harvest and packing.

The FDA investigation revealed that the Colorado packing shed was difficult to clean. Workers there did not “pre-cool” the fruit to remove field heat before it went to cold storage. Bacteria could have grown in the condensation that formed on the melons.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the contaminated cantaloupes made 123 people sick in 26 states, killed 25 people and caused a miscarriage in one pregnant woman.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is preparing for a quarantine
and treatment program to eradicate an Oriental fruit fly (OFF) infestation in
the Anaheim area of Orange County. The quarantine will also affect an adjacent
portion of southern Los Angeles County.

“Our system to detect invasive species like the Oriental fruit fly is working
well and according to design,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “The key is to
respond quickly and take action before the pests can cause widespread
damage.”

Twelve Oriental fruit flies have been detected in the Anaheim area since
October 12. The treatment program will be carried out over approximately 10
square miles surrounding the sites where the insects were trapped. A map of the
treatment area is available at: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/PDEP/treatment/treatment_maps.html

Treatment of the Oriental fruit fly primarily relies upon a process known as
“male attractant” in which workers squirt a small patch of fly attractant mixed
with a very small dose of pesticide approximately 8-10 feet off the ground to
street trees and similar surfaces.   Male flies are attracted to the mixture and
die after consuming it.  On and near the properties where the flies were found,
crews will also remove and dispose of host fruits and vegetables from yards and
gardens and apply treatments to plants using the organic-approved substance
spinosad.

Agricultural officials have increased the number of insect traps in the
region to help determine the extent of the infestation.  Once that work has been
completed, a quarantine boundary will be set and a map posted online.

With the infestation in Anaheim, California now has seven active OFF
eradication projects underway.  The others include two in Los Angeles County
(the San Gabriel/Alhambra area and the Baldwin Park area); two in Orange County
(the Anaheim/Yorba Linda area and the Santa Ana/Westminster area); one in San
Joaquin County in the Stockton area, where a quarantine was declared on
September 21; and one in the Pleasanton area of Alameda County, where two OFF
adults were recently detected in traps.

To prevent the spread of fruit flies through homegrown fruits and vegetables,
residents of fruit fly quarantine areas are urged not to move any fruits or
vegetables from their property.  Fruits and vegetables may be consumed or
processed (i.e. juiced, frozen, cooked, or ground in the garbage disposal) at
the property where they are picked.

To help prevent infestations, officials ask that residents do not bring or
mail fresh fruit, vegetables, plants or soil into California unless agricultural
inspectors have cleared the shipment beforehand, as fruit flies and other pests
can hide in a variety of produce. It is important to cooperate with any
quarantine restrictions and to allow authorized agricultural workers access to
your property to inspect fruit and Oriental fruit fly traps for signs of an
infestation.

The Oriental fruit fly is known to target over 230 different fruit, vegetable
and plant commodities.  Damage occurs when the female lays eggs inside the
fruit. The eggs hatch into maggots that tunnel through the flesh of the fruit,
making it unfit for consumption.

While fruit flies and other pests threaten California’s crops, the vast
majority of them are detected in urban and suburban areas.  The most common
pathway for these pests to enter the state is by “hitchhiking” in fruits and
vegetables brought back illegally by travelers as they return from infested
regions around the world. The Oriental fruit fly is widespread throughout much
of the mainland of Southern Asia and neighboring islands including Sri Lanka and
Taiwan.  It is also found in Hawaii.