Agriculture

The adult spotted lanternfly is a majestic blend of red, yellow, black, white and tan, but this invasive insect from Asia has a voracious appetite for crops and is wreaking havoc in the mid-Atlantic.

The insects haven’t been found in great numbers in the Golden State but researchers at the University of California, Davis, are on the forefront of finding ways to control the tiny eggs of spotted lanternflies in hopes of protecting key international trade relationships and crops. 

Venkatesan Sundaresan, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded a 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture for key discoveries on plant developmental biology of relevance to crop improvement.

Construction officially began on the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation Wednesday with a groundbreaking event celebrating the future $64.4 million facility at the University of California, Davis.

When desert winds stir up dust from the Salton Sea’s exposed lakebed, nearby communities suffer from increased air pollution. The deterioration coincides with reduced flows into California’s largest lake, a new research paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics finds. 

Saturday, November 18
Noon to 3 p.m.
UC Davis Olive Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science

Register online

Includes:

-Free tastings of the 2023 limited edition Olio Novello extra virgin olive oil

Bird populations are in rapid decline across North America. While climate change is just one of the many factors influencing North American birds, its effects are significant and can interact with other stressors, such as habitat loss. A team of University of California, Davis, researchers found that the effects of extreme temperatures on avian reproduction can vary depending on the type of environment that birds call home.

At first glance, Orobanche ramosa looks like an interesting blossoming plant, one that could add a unique flair to flower arrangements. But it’s a parasitic weed that attaches to roots, sucks out nutrients and is threatening California’s lucrative $1.5 billion processing tomato industry.

Chickens provide one of the world's most popular animal proteins, with billions of birds grown every year for eggs and meat. Interpreting the farm animal’s genome is vital for understanding how genes control traits, such as growth, feed efficiency, reproduction and disease resistance.

UC Davis researchers are providing more insight into how grape skins and seeds, which usually go to waste during the making of chardonnay wine, may be a valuable and healthful ingredient in new food products.

A review paper published by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry outlines how chardonnay marc can serve as a model for developing plant-based natural product food ingredients, and perhaps make upcycling agricultural byproducts relevant to other post-harvest processing scenarios.

Finding digital solutions to help bring fresh produce from the farm to the table was a viable way for many farmers to stay afloat during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.