Agriculture and Natural Resources (Video)

The UC Santa Cruz Natural Reserve System supports long-term research and teaching on protected lands on more than 10,000 acres of natural lands at five natural reserves: Año Nuevo, Campus, Fort Ord, Landels-Hill Big Creek, and Younger Lagoon. Together, they function as living laboratories and formative outdoor classrooms for faculty, graduates, and undergraduates. Research at these reserves range...

The 400-acre UC Santa Cruz Campus Natural Reserve offers students the opportunity to walk outside their classrooms and study nature in nature. Better known as the “outdoor classroom and living laboratory,” the reserve focuses on engaging students in direct observation and study of the natural world while bridging concepts learned in the indoor classroom with unique hands-on field experiences. Thes...

Younger Lagoon Reserve is one of the few relatively undisturbed wetlands remaining along the California Central Coast. Located on the UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science Campus, the natural reserve’s 25-acre lagoon and 47-acre "terrace lands" protect eight unique habitats, including freshwater marsh, saltwater marsh, riparian willow, coastal strand (back dune), coastal scrub, coastal grassland, seasonal...

Researcher Stephen McCabe is at the forefront of efforts to save Dudleya, a charismatic and rare plant from the hands of poachers—and possible extinction. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 35254]

Why do Zebras have stripes? Scientists have learned it is to avoid biting flies. But, what is it about stripes that so disrupts a biting fly’s ability to land on a zebra and suck its blood? UC Davis Professor Tim Caro led a series of unique experiments for this study to better understand how stripes manipulate the behavior of biting flies as they attempt to come in for a landing on a zebra. Series...

Two isolated mountain lion populations in Southern California’s Santa Ana and Santa Monica Mountains are at risk of local extinction, perhaps as soon as within 50 years, according to a study published in the journal Ecological Applications. For the study, lead author John Benson of the University of Nebraska and co-authors at UCLA, UC Davis, the National Park Service, the University of Washington,...

A panel of experts discusses climate change and its effects on our agriculture and our health, while also offering insights into how we as individuals can work to limit its negative impacts and create positive change. Series: "Future Thought Leaders" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34568]

Sooner or later, the food requirements of nine billion people with increasing appetites for seafood must be addressed. Although aquaculture may supply the majority of the global ‘seafood’, most aquaculture is fed meal from wild caught fish, such as sardine and anchovy. To estimate the distributions and abundance of these and other small fish off the west coast, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Cen...

UC Davis has one of the best agriculture schools in the world, helping to feed a growing a population. Take a peek at the SAFS major in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science at UC Davis. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34585]

Veterinarians at UC Davis and the Sacramento Zoo perform surgery on Coconut's eyelids to remove hair that is causing irritation Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34581]

Every part of the Moringa plant is edible - leaves, pods, seeds, flowers, even its root. The feathery leaves alone pack a powerful protein punch – nearly 30 percent by dry weight. Legumes don’t even have that much protein, nor all the essential amino acids. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34580]

Marion Nestle (NYU) and Laura Schmidt (UCSF) discuss nutrition policy and research, scientific conflicts of interest, the upcoming Dietary Guidelines, global food systems and more in this conversation about the food industry's influence on scientific research. Series: "Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34565]

Ron Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, led UC Davis professor, Beth Rose Middleton Manning's, students through a cultural burn. Students participated in preparing the land and igniting the fire, and contributed to a historic indigenous tradition. Cultural burning practices empower Native American communities, and could possibly be used as a tool to help alleviate devastating wild...

The DryCard™ is an inexpensive device developed by UC Davis researchers, Michael Reid and Jim Thompson, for determining if dried food is dry enough to prevent mold growth during storage. Moldy food can have a bad taste and may be contaminated with harmful toxins. So far, the Horticulture Innovation Lab has offered samples of the DryCard™ in multiple languages to researchers who can try the tool ou...

At the Animal Science Swine Center at UC Davis, Kristina Horback studies pig personality. She monitors the behavior of female pig from birth through puberty looking for behavior that would help predict aggression in female sows. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34112]

Until recently, wastewater from the fish tanks on the Tsar Nicholai farm emptied into a giant man-made pond, but now the caviar farm is using the nutrient stream to grow food in a 24,000 square-foot greenhouse. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34106]

Seaweed may be the super food dairy cattle need to reduce the amount of methane they burp into the atmosphere. Early results from research at the University of California, Davis, indicate that just a touch of the ocean algae in cattle feed could dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions from Californias 1.8 million dairy cows. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34105]

Skyelark Ranch, owned an operated by UC Davis graduate Alexis Robertson and her husband Gillies, uses rotational grazing while raising sheep, which can benefit plant growth, drought resistance, and the climate. The grazing encourages plant growth, which through photosynthesis, captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in the soil, where it can create healthier soils and stay out of...

Eric Davis, a UC Davis veterinarian, travels to North and South Dakota every summer to treat horses and donkeys in areas that don't have a lot of equine veterinary care. He brings along dozens of vet students from across the country, to expose them to rural veterinary care, hoping they may be inspired to work in underserved areas after they graduate. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Education]...

The Santa Cruz Island horse lived for centuries on the Channel Islands, but years of isolation and a small gene pool have left the breed teetering on extinction. UC Davis researcher, Amy McLean, is working with El Campeon Farms to save the Santa Cruz Island horse and preserve a piece of California history. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34109]

Researchers from UC Davis, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Mars, Incorporated have made a remarkable discovery: an indigenous variety of Mexican corn that can also fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, instead of requiring synthetic fertilizers. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Agriculture] [Show ID: 34104]

Thanks to technology the farm of the future produces more food with less water and less impact on the environment and climate. And it also provides skilled careers for a new generation of farmworkers. Thats the vision behind the Smart Farm Initiative at the University of California, Davis, one of the Big Ideas that the campus hopes will capture the attention of collaborators, donors and supporters...

Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, discusses the future of food and public policy in California and around the world at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Secretary Ross covers everything from the challenges of water management in the face of climate change, to reforming United States immigration policy to benefit farmers, farm workers, and...

UC Berkeley biologists have come up with a way to create beer’s unique flavors and aromas without using hops. The researchers created strains of brewer’s yeast that not only ferment the beer but also provide two of the prominent flavor notes provided by hops. In double-blind taste tests the beer made from the engineered strains was characterized as more hoppy than a control beer made with regular...

Crops possibly can be grown with significantly less water by altering a gene involved in regulating photosynthesis, according to new research by a team that included UC Berkeley scientists. Berkeley professor Krishna Niyogi, chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, and his lab found that a increasing a protein called PsbS improved the water-use efficiency of plants — the ratio of ca...