As you start to plan for your Thanksgiving dinner, sweet potatoes are likely on the menu. Whether roasted and savory or topped with marshmallows, they’re a fall staple. Despite being beloved by most, sweet potatoes are often misunderstood. They’re unrelated to potatoes, for starters. And they’re even different from yams. Yet we can’t get enough. U.S. farmers have been increasing their production …
The U.S. Agency for International Development will provide a base $15 million investment over the next five years, with up to $34.5 million total funding possible, to support a global research program led by the University of California, Davis, that advances fruit and vegetable production, handling, and consumption. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture will work with and …
No weigh? Weigh! Bring it on burly, beefy, bodacious behemoths! The excitement is building in Pumpkintown as the World’s Greatest Gourd Growers and their mind-blowing, Volkswagen-sized orange orbs hope to squash the world record on Monday, October 11 at the 48th Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off — the “Super Bowl of Weigh-Offs” — in the World Pumpkin Capital of Half Moon …
Plants regulate their growth and development using hormones, including a group called strigolactones that prevent excessive budding and branching. For the first time, scientists led by UC Riverside have synthesized strigolactones from microbes. The work is published in the open-access journal, Science Advances. Strigolactones also help plant roots form symbiotic relationships with microorganisms that allow the plant to absorb nutrients from …
As Mexico increases tomato exports across the world, including to the United States, prices plummet for American growers. That practice could cost American growers as much as $252 million per year — or 27% in revenue — if imports from Mexico increase by 50% in coming years, based on historical trends, new University of Florida research shows. That’s a huge …
At the Annual Convention of the Almond Alliance of California, Stacy Henderson, Almond Alliance’s go-to attorney for ag labor law, shared some of the top costly mistakes ag employers should know about that can be prevented. Watch this brief video with Stacy as she explains. Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) — Implementing effective disease and pest management strategies is a continual challenge for farmers. While these challenges are not new in agriculture, they impact more than just farmers. Lower yields due to disease and pest pressure affects farm employees and harvesting crews too and can also inhibit our ability to provide a steady supply of affordable …
Shifting to a new food freezing method could make for safer and better quality frozen foods while saving energy and reducing carbon emissions, according to a new study by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of California-Berkeley scientists. “A complete change over to this new method of food freezing worldwide could cut energy use by as …
Contracted production for California processing tomatoes is forecast at 11.1 million tons, averaging 48.9 tons per acre. The current production forecast is 1.9% below last year’s contracted production, and 4.3% below the May forecast. The projected harvested acreage of tomatoes grown under contract is 227,000 acres, which 0.4% lower than in 2020. Drought concerns impacted planting decisions for the 2021 …
Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa), a parasitic weed that was the focus of a $1.5 million eradication effort four decades ago in California, has recently re-emerged in tomato fields in several Central Valley counties. Processing tomatoes are important to the California agricultural economy; the state produced over 90% of the 12 million tons of tomatoes grown in the United States in …
