The inaugural Global Food Systems Research Day, held Oct. 24 at UC Davis, underscored the role of scientists in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences in the effort to build sustainable agricultural and distribution systems providing nutritious and affordable food to people all over the world.
Construction officially began on the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation with a groundbreaking event on May 29, celebrating the future $64.4 million facility at the University of California, Davis.
Plant breeders can help America re-orient our dominant system of single-crop agriculture toward a multi-crop landscape that is less costly to farmers, better for the environment, helps slow climate change and still yields a profit. But, those efforts are just one part of a complex system that also will require the buy-in of farmers themselves, supported by political will, new agricultural policies and the cooperation of scientists, seed companies, machinery and fertilizer manufacturers, insurance providers, banks and environmental groups.
Mitchell Feldmann has been hired as an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and continues with the internationally prestigious UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program. His assistant professor position began this month.
The nonprofit organization Pacific Horticulture has released a new video describing research to develop irrigation recommendations for landscape plants, the science behind the process, and early ideas for mindful gardeners and landscapers. It features UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences horticulturalist Lorence Oki, the lead investigator on the project.
Isha Poudel has been awarded a fellowship by the American Association of University Women. Poudel is a second-year master’s student in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences majoring in international agricultural development, with a focus on gender equities and disaster resiliency in food systems. She is in Amanda Crump’s research lab group that focuses on agricultural equity and social inclusion.
The AAUW award will support Poudel in her graduate education and further advance her research project in Nepal.
The Strawberry Breeding Center in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences has landed $6.2 million to study how to use breeding and genetic information to protect strawberry crops from future diseases and pests.
The four-year grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will address expanding and emerging threats to strawberries, a popular fruit packed with vitamin C and key to the diets of many Americans.
Tastier tomatoes, zingier zinnias, beautiful bell peppers and better beans are among the new crop varieties that student scientists are developing for organic farmers through the SCOPE project, part of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and the UC Davis Student Farm.
Experimental robots are reducing the costs of hand-weeding by learning the difference between weeds and lettuce. In addition, steam can clear the soil of fungi and spores that cause lettuce and spinach to wilt, reducing the need for chemical herbicides in the bargain, according to the latest research by Steve Fennimore and his lab at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
You may already be eating leafy greens that grow without soil, sunlight or ever being touched by human hands. Vertical farming has gained interest from growers and major investors around the world as a way to provide nourishing food, especially in urban areas. Gail Taylor, a vertical agriculture researcher and chair of the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, offered this perspective in an article recently published in The Guardian:
