Abstracts
How can Californians be overweight and hungry?
Food insecurity prominent among low-income California
Latinos.
Rural Latino families in California are missing earned
income tax benefits.
Project engages culturally diverse parents in Proposition
10 decisions.
Expanded production of labor-intensive crops increases
agricultural employment.
Irrigation and planting density affect river red gum
growth.
Autoguidance system operated at high speed causes
almost no tomato damage.
Drip irrigation evaluated in Santa Maria Valley strawberries.
In vitro gas production provides effective
method for assessing ruminant feeds.
Tomato pomace may be a good source of vitamin E in
broiler diets.
How can Californians
be overweight and hungry?
Patricia B. Crawford, Marilyn S. Townsend,
Diane L. Metz, Dorothy Smith, Gloria Espinosa-Hall, Susan S. Donohue,
Anna Olivares andLucia L. Kaiser
The United States is experiencing an epidemic of obesity in both
adults and children, particularly among low-income populations.
In fact, overweight has replaced malnutrition as the most prevalent
nutritional problem among the poor. We examine this seemingly paradoxical
relationship and explore the causes and consequences of overweight,
obesity and food insecurity. In a UC Cooperative Extension Body
Weight and Health Workgroup study of 561 low-income Latino mothers
and their young children, we found important differences in the
association between family food insecurity and overweight status
for mothers and their children. Forty percent of the women were
overweight and 37% obese, and 22% of their children were overweight.
Furthermore, U.S.-born mothers who were food insecure as children
were more likely to be obese adults. Awareness and understanding
of the link between food insecurity and weight gain will facilitate
the efforts of schools, food assistance programs, the food industry
and others in the community to provide effective nutritional programs.
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Food insecurity prominent
among low-income California Latinos
Lucia L. Kaiser, Anna C. Martin, Diane
L. Metz, Yvonne Nicholson, Mary Lavender Fujii, Cathi L. Lamp, Marilyn
S. Townsend, Patricia B. Crawford and Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez
Food security is defined as access by all people at all times to
enough food for an active, healthy life. In a study of 212 low-income
Latino households in California, 45% were food insecure without
hunger; 13% food insecure with moderate hunger; and 3% food insecure
with severe hunger. Food insecurity was associated with a decline
in household supplies of both nutritious and less nutritious foods.
Among preschool children, the number of servings per day of all
food groups was significantly correlated with household food supplies.
A strong safety net to improve food security in low-income populations
must include educational strategies and provision of nutritious
foods to support a good diet at home and away from home.
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Rural Latino families
in California are missing earned income tax benefits
Karen P. Varoe, Nancy B. Lees and Martha
L. López
When properly accessed, the federal Earned
Income Tax Credit (EITC) can boost a family’s yearly income
by more than $4,000. A study in Kern and Madera counties indicated
that many, perhaps most, qualified low-income Latino families living
in rural California communities may not be receiving the EITC. About
80% to 86% of eligible households nationwide receive the EITC, compared
with about 36% of eligible California families in the study. The
primary reason appears to be lack of accurate information and limited
access to tax-preparation assistance. UC Cooperative Extension advisors
and staff are well situated to provide information about the EITC.
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Project engages culturally
diverse parents in Proposition 10 decisions
David Campbell and Joan Wright
California’s Proposition 10, a tax on tobacco products passed
in 1998, provides counties with funds to improve the health, education
and school readiness of children up to age 5. A foundation-sponsored
Civic Engagement Project (CEP) seeks to promote inclusive participation
in Proposition 10 decisions by engaging a broad spectrum of parents
and other community members. Based on our systematic evaluation
of the CEP’s initial years of work, we describe six different
civic engagement tools adopted by counties, strengths and weaknesses
of each, and what we learned about the conditions under which they
are most effective. The results illuminate a key public challenge
— how to welcome culturally and linguistically diverse Californians
as active and valued participants in local civic processes while
obtaining meaningful guidance for decision-making.
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Expanded production
of labor-intensive crops increases agricultural employment
Akhtar Khan, Philip Martin and Phil
Hardiman
The production of labor-intensive fruit, vegetable and horticultural
specialty crops increased in the 1990s, as did the employment of
farmworkers: average annual employment or roughly the number of
year-round equivalent jobs rose about 20%, to almost 400,000. Far
more individuals, however, are employed on California farms during
the year. Agricultural employers reported 1.1 million individuals
(unique Social Security numbers) when they paid unemployment insurance
taxes in 2001. We analyzed the jobs and earnings of these farmworkers
in 1991, 1996 and 2001. About three individuals were employed for
each year-round equivalent job in the 1990s, and there was a shift
to farmers hiring workers via farm labor contractors. The findings
suggest that it may be possible to employ a smaller total farm workforce,
with each worker employed more hours and achieving higher earnings.
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Irrigation and planting
density affect river red gum growth
Stephen T. Cockerham
In a 6-year study, production of river red gum, an excellent fuel-wood
source, was evaluated for responses to three levels of irrigation,
fertilization and planting density. Irrigation and planting density
had the greatest influence on tree growth. Irrigation in the fifth
and sixth years produced greater wood volume and weight per tree.
Tree size was greatest in the wide spacing of the lower planting
density. Fertilizer had no effect on any of the treatments. Per
acre volume and weight yields were greater at the higher planting
density, while individual tree height, diameter, volume and weight
was greater at the low planting density. Growers seeking total wood
volume per acre can increase yields with the higher density planting
and irrigation.
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Autoguidance system
operated at high speed causes almost no tomato damage
Aziz Z. Abidine, Brian C. Heidman,
Shrini K. Upadhyaya and David J. Hills
This project explored the effectiveness of an autoguidance system
based on a real-time kinematic global positioning system (RTK GPS)
accurate to the centimeter (about half-inch) in agricultural production.
Our objectives were to determine the effect of spacing between cultivator
disks or knives and forward tractor speed on plant damage, and of
deep tillage operations on drip-tape damage. Two sets of split-plot
field experiments were conducted (with processing tomato transplants
and direct-seeded tomatoes) in a Yolo loam field on the UC Davis
campus. No significant plant damage occurred even at 7 miles per
hour (mph) forward speed and cultivator disk spacing of 2 inches
from the plant line. In an additional split-plot test, there was
no significant damage to drip tape when the fertilizer shank was
operated 2 inches from the drip tape at 3.5 mph. This system allows
for automatic steering of the tractor and implements along a path
close to buried drip-tape and/or plants without damaging them, even
at high operational ground speeds.
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Drip irrigation evaluated
in Santa Maria Valley strawberries
Blaine Hanson and Warren Bendixen
About 4,000 acres of strawberries are grown in the Santa Maria Valley
using drip irrigation. In order to help growers irrigate more effectively,
we conducted studies to determine crop evapotranspiration; irrigation
system performance; patterns and levels of soil salinity; soil moisture
content around drip lines; and irrigation water quality. We also
developed canopy growth curves. Results at 13 sampling locations
showed maximum canopy coverage of less than 75%. Crop evapotranspiration
ranged from 12.2 inches to 15.6 inches. Irrigation-system evaluations
revealed that most of the distribution uniformities were greater
than 80%, considered acceptable. The electrical conductivities of
the irrigation water ranged from 1 deciSiemens per meter (dS/m)
to 2.36 dS/m; levels over 1 dS/m could result in yield reductions
in strawberries. However, 79% of the samples had electrical conductivities
equal to or less than 1.5 dS/m. Levels of soil salinity in the vicinity
of drip lines ranged from 1 dS/m to 3.5 dS/m. This information can
help growers calculate crop water needs and estimate irrigation
set times.
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In vitro gas
production provides effective method for assessing ruminant feeds
Girma Getachew, Edward J. DePeters
and Peter H. Robinson
An animal’s feed intake, and how well that feed is digested,
determine the feed’s production performance. The in vitro
gas production technique is a relatively simple method for evaluating
feeds, as large numbers of samples can be incubated and analyzed
at the same time. This method has been applied successfully at UC
Davis for a variety of purposes in feed evaluation, including calculating
organic matter digestibility, the metabolizable energy of feeds
and kinetics of their fermentation; determining how feed value is
affected by added fat, antinutritive factors and rumen modifiers;
quantifying the energy value of feed mixtures (rations); monitoring
microbial change in the rumen; synchronizing nutrient digestion;
and selecting forage nutrient targets for agricultural biotechnology.
More than half of the nutrients consumed by ruminant animals leave
the animal unutilized and undigested, and are excreted in feces,
urine and gases. The in vitro gas production method can be
used to examine animal waste components that impact the environment
and develop appropriate mitigations.
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Tomato pomace may
be a good source of vitamin E in broiler diets
Annie J. King and Gideon Zeidler
Dried tomato pomace, a byproduct of tomato processing, is an excellent
source of a-tocopherol (vitamin E), which is used as an antioxidant
in broiler meat. In a feeding study, there were no significant differences
in body weight and feed per gain in chicks given diets with or without
tomato pomace. Tomato pomace could be used as a source of a-tocopherol
in broiler diets to decrease lipid oxidation (fat deterioration)
during heating and long-term frozen storage of dark meat, and to
prolong shelf life. Because tomato byproducts contain high levels
of unsaturated fatty acids, the pomace must be defatted without
losing vitamin E to minimize its oxidation potential. Although we
found no evidence that introducing a high-fiber feed ingredient
significantly limited broiler growth, more research is needed to
enhance its practical applications..
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