We hope it’s been a good day. It’s a short menu today, with some quick reads and a video.
Slice the price of fruits and veggies to save lives? Results generated by a new computer modeling tool called the U.S. Impact Food Policy Model suggest that lowering the cost of fruits and vegetables might mean “better health across the population, regardless of age, gender, race and ethnicity.” The model – created by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Tufts University – “allowed the team to simulate the effects of different policies on eating habits.” (In this case, pricing). And this could be a boon for informing public health policies. A wonderful read by Clare Leschin-Hoar; it appears in NPR’s The Salt.
Climate smart agriculture matters to California. California is the nation’s leading agricultural producer. The state boasts more than 75,000 farms and produces 400+ commodities with a farm-gate value of $54 billion (per the USDA). Climate change and variability are already challenging the state’s producers. Recently, a California agriculture delegation headed to The Netherlands for an information exchange; climate smart agriculture was high on the list. California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross writes about that visit and what California is doing on the climate smart front in this editorial, which appears in both California Agriculture (published by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources division – UC ANR) and CDFA’s Planting Seeds blog.
Ross defines the practice of climate smart agriculture as “following three principles: developing agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change; reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture; and preparing for climate change in a way that keeps farms productive and profitable.” Ross also said that “Going forward, CDFA’s climate smart agriculture initiatives will be coordinated through the newly created Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation.”
To learn more about climate smart agriculture, visit this UN FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) landing page. We also thought this piece – “From climate-smart agriculture to climate-smart landscapes” was interesting. It appeared in a 2012 issue of Agriculture and Food Security. Authored by Sara Scherr, Seth Shames and Rachel Friedman, the work was funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Government of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.
ICYMI…”California Food Systems in a Time of Change: Budget Reductions, Drought, and Food Insecurity.” The UC Berkeley Food Institute hosted this talk by Karen Ross in December 2015; it’s introduced and moderated by UC ANR’s Vice President Glenda Humiston.
Have a great day!